Dear Healthy Friend,

I hate to be so clichéd...but I have good news and bad news.

And the bad news is pretty bad. Because you could be one of the millions of people with a condition called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) who doesn't know they're in serious danger.

Now the good news. If you are secretly suffering with NASH, researchers have discovered a simple way to keep yourself healthy...plus this vitamin therapy could even prevent liver cancer... keep reading to find out what it is...

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S. Dr Wright's written about the dangers of low stomach many times before... now he answers a question about what some of these dangers could be...

Viable vitamin vanquishes lurking liver problems...
Jenny Thompson
Publisher, Health Sciences Institute

NASH is an excessive amount of fat accumulates in the liver. This fat buildup is commonly caused by a less-than-ideal diet and sedentary lifestyle. What follows isn't surprising: Insulin resistance, obesity, high triglycerides and type II diabetes all become complicating factors.

And that's when things get very serious, because NASH sharply increases risk of cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer.

Since NASH is closely linked to oxidative stress and insulin resistance, the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network mounted a clinical trial to test vitamin E and a well-know diabetes drug.

As reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly 250 NASH patients were given either 800IU of vitamin E daily, 30mg of the diabetes drug daily or a placebo. None of the subjects had yet developed type II diabetes.

For nearly two years, researchers closely monitored the subjects, tracking changes in several biological markers that reveal NASH severity.

Those markers significantly improved in 43% of the subjects who took vitamin E. In the group that took the prescription drug, 34% had similar improvement.

Now, 9% might not seem like a lot. But add side-effects to the equation and everything changes.

Mild side effects occurred in all three groups. But the most pronounced side-effect - weight gain - was significant in only one group: The drug-based group.

That's right: Weight gain. Which happens to be one of the causes of NASH. The pharmaceutical company's website also notes that the drug can cause heart failure.

So, given the dangers of the drug, and given that there's no government-approved treatment for NASH, vitamin E is clearly the smart choice...

The truth behind heartburn

Q: I know from reading your newsletter that heartburn is usually caused by a lack of stomach acid, rather than too much. Do low levels of stomach acid cause any other problems in the body?

Dr. Wright: To save space, I'll just make a list of some of the numerous conditions linked to (and made worse by) low stomach acid:

Acne rosacea, physical signs of ageing (especially in people 60 and older), allergies, alcoholism, celiac disease, childhood asthma, hepatitis, hives, depression, dermatomyositis, diabetes (type I), eczema, gallbladder disease, Graves' disease, lupus, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, osteoporosis, pernicious aneamia, polymyalgia rheumatica, Raynaud's syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, Sjogren's syndrome, ulcerative colitis and vitiligo.

And there are probably many more. Of course, poor stomach function isn't the sole or even the major cause of each of these diseases. But taking the appropriate steps to eliminate hypochlorhydria (insufficient stomach acid production) and, in the process, restoring optimal nutrient flow usually makes a significant improvement, no matter what the problem.