Doctor Reviews: Dose for Your Liver

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Liver detox supplements like Dose for Your Liver often claim to support detoxification or improve liver function, but these promises can be unclear and confusing. What does it mean to “optimize the liver”? Is your liver like a computer that needs its cache cleared occasionally? Does optimizing the liver help with conditions like fatty liver or reduce damage from hepatitis?

Taking such supplements can feel like accepting a mystery pill from a stranger who vaguely assures you it’s “good for your health.” Often, the exact benefits of these supplements are not well-defined. Sometimes, even the manufacturers may not fully understand what their product does.

To help clear up this confusion, let’s look into the ingredients of Dose for Your Liver. We’ll explore the scientific research to see if there’s any real evidence supporting its effectiveness for liver health and what benefits you can realistically expect from daily use.

Study on Dose for Your Liver?

Dose for Your Liver claims to have a study proving its benefits. However, when I tried to find this study, I came up empty-handed. There was no title, no journal, and not even basic identifiers like a PubMed ID or Digital Object Identifier. Without these details, we can’t confirm if the study is real. We’d have to take their word for it, and I’m not comfortable trusting unverified health claims. That’s why I’m going to investigate further to find credible studies on whether the ingredients in Dose for Your Liver can genuinely lower AST and ALT levels.

What is AST and ALT?

But first, what exactly are AST and ALT? AST (Aspartate Aminotransferase) and ALT (Alanine Aminotransferase) are enzymes primarily found in liver cells. When liver cells are damaged or destroyed, these enzymes are released into the bloodstream. Elevated levels of AST and ALT in the blood may indicate liver damage or disease.

When AST and ALT levels drop, it could mean that a liver disease is improving. However, trying to lower these levels in a healthy person without liver issues is pointless. These enzymes are indicators of possible liver problems; simply lowering them doesn’t solve the underlying issue. It’s like turning off a smoke alarm without addressing the fire causing it. High AST and ALT levels signal a potential issue, but they aren’t the problem themselves. The real problem is the liver condition causing these elevated levels. The right approach is to address the liver problem to stop the alarm from going off.

AST/ALT in Liver Studies

In clinical studies on liver health, AST and ALT levels are evaluated in the context of a specific liver issue. These enzymes serve as objective measures to track the progression of the liver problem being studied.

However, the study presented by Dose for Your Liver lacks this context. They don’t specify any liver issues being addressed. As mentioned, AST and ALT levels indicate the progression of a specific liver issue, not overall liver health. Decreasing these levels might suggest a resolution of a specific liver problem, but it doesn’t mean your liver is functioning better overall if you have no liver problems. It’s more likely that this study doesn’t exist, and they’re either fabricating information or misrepresenting the findings.

Ingredients of Dose for your liver

Have any of the ingredients in Dose for Your Liver been proven to treat liver problems? What they offer is essentially like drinking sweetened orange juice with some added herbs. They recommend a daily dose of 2 ounces, which is a bit more than a typical shot of alcohol.

Let’s dive into the dosage, see if they use active compounds, and explore whether there’s any evidence supporting its ability to address liver issues.

Turmeric

Turmeric contains curcumin, which might benefit adults with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD).

Clinical studies suggest that taking curcumin daily could reduce the severity of NAFLD and improve certain metabolic aspects linked to it. It also appears to lower AST and ALT levels in those with the disease.

However, most studies focus on purified curcumin, not raw turmeric. Even the few studies using raw turmeric require high doses, between 3 to 6 grams per day.

Unfortunately, Dose for Your Liver doesn’t include purified curcumin. The amounts of raw turmeric it contains are too small to impact NAFLD.

Dandelion powder

Dandelion is sometimes used in traditional medicine for digestive and liver problems. However, current research is limited to studies conducted on cells and rats. There is no evidence supporting its effectiveness for liver issues in humans.

Milk thistle extract

Milk thistle has been explored for its potential to lessen liver damage caused by drugs, alcohol, and diseases like viral hepatitis. However, the evidence supporting its effectiveness is mixed and relatively weak.

For instance, some research suggests that taking milk thistle might improve certain liver function tests in alcoholic liver disease and could slightly reduce mortality. Similarly, studies indicate that milk thistle might marginally decrease AST and ALT levels in viral hepatitis, indicating reduced liver damage, though it doesn’t address the viral infection itself.

More rigorous studies, however, cast doubt on the long-term usefulness of milk thistle. Its overall impact seems too small to significantly alter the course of these diseases.

When it comes to fatty liver disease, studies yield conflicting results. While some suggest that milk thistle could lower AST and ALT levels in individuals with fatty liver, others find no significant effects, especially in more severe cases accompanied by inflammation and damage.

So, milk thistle might offer some benefits in mitigating damage from acute liver issues, like those from alcohol intake or short-term viral hepatitis. However, its benefits in chronic and more serious liver problems, such as alcoholic liver disease or fatty liver disease, appear limited.

It’s important to note that studies often use specialized extracts with high silymarin content, typically at doses exceeding 400 mg per day. In contrast, Dose for Your Liver uses raw milk thistle without standardized extracts and provides doses too small to significantly impact liver health.

Ginger

Ginger has been studied for its potential benefits in fatty liver, though the evidence is not very strong. Research suggests that ginger may slightly lower ALT levels, but not AST. However, the doses used in these studies were much higher than what you’d get from Dose for Your Liver.

Is Dose for Your Liver Effective?

So, how effective is Dose for Your Liver? Will it enhance liver function? Not really. The doses used are too low to make any impact on liver health.

Ingredients like turmeric and milk thistle have shown benefits mainly for people with liver issues. If you don’t have diagnosed liver problems like fatty liver or viral hepatitis, these herbs likely won’t do much since your liver is already functioning normally.

Additionally, dandelion and ginger lack solid research supporting their general use for liver health. As for the orange juice, it’s just for flavor and doesn’t affect your liver.

Overall rating

Rating Dose for Your Liver by effectiveness for improving liver issues, I’m giving it a D. It’s mostly useless as it uses doses too low to do anything, and these ingredients aren’t going to improve the liver function of healthy individuals.

Rating it by cost, I’m giving it an F. It can be easily replicated with much higher quality ingredients at a far cheaper cost.

Rating it for safety, I’m giving it a B. The ingredients and doses used are unlikely to be of much cause for concern.

Overall rating, I’m giving a D. I would not recommend it at all.

Top alternatives to Dose for Your Liver

• Milk Thistle – 3 to 6 caps / day
• Turmeric (generic) – 2 to 4 caps / day
• Turmeric (Meriva) – 2 to 3 caps / day

Learn more about

• Supplement reviews

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