Popular Malaysian soup can cause liver damage when mixed with medication (Possibly bogus conclusion)

Researchers have found that a popular soup, bak kut teh, has the potential to cause liver failure by clashing with prescription medication.

"Our team studied the recipes of four locally purchased packet mixes of bak kut teh, otherwise known as meat bone tea," said Professor Roger Byard. "When mixed with liver cells, the ingredients killed up to 83% in one concentrated soup formula.

"People have been warned for some time that herbal medicines and therapies may have harmful side effects that can include significant liver damage. In rare cases this has required transplantation and even led to death.

"For the first time, a laboratory study has shown that foods containing herbs, such as the soup bak kut teh, may also be toxic to liver cells.

"People with underlying liver disease or who are taking prescription medications should be warned of this potential side effect. All such preparations should include accurate labeling of the ingredients until further studies can be undertaken to identify the specific herbal substances that are toxic. Having the soup at home or at a restaurant may cause damage to the liver.

"If unexpected liver damage is encountered at autopsy, information on possible recent ingestion of herbal food preparations should be sought, as routine toxicology screening will not identify the active components. Liver damage may therefore be caused not only by herbal medicines, but possibly herbal products contained in food."

The ingredients of each of the soups varied considerably from one label to another.

Formulation three: Polygonatum odoratum, ligusticum chuanxiong, codonopsis pilosula, cinnamomum cassia, angelica sinensis, illicium verum, piper nigrum, and Eugenia caryophyllata

I am not a doctor and not a researcher, but I am calling this a “likely non-issue,” based on a stunning admission, buried within the actual study.

Let me say I have had such soups, based most on “Formulation Two,” mentioned above. It is very tasty and served at Asian restaurants that allow you to put your own fresh ingredients into the boiling broth (where the “concerning” ingredients reside), on a burner with a metal bowl at your table.

The study states the following:

“Four formulations of traditional herbal soup advertised as “bak kut teh” were added to cultures of liver carcinoma cells (HepG2).”

Folks, they tested the formulas only against CANCER cells. Cancer cells are fundamentally different from non-cancerous cells and antioxidants specifically can cause apoptosis in only cancer cells that won’t possibly happen in normal cells.

In other words, they may have identified that these soup mixes only kill liver cancer cells, yet they stupidly claim this only kills normal liver cells, which they never tested the soup mixed against.

This is likely an example of “crud science.”

For those interested in the “liver cancer kill rate,” involved, the following also comes from the study:

“However, all formulations of bak kut teh demonstrated significant toxicity (p < 0.05). Formulation 1 showed the least toxic response, with approximately 21% cell death observed (p = 0.023), followed by Formulation 2 with 30% (p = 0.009) and Formulation 3 with 41% (p < 0.0001). Formulations 1–3 showed no significant toxicity once diluted (p > 0.05) (Fig. 1A–C). Formulation 4 showed the most significant toxicity to the HepG2 cell line with approximately 83% cell death before dilution (p < 0.0001) and persistent toxicity even with dilution 1:10 (15% ± 3.7, p = 0.023) and 1:1000 (14% ± 3.8, p = 0.024) (Fig. 1D). Control cell cultures without bak kut teh showed no cell death.”

Notice how Formulations 1-3 didn’t help kill cancer cells when diluted into something like a soup broth base? Also, notice how they do not mention any suspected drugs with issues, but just throw that concern “out there?”

“When mixed with liver cells, the ingredients killed up to 83%...”

Another flaw is that liver cells in vitro would not simply be exposed to the ingredients in the soup. Those ingredients would first pass through the digestive system to be broken down by stomach acids and other digestive processes and metabolized, and then the results of that process would be what the liver cells are exposed to, not the ingredients that were originally ingested.

Why would you mix soup with medication?

For the same reason someone would wash down their pills with grapefruit juice:

Here are examples of some types of drugs that grapefruit juice can cause problems (interact) with:

Some statin drugs to lower cholesterol, such as Zocor (simvastatin) and Lipitor (atorvastatin)
Some drugs that treat high blood pressure, such as Procardia and Adalat CC (both nifedipine).
Some organ-transplant rejection drugs, such as Neoral and Sandimmune capsule or oral solution (both cyclosporine).
Some anti-anxiety drugs, such as BuSpar (buspirone).
Some corticosteroids that treat Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, such as Entocort EC and Uceris tablet (both budesonide).
Some drugs that treat abnormal heart rhythms, such as Pacerone and Cordarone tablet (both amiodarone).
Some antihistamines, such as Allegra (fexofenadine).

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