Fatty Liver Disease

The Run­down of Fat­ty Liv­er Disease

What is a fat­ty liv­er dis­ease? First off, let’s talk about the liv­er. Your liv­er is the largest organ inside your body. It acts as a fil­ter for med­ica­tions and alco­hol, it stores ener­gy and vit­a­mins and also aids in diges­tion. Our liv­er does so much for us, but there is an epi­dem­ic that is not talked about.

Fat­ty Liv­er Dis­ease is the accu­mu­la­tion of fat in the liv­er. Sounds sim­ple enough, but untreat­ed it can lead to inflam­ma­tion, tis­sue dam­age, or even irre­versible loss of func­tion called cir­rho­sis. About 25% of adults glob­al­ly have some degree of fat­ty liv­er dis­ease, but most do not have any idea. Non-alco­holic fat­ty liv­er dis­ease (NAFLD) means alco­hol is not the great­est issue caus­ing liv­er dam­age. Sad­ly, NAFLD is on the rise. The good news is, this is often treat­able with diet and lifestyle changes, along with talk­ing to your pri­ma­ry care provider. There are 2 types of Non-alco­holic fat­ty liv­er disease:

Sim­ple fat­ty liv­er– excess accu­mu­la­tion of fat in the liv­er. This is the most com­mon type.

Non-alco­holic steato­hep­ati­tis– excess accu­mu­la­tion of fat in the liv­er in addi­tion to inflam­ma­tion. Accord­ing to Har­vard Health, about 3 – 7% of peo­ple with fat­ty liv­er dis­ease have this type.

Risk Fac­tors and Symptoms

Risk fac­tors include obe­si­ty, espe­cial­ly vis­cer­al adi­pos­i­ty. Vis­cer­al adi­pos­i­ty is a fan­cy word for peo­ple who car­ry excess weight around their waist. Diets high in refined car­bo­hy­drates like desserts, sug­ary bev­er­ages, white pas­ta, and white bread may increase risk. Last­ly, Type 2 dia­betes increas­es the risk of Non-alco­holic Fat­ty Liv­er Disease.

Many peo­ple have no symp­toms at all, that is why it is impor­tant to have a good rela­tion­ship with a pri­ma­ry care provider who can order liv­er enzyme tests if they sus­pect you are at risk. Symp­toms are often vague such as decreased appetite, nau­sea, or lethargy.

How to Help

Start with talk­ing to your pri­ma­ry care provider, from there it may be ben­e­fi­cial to see a dietit­ian. Dieti­tians are med­ical nutri­tion experts who can help you reach your goals and make changes. Gen­er­al treat­ments for NAFLD usu­al­ly include weight loss, improv­ing diet qual­i­ty, increase activ­i­ty, and man­age­ment of oth­er chron­ic dis­or­ders such as diabetes.