Temporal Response of Liver Inflammation

[Kokomodo]

For those of you who experience pain or other symptoms in response to dietary choices (e.g., indulge in saturated fat, red meat, sugar, etc) I'm interested in the timeline of such responses. If you have an off-diet day (say, a pint of ice cream, or, whatever food induces symptoms) how long does it take for the symptoms to appear? How long do they last once you go back to a liver healthy diet?

For everyone...does anyone have any information on the timeline of metabolic processes associated with liver health. For example, if I eat, say, ice cream and chocolate chip cookies...that intake would include a lot of simple sugar and saturated fat. A recent trend in dieting is calorie averaging over a period of days or a week. That is, people now suspect that deviations of hundreds of calories are not significant, as long as the weekly average is still a calorie deficit. I am wondering, 'though, if I ingest an overage of calories and then, say, do a long hike or bike ride, I assume the simple sugars will just get burned. But, what happens to the saturated fat? It still has to get processed through the liver, right? Anyone have a good understanding of the metabolic processes, timeline, and resulting inflammation in the liver? How long does it take the liver to "relax" from a spike in sugar or saturated fat? Do such once in a while inflammation/relaxation reactions leave scarring and fibrosis, bit by bit over time? Or, does the liver recover as long as the overall diet is healthy?

And, of course, for those of you who are true sugar addicts (you know who you are) does anyone have any understanding of what happens when you take in thousands of calories over your calorie budget in a day, or, say over a two day binge? (Yeah, I've easily hit 10,000 calories over budget in 48 hours. No sweat. So, any ideas on what a spike like that does to the liver? General GI system?

-Kokomodo

[nash2 Partner]

Hi Koko

I don't recall anyone asking about binging on that many calories before. The immediate response is to wonder if this is some kind of joke post, but rereading it I take this to be a serious question for you so let me try to put it into perspective.

The answer, of course, is that it depends. A liver with the processing capacity to manage that big pulse of calories will just take care of it. The question we all face is what is our liver able to do without being damaged by the undesirable byproducts and stress of what we ask it to do? That is a very individual thing. For most people who are dealing with a liver disease that would be a hazardous behavior. Whether it is for you personally, there is no way for us to comment except to suggest that the odds are that it is likely to be harmful, but whether the stress produces long term harm will be determined by whether your liver recovers between episodes. It will try if your normal diet is liver supportive but that is a question for your doc.

We all face the challenge of how to maintain a supportive lifestyle day to day. Nothing that I know of makes it easy but for me the knowledge that I am making choices that likely affect my lifespan and my healthspan keeps it in perspective. I have my own vices and indulge them at times but I consciously keep the volumes low. That works for me but we all have to find our own way. I don't know that this is of any help but good luck with the craving demons.

Wayne

[Kokomodo in reply to nash2]

Thanks, nash2. Not a joke. Each of the three different sections/questions is entirely sincere. And, yes, those of us who are truly "into the sauce" can put away a stunning amount of calories in a short period of time. The sweets actually increase, rather than suppress the appetite and desire for more. One chocolate chip cookie leads quickly to the entire batch. But, my primary interest is not in such gross indulgence. I'm really more interested in the temporal response of the GI system.

[nash2 Partner in reply to Kokomodo]

Well, think about all of the parts as a series of slinkys. You eat and there is a pulse through the stomach, the small bowel has a limit on how much can be transported through the cell walls so the flow is stretched, then it either enters the blood stream or the lymph system with transit times. Once it is in the blood the various sensing and regulatory systems kick in and the various chemical processes load up but have capacity limitations and transport time throttles. Every step depends upon how efficient each part is at that moment and it is a very complex dance that isn't necessarily the same each time. I suppose the point is that it is a stress test for all of the steps along the way. If any of them are unable to respond some less than perfect response will happen. The result will be quite individual. Not much help I suspect.