Lever cirrhosis en een belangrijk supplement........expeditie naar Antartica

 

This is not a daily issue and most of you can skip the article.

It is about an amino-acid supplement -ornithine- which has been shown to be beneficial [proven!!] in liver patients with raised ammonia levels.
The article below describes expedition members in Antatctica who developed increased ammonia levels becuase of the increased workload and hard conditions.
Ornithine helped them to sleep better.
If you know some body with a severe liver condition with raised ammonia bring this article to his attention as it seems not to be "automatically known" by specialists in this field.
A Dutch group showed the effect of ornithine [ L-Ornithine-L-Aspartate: LOLA] in reducing ammonia levels in cirrhotic patients [shachemet ha-kaved] [ Pathophysiological basis of Hepatic Encephalopathy, by Damink and Jalan, a book I received from a Dutch friend]


Abstract Abstract 

Members of expeditions to Antarctica may show changes in biological and physiological parameters involved in lipid, glucose, and thyroid hormone metabolism as they adapt to the environment; however, alterations in amino acid (AA) levels and sleep among expedition members in Antarctica have yet to be fully elucidated. We hypothesized that there would be alterations of blood AA levels, and ornithine (Orn) ingestion would affect biological parameters and sleep in Japanese expedition members during the summer in Antarctica. Japanese Antarctica Research Expedition members (22 people) who stayed in Antarctica for 3 months from December 2010were examined, and a randomized double-blind study of Orn ingestion (400 mg/d) for 4 weeks was performed. Sleep conditions were evaluated subjectively by the Oguri-Shirakawa-Azumi (brief version) questionnaire. The blood of Japanese Antarctica Research Expedition members in Antarctica showed higher creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and ammonia levels than that in Japan. On blood AA analysis, aspartate, Orn, and serine were significantly higher, and alanine and tryptophan (Trp) were significantly lower in Antarctica than in Japan. The Trp ratio, the value of Trp divided by the sum of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and branched-chain AAs, was significantly lower in Antarctica than in Japan. Although sleep deteriorated during the stay in Antarctica, Orn ingestion, to some extent, improved sleep compared with the placebo group in Antarctica, suggesting that Orn is effective for people with heavy physical workloads in places such as Antarctica.

Abbreviations: AA, amino acid, Ala, alanine, Asp, aspartate, AST, aspartate aminotransferase, BCAAs, branched-chain amino acids, BMI,body mass index, BUN, blood urea nitrogen, BW, body weight, ChE, choline esterase, CK, creatine kinase, F-T3, free-T3, F-T4, free-T4, GGT,γ-glutamyltransferase, Glx, glutamine and glutamate, JARE, Japanese Antarctica Research Expedition, LDH, lactate dehydrogenase, Met,methionine, NEFA, nonesterified fatty acid, OAT, ornithine aminotransferase, Orn, ornithine, OSA sleep inventory, Oguri-Shirakawa-Azumi sleep inventory, Pro, proline, Ser, serine, Trp, tryptophan, TSH, thyroid-stimulating hormone