Husher

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A While back I did my yearly physical which showed slightly elevated liver activity (don't ask me for specifics - I'm just repeating), which my doctor insisted wasn't linked to alcohol, but was something he wanted follow up testing on, over and over. Anyways, After the second test, even more slightly higher activity, I mentioned kombucha, and he asked me to drop it for the next test so we could rule it out.

Anyways, the activity was slightly increasing for the first two test, and most recently the third test showed decreasing activity after not having had any for months. I have a follow up test in a month or so, but I was wondering if anyone else had had a similar experience.

Of course my DR isn't trained to know anything about Herbal stuff so he can't tell me if this is a normal reaction to kombucha, only that something is off and he wants to keep looking until he solves it or it resolves on it's own.

I'm thinking if I'm 'back to Normal' in the future, I might try kombucha again as it seems obvious that my liver was stimulated and that the levels were no where near harmful. After I confirm with the Doc....

Husher

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Really? 129 views an no one has had a similar experience?

porcupine73

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Hm well I don't have a clue, other than to say that conventional 'doctoretrics' has many flaws built into it for a variety of reasons. One point to note is the liver is major detoxification organ in the body, and responsible for many other processes. So if increased liver activity is due to kombucha, who is to necessarily say this is a bad thing?

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Hopper5000

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I haven't had that experience but kombucha does have some alcohol (small amount like less than 1%) in it and is filled with a bunch of yeast and bacteria so it's probably elevated from that. They don't really know what it does to you from what I understand but elevated liver stuff (as mentioned by porcupine) wouldn't seem that unusual...

saramc

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Do you have these same tests with data BEFORE you even started kombucha consumption, as a baseline? Wondering if your liver has an issue metabolizing some specific components of kombucha tea or are there any medications(CDC says medications for hypertension, renal (kidney) problems, and hormone replacement medications have been known to react to kombucha but when k-bucha ingestion is stopped the side effects halt and every person returned to baseline), herbals, vitamins/supplements that can be the root cause (Omega-3 is a big trigger for many people)?

Interesting article about impact of kombucha on your liver: http://www.livestrong.com/article/354611-information-on-the-benefits-of-kombucha/

CDC report about negative impact from kombucha, circa 1995: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00039742.htm

Found a discussion from way back in 2007, so of course cannot speak to if any of the information actually applies today:
http://boards.sethroberts.net/index.php?topic=4800.0

I think it would be beneficial to speak with someone who understands kombucha and the way it works. The person that comes to mind is Ed Kasper of The Happy Herbalist. Here is the link to some of his kombucha info http://www.happyherbalist.com/analysis_of_kombucha.htm, but then again if it were me Ed would be the man I consulted with and then speak to my MD. I know Ed is very involved with keeping kombucha alive and legal, plus he is well known within the kombucha community. Ed even says: "The American FDA and CDC has investigated all reports of health concerns and has found kombucha tea to be safe." ---> perhaps need to visit the CDC and US FDA website and do some research about kombucha and its recent stance with these organizations.

I personally have had no negative issues since starting to consume kombucha more than three years ago, labs are fine and in fact in the winter we had to add blood pressure medications (just added the THIRD med on 10/1---big sigh, sad face) and we monitor my liver enzymes quarterly and no change from my baseline 20 years ago. And I am a kombucha, water kefir, milk kefir, homemade yogurt and sourdough addict...but all in moderation.

Best of luck in figuring this puzzle out...and congrats for seeing your MD on a routine basis, kudos for that!!

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ThePonchoKid

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What type of liver activity? Elevated white cell count? What sort of Kombucha were you drinking? Are you making it? If so with what and how?

Husher

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I don't know the exact test. But it usually indicated blocked liver ducts. Had an ultrasound and found nothin.
I was making my own, based on GT's commercial kombucha, and organic black tea.

ThePonchoKid

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What sort of equipment were you using and how much Kombucha were you consuming on a daily basis?

Husher

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I was using a large Glass Jar (made in Italy) purchased at Winners. I'm assuming nothing bad with the glass. Winners sells defective crap, but it was still made in Italy, the gasket on the lid just didn't fit right - but I didn't care for what I'm doing.

The lid had a paper towel secured with a rubber band. It was fermented over a 2 week period. When bottling, I added to fruit juice so that it was 80% kombucha in a 500 ml bottle. I used Grolsh green Swing top bottles, circa 1982 with real ceramic lids. And I'd have half of that bottle a day. Sometimes less, but never more. Usually I'd have a small sip every now and then and then have some more hours later.

I was only using for about 3 weeks when my blood work was flagged, so it could have been a coincidence, but there was no other reason for the flag, so I'm assuming that was it.

edmanster

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You make it sound like your a recovering addict..lol..

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