Phosphatidylcholine (PPC) is a phospholipid that has been found to be especially useful in repairing and stabilizing the cell membranes of liver cells. Your body makes PPC, but it is very energy-demanding, and studies of people with existing liver disease suggest we don’t make enough of it for maximal health of our liver cells.
Taking PPC is a particularly good idea if you drink alcohol, a major liver toxin. In fact, Dr. Charles Leiber, at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan, has shown that baboons consuming alcohol along with PPC supplements for several years were significantly less likely to progress to fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver than those baboons drinking alcohol and not getting PPC.
A large number of human clinical trials, mostly in Europe, have tested PPC for years in people who already had some degree of liver damage, ranging from liver inflammation for various reasons to alcoholic fatty livers. Most of these studies revealed that patients who began taking PPC showed significant improvement in their liver-function tests.
For example, a study at King’s College in London, England, in 1982, on thirty people with chronic hepatitis-B infection (a viral infection of the liver) found that when half of these people received 2,300 milligrams of PPC daily for one year, along with their standard daily therapy for hepatitis B, they showed significant improvement in their liver structure (as revealed by biopsy) in comparison to the half who did not receive PPC.
The PPC group also reported a significantly higher feeling of well-being than those people not receiving PPC. It is believed that PPC produces its benefits in the liver by stabilizing liver cell membranes, resulting in fewer liver cell enzymes leaking out into plasma, and less lipid peroxidation of liver cell membranes.
Dosage
People who have no known liver disease would seem to benefit from 500 to 1,000 milligrams of PPC daily. I found the evidence regarding PPC and a healthy liver so compelling, along with its safety record, I now take 500 milligrams each day.
The intakes of PPC that seem to be most effective in people with existing liver damage range from about 1,000 milligrams to 4,500 milligrams (1.0 grams to 4.5 grams). No adverse effects have been seen at these doses. If you have existing liver disease, get a recent baseline of your liver-function tests from your physician. Start taking 1.5 grams of PPC daily for two months, and repeat your liver-function tests. If there is no significant improvement, take 3.0 grams daily for two months and test again. Do not take more than 4.0 grams daily.
Discussion Under Supplements | 
Info Keys: Cirrhosis, fatty livers, fibrosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis infection, illness therapy, liver cells, liver disease, liver function test, liver structure, liver toxin, Phosphatidylcholine, physician
