Chapter 59: Liver Disease and Copper

From:  “The Copper Revolution: Healing with Minerals,” January 10, 2022, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09Q6D3R7B

Copper was a historic cure for liver disease.

The highest copper food is liver. Liver contains 64 mg of copper per pound. Eating liver should naturally be good for the liver. It follows that copper is good for the liver.

Admittedly, copper at 20,000 mg can be hard on the liver. This has no bearing on whether copper is dangerous at 50 to 100 milligrams.

Copper concentrates in the liver, but only about 10% of the body’s copper goes to the liver. Copper has a wide array of healing properties and is necessary for every cell in the human body. The liver should thus be especially healthy, in the presence of healthy copper levels.

Just as boron concentrates in the parathyroid gland to make a hormone that helps the body retain calcium and magnesium and is good for the parathyroid gland…

Just as iodine concentrates in the thyroid gland to make thyroid hormones…

Copper concentrates in the liver to form copper enzymes, such as ceruloplasmin, that do things such as transport copper around the body.

Hepatic Iron Overload or Cirrhosis May Occur in Acquired Copper Deficiency and Is Likely Mediated by Hypoceruloplasminemia
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20502350/

“Conclusions: Acquired copper deficiency causes a secondary ceruloplasmin deficiency which can result in hepatic iron overload and/or cirrhosis.”

Copper Deficiency in Liver Diseases: A Case Series and Pathophysiological Considerations
https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hep4.1393
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6671688/

In 12 cases of copper deficiency seen along with liver damage, they gave 3 people copper supplements. And it was only 2 mg copper per day. 2 recovered liver function, the third improved serum copper.

“Cases 4 and 11 recovered following intensive nutritional support, including copper supplementation, with subsequent normalization of hepatic synthetic function. Case 4, who underwent Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass surgery 18 months before presentation, was supplemented with IV copper, 2 mg per day, as part of her parenteral nutrition for 3 months. Her serum copper was not repeated, but her serum ceruloplasmin improved from 11 mg/dL at initial presentation to 17 mg/dL after supplementation. Her liver function normalized and remained stable 3 months after parenteral nutrition was stopped. Case 11, who had inactive ileocolonic Crohn’s disease and distant history of ileum and right colon resection, was supplemented with oral copper 2 mg daily for 1 year with improvement of her serum copper (41 to 94 μg/dL), ceruloplasmin (16 to 23 mg/dL), and albumin concentrations (1.9 to 3.5 g/dL). In case 10, who presented with acute‐on‐chronic liver failure 12 years after Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass, oral copper 2 mg over a 3‐week period improved serum copper from 36 to 60 μg/dL. The patient, however, died of fungal sepsis and multi‐organ failure. Copper was not supplemented in any other cases.”

Most liver Disease is from Hepatitis C. That is a viral infection. Copper is antiviral. Copper cures infections.

Is copper metabolism involved in fatty liver disease?
30-Oct-2017 By Tim Cutcliffe

“Disrupted copper metabolism may be linked to progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), suggests a recent review in Nutrients.”

https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2017/10/30/Is-copper-metabolism-involved-in-fatty-liver-disease#

Several other articles that I have previously shared in this book also show that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is from copper deficiency.

Copper deficiency and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
https://www.clinicalnutritionjournal.com/article/S0261-5614(21)00334-4/fulltext

“They concluded in this case–control study that high copper levels had a protective effect for NAFLD (liver disease) in men.”

Why else would copper be good for the liver?

Copper helps make Super Oxide Dismutase, which helps to detoxify everything. The liver is a major detox organ. Toxins are hard on the liver.
Copper helps make at least 4 other detox enzymes.

What is usually known to be very bad for the liver? Alcohol and pain killers.

In fact, pain killers are known for causing copper deficiency, and for being so hard on the liver, that the liver cannot process other toxins, which then build up, which are then even harder on the liver.

Pain killers also do their work by deactivating pain signals in the nerves, thus being bad for the nerves. What is good for the nerves? Copper.

What else causes pain? The build up of toxins in the body. So pain killers have a vicious cycle in the body by depleting copper, building up toxins, causing liver damage, and causing pain in the body. Then, being in pain, a person takes more painkillers, completing the destructive cycle of addiction.

Several times, I have read of a case study in which they blame copper for liver disease. If you read deeper into the study, there are usually other drugs involved, that are well known to cause liver disease. First, causation cannot be determined by a case study. Second, there has to be no other variables. It’s non-science to say that copper causes liver disease.

How would copper even harm the liver in the first place, when the liver needs copper and has an affinity for copper?

From: https://www.pediatricweb.com/webpost/iframe/MedicalConditions_460.asp?tArticleId=142#9
“Copper may damage liver cells and other cells in the body by causing the formation of activated chemical intermediates.”

That is exactly what I’m saying. Copper binds to fluoride, a toxin, and likely binds to other toxins. What other toxins might bind to copper?

If the body is loaded with toxins, and if the body’s available copper is being used to bind those toxins, then the answer is more copper or other minerals that can detox the body, to flush out and chelate those toxins. Just not all at once, going from zero to 20,000 mg. That kills people sometimes. Death from copper in those ranges could be the detox reaction going too fast, rather than the copper itself, which could explain how people survive copper up to 100,000 mg.

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Excess Vitamin A can cause liver disease.

“Higher doses of vitamin A can be toxic, leading to a constellation of signs and symptoms as well as liver injury, jaundice, enlargement of the liver and spleen, portal hypertension and cirrhosis.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK548165/

Copper and Vitamin A have an inverse relationship in the liver. As Vitamin A increases, copper goes down. As copper increases, Vitamin A goes down. Vitamin A is the toxin, and copper is the anti-toxin.

Modification of vitamin A metabolism in rats fed a copper-deficient diet
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3679695/

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Excess iron can cause liver disease.

“In hemochromatosis, the role of hepcidin is affected, causing the body to absorb more iron than it needs. This excess iron is stored in major organs, especially the liver. Over a period of years, the stored iron can cause severe damage that may lead to organ failure.”

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hemochromatosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351443

As we already saw, in chapters 26-30, copper fixes problems of high iron. (So does zinc, sulfur, potassium, and cabbage.)

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