The most important concept is the stress on the liver by the virus. Up to 10 % of infected persons can be virus free due to their immune system working well. The stress on the liver can be aggravated by nutritional deficiencies, lack of antioxidant s in the body, toxic substance such as heavy metals, iron overload, pesticides, herbicides, drugs such as Tylenol and alcohol. The less stress on the liver, the more the liver can cope with the virus. All the vitamins and minerals that a human needs should be taken. Good oils should be ingested. Coconut oil is viricidal. Olive leaf extract is viricidal.

 The alternative treatment is straightforward.

1.     Alpha lipoic acid 250  mg 3 times a day. This is a very effective antioxidant and may help regenerate liver cells.

2.     Selenium 200 mg 3 times a day,

3.     Milk Thistle(Silybum Marinum) 260 mg 3 times day.

4.     SAMe 400 mg 3 times a day.

5.     Glutathione is the anti-oxidant and increased N- Acetyl Cysteine, 600 mg a day, Whey protein 20 to 40 gram a day, Glutamine 1,000 mg daily.

6.     Do not drink any Alcohol or Tylenol products.

7.     Check iron levels, Serum Iron, TIBC, CBC, Serum Ferretin levels. If high do phlebotomy.

8.     Eat chemical free organic food.

9.     Vitamin C 2,000 mg 3 times day.

10.  Grape seed extract 100 mg 3 times a day, Lactoferrin 300 mg 3 times a day, High allicin garlic 1,000 mg 4 times a day. Green tea poly phenols 600 to 800 mg a day. Olive leaf extract 1 cap 2 times a day.

11.  Glutathione 500 mg 2 times a day, DHEA 50 mg a day, Vitamin D 1,000 mg 2 times a day.

 Polysaturated Phosphatidyl Choline 1,800 mg to 3,600 mg a day may help regenerate liver cells.

I had a patient who had Hep C and cirrhosis, ascitis, on hospice and bed bound. He got better on Alphalipoic Acid, Selenium, and Milk Thistle. One year later he was walking without ascitis, and was much better. And he was happy that he was alive.

The alternative treatment does not clear the virus from the system, but allows the patient to live nearly normal lifespan.  I believe the virus becomes dormant. Most doctors rely on double blind placebo controlled studies costing millions of dollars to convince them on a method of treatment. Hippocrates the father of medicine used observation and most likely trial and error.

The above regimen also helped a patient with end stage cirrhosis due to alcohol that I saw in the ER. He was sent to the nursing home to die with terminal liver cirrhosis, ascitis, was yellow with very high bilirubin and liver function test. After 1 month waiting to die in the nursing home, he decided to fire his doctors and went back to the ER. He said he did not want to die, when I saw him I told his father to get Alpha Lipoic Acid, Selenium, and Milk Thistle, from the health food store. After 3 days in the hospital, the bilirubin dropped nearly 50 %. He went home much improved. Since I was not on his insurance plan, he followed up with his primary care doctor. His doctor advised him to continue the over the counter supplements which I had ordered.  He would call me off and on and ask for advice and tell me how he was doing.  I saw him 2 years later in my office. He said “Doc do you remember me” ? I said yes and said his name. He said, “I am alive”. We checked his liver function test and they were just mildly elevated,

There are medical reports those patients who were waiting for liver transplant went off the list after talking the supplements.  There are no large double blind studies of these supplements. But I know they work.

Dr. Burt Bergson was the one who wrote about Alpha-lipoic Acid and liver failure when he was a resident in training at a hospital. He was ordered to watch 2 patients die of mushroom poisoning amanita phylloides. He contacted the NIH. The NIH sent him Alpha-Lipoic Acid, and he gave it IV. The 2 patients survived. The administration wanted to fire him for saving the patients life. The NIH sent a team to the hospital to study the cure. So he was not fired. Dr. Bergson said that the Alpha-Lipoic acid should be Germanmanufacture. He found that imitations do not work.

 Most doctors do not know of the above supplements.  It is best if patients do the research themselves in the Internet. I tell patients know more about you illness than the doctor. Patients have more at stake than their doctors.