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Open WellbeingWhat the studies actually measured

Liver, kidney and digestion

Piperineand Alanine aminotransferase (ALT)

Two sources here, and they say different things: one measured lower alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and one found no clear difference.

How sure anyone can be

Moderate certainty, level 3 of 4

Further research may change this.

The most certain of the two findings here; each record carries its own.

The numbers reported

-3.88
ALT weighted mean difference vs control, printed in IU (the abstract prints no interval for any estimate)

One further source recorded only which way the numbers went, without a number.

None of these sources gave a likely range — the band the real answer probably sits in — so how precise these numbers are is still an open question here.

Two sources, newest first

We do not pick between these or average them into one number.

What we read is the published abstract, not the full paper, so a blank below may still be printed in the paper itself. A fixed rule worked this out from the source’s own fields. Nobody checked this rating by hand.

  • Systematic review, 2025 · 18 studies pooled

    Moderate certainty, level 3 of 4

    Effects of Curcuminoids Plus Piperine Co-Supplementation on Liver Enzymes and Inflammation in Adults: A GRADE-Assessed Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

    Food Sci Nutr. 2025;13(7):e70588. doi:10.1002/fsn3.70588. PMID:40661794.

    Number reported
    -3.88
    Which way it went
    No clear difference
    Likely range
    Not in the abstract
    Source’s own words
    ALT weighted mean difference vs control, printed in IU (the abstract prints no interval for any estimate)
    Who was studied
    Adult
    Compared with
    placebo, control, or no treatment
    Amount taken
    Not in the abstract
    For how long
    Not in the abstract
    Disagreement between studies
    Not in the abstract
    Kind of record
    Journal article
    How this rating was reachedstarts at High, one step down: imprecision
    1. Starts at High
    2. Imprecision brought it down to Moderatethe abstract reports no confidence interval for the estimateNot in the abstract
    3. Ends at ModerateOne step down.
    Checked, nothing to step it down for
    risk of bias and indirectness
    Inconsistency
    No high disagreement reported between the 18 studies it pooled

    Imprecision stops at the first check that applies; others may apply too.

    AI-reviewed & signed — an AI agent re-read this finding against the saved source and checked that the quote, the numbers, the units and the direction match it. No person read it. The owner authorised the agent to sign the batch with the owner's key, and every build rechecks that signature against these exact bytes.

    Read the abstract on PubMed

  • Randomised trial, 2023

    Low certainty, level 2 of 4

    Efficacy of curcumin plus piperine co-supplementation in moderate-to-high hepatic steatosis: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

    Phytother Res. 2023;37(6):2217-2229. doi:10.1002/ptr.7764. PMID:36799355.

    Number reported
    Not in the abstract
    Which way it went
    Lower
    Likely range
    Not in the abstract
    Source’s own words
    no effect size is reported: the abstract gives only a p value for the between-group comparison, with no magnitude or interval
    Who was studied
    Adult with NAFLD
    Compared with
    placebo
    Amount taken
    5 mg/day piperine (with 500 mg/day curcumin)
    For how long
    84 days
    Disagreement between studies
    Not in the abstract
    Kind of record
    Journal article
    How this rating was reachedstarts at High, 2 steps down: risk of bias and imprecision
    1. Starts at High
    2. Risk of bias brought it down to Moderatethe abstract reports no risk-of-bias or quality appraisal, so study limitations cannot be ruled outNot in the abstract
    3. Imprecision brought it down to Lowthe abstract reports no confidence interval for the estimateNot in the abstract
    4. Ends at Low2 steps down.
    Checked, nothing to step it down for
    indirectness
    Inconsistency
    One study, so there was nothing to disagree

    Imprecision stops at the first check that applies; others may apply too.

    AI-reviewed & signed — an AI agent re-read this finding against the saved source and checked that the quote, the numbers, the units and the direction match it. No person read it. The owner authorised the agent to sign the batch with the owner's key, and every build rechecks that signature against these exact bytes.

    Read the abstract on PubMed

What is still missing from these readings

  • One give no number at all, only which way it went.
  • Two give no likely range, so how precise those numbers are is unknown.
  • Two do not say how many people took part.
  • Amount taken — One of Two readings: Not in the abstract.
  • For how long — One of Two readings: Not in the abstract.

Something nobody wrote down is never a zero and never a guess.

Still to read for Piperine

Five of the 17 things on our list for Piperine have no reading here yet:

  • Atrial fibrillation incidence
  • Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT)
  • Fibrinogen
  • Oxidative stress (F2-isoprostanes)
  • Total testosterone

Still to read means nobody here has got to it, not that it was tried and did nothing or that no research exists. A pairing on no list is not a gap: we never set out to read it.

Read next

This is a library, not advice. No recommendation, no dose, no diagnosis, no ranking. We never ask about your symptoms, and nothing here is tailored to you.