Hepatitis Recovery by Yuko Horio

Hepatitis Recovery
By Yuko Horio

In August, 1987, when I was thirty-four, I was traveling through South India with my partner, Toru, for two weeks just after the monsoon season. The temperature in daytime was around 99 to 100 F. (37-38 C.). It was hot and hard to travel. In Tokyo the temperature was normally around 86 F. (30 C.), even in midsummer.

I already had practiced macrobiotics for seven years, but not strictly. I had eaten some dairy food and refined bread for breakfast and occasionally ordinary food outside because there were few macrobiotic restaurants in Tokyo. Nevertheless, I had confidence in my health, as this was our fourth trip to India, and we often took umeboshi plums during the journey.

Under the red-hot sun, we turned to tropical fruits, chai (hot tea with milk and sugar), and sugar cane juice with ice, which was made by vendors who put sugar cane through a wringer. It tasted like nectar. Needless to say, many flies swarmed around us, but I didn't care, as I believed I would never get sick.

After several days passed, I began to feel quite tired. I lost my appetite and experiened some diarrhea. I craved liquid, and whenever I found a vendor of sugar cane juice, I bought some. I could barely follow Toru on the rest of the trip. I went from 115 pounds to 110.

Even after returning home, I had no appetite, preferred to drink juice, and felt disoriented. This went on for a month. At the end of September, the weather cooled drastically and I got a slight fever. I thought it was a cold.

On October 3, I felt very sick and had no energy. Even looking at food made me nauseated. I vomited milk tea at noon which I had drunk in the morning. The condition persisted. At the hospital, doctors took tests and gave me an I.V. I took medicine for three days to be able to eat brown rice again. I ate rice carefully, chewing 100 times and sangoso powder, or glaswort, which grows by the seaside and is high in minerals. My body seemed to be recovering, but jaundice set in. In a medical book, I read that Hepatitis Type A is contracted by ingestive infection through food or drinks. I thought about my trip to South Asia. I realized I had Hepatitis A and resigned myself to be hospitalized.

As I awaited my test results, Tastunori Murakoshi, a macrobiotic friend, called. I told him my story and he reminded me, "There isn't any illness that cannot be relieved by food." I decided to follow his advice.

My blood tests indicated liver imbalance. It was acute hepatitis. Naturally, the doctor wanted to hospitalize me immediately. When I tried to leave, saying I would discuss it with my family, he said there was no time. When I persisted, he became irritated, ordered a nurse to bring a medical book, and showed me the section that said if my condition changed to Fulminant Hepatitis I would probably be dead within a week. Also a nurse told me she had never seen such high liver-function levels before. My GOT was 4190 (normal is 8 to 35), and my GPT was 3130 (normal 3 to 30). She had never seen anyone's over 2000. The doctor told me that he would treat me with steroids.

Finally, I managed to leave, and at home started to practice a strict macrobiotic diet. I ate brown rice, gomashio, miso soup with seaweed, cooked konnyaku (dried gourd), some other simple dishes, sangoso powder and chewed my food more than 100 times. At that time, my urine's color was coffee-like. Kan Tomoi, another macrobiotic friend, came to see me and told me I had to eat humbly and exercise well to improve my metabolism.

Even though my jaundice progressed and my weight decreased, I started to feel better day by day. In the process, I missed my period and experienced painful stomach convulsions for the first time in my life. With Toru's help, I treated them with loquat leaf and boiled konnyaku. I was able to go to the library but didn't go to work.

On Oct. 20, I returned to the hospital. A different doctor greeted me, but his face turned grim when he saw my chart and heard the explanation of my own therapy. "I won't perform your blood test today," he said. "Such an unnutritious diet doesn't work." Finally, he agreed to give me a blood test. The results were: GOT 82; GPT 84; and ALP 1040 (normal is 100 to 280).

The urine had returned to a natural color. By the end of October, I returned to work. In the middle of November, I was examined again and the results were almost normal. Later I had a blood test at my company's health check-up, and I tested negative for Hepatitis B antigens. This suggested I had Type A as I thought.

Incidentally, though one doctor couldn't believe my subsequent blood test levels, I have some evidence, as a kind of sequelae, which shows that my story of dietary recovery is true. My ZTT and TTT, also liver-function tests, are a bit higher than normal range even now. The figure, however, is decreasing gradually each time. When I first received the results that showed my liver function was abnormal, I was shocked. But now I find that they are very precious in helping me stay with the macrobiotic way of life.