Colon hydrotherapy plus Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a pilot study

Abstract Objective To demonstrate the potential to treat non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with colon hydrotherapy (CHT) plus Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Methods A total of 20 patients were enrolled into the study and received CHT with TCM for 2 weeks. Body mass index (BMI) and levels of serum triglycerides (TG) and total cholesterol (TC) were compared between pre-treatment and post-treatment. Results Two-week treatment with CHT plus TCM significantly lowered BMI and reduced blood lipids. BMI decreased from 29.5 ± 4.3 to 25.4 ± 1.0, while mean TG levels decreased by 0.70 mmol/L on average from baseline and mean TC levels decreased by 0.37 mmol/L. Forty-five percent of patients exhibited TC decreasing by more than 10% from baseline and 25% of patients exhibited TC decreasing by more than 20%. Sixty percent of patients exhibited TG decreasing by more than 20% and 20% of patients exhibited TG decreasing by more than 40%. However, high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels did not change significantly after intervention. No serious adverse events were reported. Conclusion Our findings suggest that CHT plus TCM to treat NAFLD is promising and it might be a new treatment strategy for management of NAFLD.