The new cure for liver disease... a charcoal pill

BRITISH doctors and scientists have developed a pioneering treatment that could help save the lives of hundreds of people with livers damaged by alcohol abuse and obesity.

A team working at the Liver Failure Group at University College London and the Royal Free Hospital in North London have invented a charcoal-like substance that soaks up deadly toxins that are released in liver disease.

The revolutionary capsules absorb the toxins and then neutralise them before they are safely excreted from the body.

Human trials are due to start early next year and it is hoped that it could become a treatment within a couple of years. Patients would take a daily diet of the capsules.

The UCL and Royal Free research team believes the treatment could reverse liver disease, save the lives of patients, and prevent some needing a transplant.

Liver disease is one of the top five causes of mortality.

Deaths related to the condition worldwide have almost doubled over the past 20 years to more than one million a year.

That is in contrast to other major diseases such as cancers and heart disease where death rates are stable or declining.

In the UK, the British Liver Trust recently estimated that the annual cost to the NHS for treatment of liver disease is expected to soon top £1 billion.

Professor Rajiv Jalan, a liver consultant who is leading the carbon research programme, said: ‘Liver disease is having a massive impact on lives. It is up there with diabetes as something we have to tackle.

‘We now realise that these toxins play a very important part in the damage of the liver.

‘We see quite a lot of people with liver disease due to alcohol and obesity. Some of them we can’t save. But we hope that this treatment will very soon contribute to reversing liver disease and help save some of those patients.’