Wednesday, April 13, 2011 by: S. L. Baker, features writer (NaturalNews) Hepatitis C is an infectious disease of the liver that can cause miserable symptoms including fatigue, lack of appetite, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Caused by a virus, hepatitis C affects about 200 million people worldwide. In the U.S. alone, one to two percent of the population is infected. Not only can this infectious disease cause scarring of the liver, cirrhosis, and eventually liver failure, but a significant number of people with hepatitis C also develop sometimes fatal liver disease or cancer.

Mainstream medicine uses two drugs, usually prescribed together, to treat hepatitis C: interferon and ribavirin. Unfortunately, the side effects to this combination are often so horrendous (ranging from severe fatigue, constant flu-type symptoms and nausea to birth defects) that a lot of hepatitis C sufferers can't stick with the therapy. What's more, for those who do manage to keep taking the interferon/ribavirin treatment, only about half get a positive response.

But a new study just released shows that nature seems to be able to do what Big Pharma can't -- kill the virus without damaging cells in the body. Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have discovered that two plant-derived bioflavonoids, catechin and naringenin, display powerful antiviral activity on tissue culture infected with hepatitis C.