The most taken for granted organ in our body is the liver.
It is also the most amazing, since it processes almost every chemical that is absorbed by the body. Heart disease is a confusing concept because it is actually the liver that causes it. Contrary to what we learn from various television commercials for the countless pharmaceutical cholesterol drugs on the market, the balance of HDL and LDL cholesterol is controlled by your liver.
Your liver produces cholesterol on its own even if you watch what you eat this is only one of its major functions. If it didn’t your nervous system would break down. So it’s not really that cholesterol is bad, but that an excess of cholesterol is bad for you. Genetics plays a major role in how your body manages cholesterol. There is a gene that produces a recently discovered enzyme called PCSK9. Normally your body’s cells bind to LDL cholesterol and remove it from the body. Unfortunately, PCSK9 binds to the same parts of a cell that LDL cholesterol does. The more PCSK9 enzyme, the less cholesterol is removed from the body.
Enter a company called Alnylam, they have been around since 2005 and have been working on the Rosetta Stone of human drugs…RNAi therapy. The reason I mention this company is because this therapy will make a Hepatitis C infection a thing of the past. Their RNAi drugs are designed to go in and alter specific parts of your genes or viruses and turn them off. This will affect all viruses, HCV, HIV, HPV, HSV, and RSV. Turn off the virus’ replication switch and you end their ability to sustain an infection. This is very exciting stuff!
Besides working on a drug for Hepatitis C, Alnylam is working on a way to reduce LDL cholesterol by switching off the gene that produces PCSK9 in your body. So far the test results have been amazing, the only caveat is you will need to take it by injection…but that’s nothing new to people who suffer from Hep C.
So keep your eyes on them and be sure to send them an email to express your interest in them pushing their Hepatitis C drug to the front of their drug development pipeline. You can read more about their discoveries here.
Also keep in mind that liver disease can increase your chances of heart disease, so if you have not been treated for Hepatitis C or treatment failed your chances of a heart attack or stroke increase. Control your LDL with diet and exercise.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:55 am
[...] Visit original post at Shawn [...]
August 26th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
This is the nature of genius, to be able to grasp the knowable even when noone else recognizes that it is present.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:12 am
i just been diagnosed i had a biopsy and a ultrasound they say i am in the last stages of the disease i need some info on this matter thx
December 18th, 2008 at 7:39 am
First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
January 18th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Hi, My name is Tari. 3 years ago I ended my treatment for hepatitis c. The first year I tried to heal natural, by taking pills to heal the liver and drank aloe and meta-berries, and greens. For a year my count went down signifiantly and then all of a sudden my count shot up into the millions who knows why?
My time since i have been off the shots, my body has felt injured in my joints and my skin my esofigus and my vision. I just feel I aged 15-20 years. I considered myself a health nut and when I try excercise it hurts as if I’m injured from the inside out. I do hair, and one of my clientes died of a heart attack in december and had done the treatments twice she was 50 years old I am 51 I am fearful that wil happen to me. Is there anything out there to heal the heart and any treatment for feeling injured on the inside? I really don’t know any other way to describe how it feels.Do you have any recommendations for healing the inside?
Thank you, Tari
tbhary@kc.rr.com
January 19th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Hi Tari,
Good question – let me put together a whole post about that and I will let you know when it is up. I know how you feel I felt like that during the last 24 weeks of my treatment. It sucked to say the least. Thanks for the comment, I will do my best to answer your question.
Thanks
Shawn
January 31st, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Hi You did a great job with this blog. I loved Do You Blame Your Liver Or Genes For Heart Disease?
December 4th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
My father recently got diagnosed with HCV. I’ve read that the treatment has numerous side effects and it’s only 60% effective. Is it true? He is the only one working in the family. Is the medication going to affect his performance? Where should we go for help? Please help. Thanks.