Imagine that you go in to see the doctor for a review of your basic chemistry blood tests.
Then imagine that he tells you that you have an abnormally high level in your blood of something call bilirubin.
“Bilirubin,” he says, “is something that the liver makes. But when it gets high, that can mean that you have hepatitis. However, you do not have hepatitis. You have a condition called Gilbert’s Syndrome.”
Your doctor then goes on to explain that Gilbert’s Syndrome is nothing to worry about. Of course, anyone who is told they have a syndrome is going to probably worry about it anyway.
But now there is some great news for all of you who have Gilbert’s Syndrome. It looks like you are going to live a lot longer than the rest of us!
In order to maintain healthy levels of the oxygen-carrying molecule hemoglobin, the body needs to make bilirubin. The liver has the job of making sure that the bilirubin levels don’t get too high. But as many as 5-7% of the population have unusually high levels of bilirubin in the blood.
That happens for two reasons. One, their liver cells just make more bilirubin than the average person. And two, their livers don’t clear it out quite as efficiently. Since bilirubin is a yellowish molecule, one way to know the levels are high is by seeing a slightly yellow hue to the skin. The other way is a blood test.
Recently researchers looked at the death rates in 4,266 patients with Gilbert’s Syndrome. They compared their death rates with a similar group of 21,968 men and women who did not have Gilbert’s Syndrome. Over an average follow-up period of 14 years, a total of 1,174 people died in both groups. And here’s the amazing part. The death rate in the Gilbert’s group was half of the death rate in the non-Gilbert’s group. That is very good news for you Gilbert’s people.
But why? What is it about having a higher bilirubin that saves lives? It probably has something to do with another molecule called hemoxigenase (HO).
HO is the molecule that acts to produce bilirubin. So an elevated level of bilirubin in the blood is just an indicator of a high level of HO. And higher levels of HO lead to less disease across the board – particularly cardiovascular disease and strokes. But that’s not all. Bilirubin itself is protective. It is a potent inhibitor of free-radical damage to cells and tissues.
So if you have Gilbert’s Syndrome, be glad. You have a lower risk of disease, and will likely live longer as a result. If you don’t have Gilbert’s, you can increase your production of HO in at least two ways. One is to exercise. The other is with ozone therapy. You can learn all about ozone therapy by becoming a subscriber to my print newsletter at www.secondopinionnewsletter.com.
Sources:
Horsfall, L.J., I. Nazareth, S.P. Pereira, et al. “Gilbert’s syndrome and the risk of death: a population-based cohort study.” J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2013 October;28(10):1643-7.
Petersen, I. “Serum bilirubin may serve as a marker for increased heme oxygenase activity and inducibility in tissues—a rationale for the versatile health protection associated with elevated plasma bilirubin.” Med Hypotheses. 2013 October;81(4):607-10.