VCU study shows liver patients might benefit from going meatless for one meal

According to VCU, the study was a small clinical trial on 30 meat-eating adults whose livers had been permanently damaged by cirrhosis, which is linked to high levels of ammonia in the blood and a cognitive disease called hepatic encephalopathy.

Ammonia levels are also known to be related to factors like gut bacteria and diet. Though VCU says that further research is still needed to determine the impact of veganism on cirrhosis and ammonia, the preliminary results of the trial shows that even one meatless meal generates less ammonia in patients with cirrhosis.

"It was exciting to see that even small changes in your diet, like having one meal without meat once in a while, could benefit your liver by lowering harmful ammonia levels in patients with cirrhosis," said Jasmohan Bajaj, M.D., a gastroenterologist from the Richmond VA Medical Center and the VCU Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health. "We now need more research to learn if consuming meals without meat goes beyond reducing ammonia to preventing problems in brain function and liver disease progression."

According to VCU, ammonia, which is created by the bacteria in intestines while digesting food, is normally processed in the liver before being sent to the kidneys and eliminated through urination.

The reason patients whose livers have been severely damaged by cirrhosis have higher levels of ammonia in their blood is because the damage causes their livers to lose the ability to process the ammonia.

This can cause dangerous levels of ammonia to travel to the brain and cause hepatic encephalopathy, which impairs cognitive function, causes confusion and delirium and can sometimes lead to a coma or death without treatment, according to VCU.

Cirrhosis is the ninth-leading cause of death in the United States. More information about this study can be found here.