Cirrhosis Support Group
Cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease, most commonly caused by alcoholism and hepatitis C. Ascites is the most common complication of cirrhosis and is associated with a poor quality of life, increased risk of infections, and a poor long term outcome. Liver damage from cirrhosis cannot be reversed, but treatment can stop or delay further progression and...
A snippet I found on-line from a radio phone in on live disease
I did not realise how common fatty liver is even among non drinkers!
A friend of mine has recently been diagnosed with a fatty liver. When she asked what had caused it the doctor said it's a symptom of a Western diet, no further advice was given. My friend's really concerned and what she'd like to know is, is it reversible, would a low fat diet help and in the long term could it be life threatening?
Your friend's doctor is absolutely right. Fat in the liver is very common. We talk - alcohol starts off with fat in the liver but even in people who don't drink at all fat in the liver is common and it's common in Europe, it's common in the United States, it's not common in Sub-Saharan Africa where people are very skinny. And so it is due to a - the high fat, high carbohydrate diet we have and the fact that as a population we are getting progressively heavier. It is probably up to 20% of people walking around in the streets in London at the moment have some excess fat in their liver, so it's very common and therefore quite obviously it needn't be serious. The risk of it - it gets associated with people having high cholesterol, people having a tendency to get what we call maturity onset diabetes - diabetes in later life - a tendency to have a high blood pressure. And actually in a way it's quite a good thing to have found out when you're relatively young because really it's a wake up call about your lifestyle, it reminds you that if you do take exercise, if you keep your weight down you're actually in 20, 30 years time much less likely to be suffering from a heart attack, from a stroke. And so there's nothing terribly worrying about being found to have a fatty liver but it is a wake up call to do the lifestyle things we all know that we ought to do.
So when you're asking about treatments and so on I mean there aren't any magic medications for this?
No, it's - it's losing weight and taking exercise. And I give this advice to a lot of people and of course not everybody takes it. But the people who do - who come back and they've shed a stone, a stone and a half, over the course of three to four months - not rapidly but slowly - they come back and they say I feel so much better.
I did not realise how common fatty liver is even among non drinkers!
A friend of mine has recently been diagnosed with a fatty liver. When she asked what had caused it the doctor said it's a symptom of a Western diet, no further advice was given. My friend's really concerned and what she'd like to know is, is it reversible, would a low fat diet help and in the long term could it be life threatening?
Your friend's doctor is absolutely right. Fat in the liver is very common. We talk - alcohol starts off with fat in the liver but even in people who don't drink at all fat in the liver is common and it's common in Europe, it's common in the United States, it's not common in Sub-Saharan Africa where people are very skinny. And so it is due to a - the high fat, high carbohydrate diet we have and the fact that as a population we are getting progressively heavier. It is probably up to 20% of people walking around in the streets in London at the moment have some excess fat in their liver, so it's very common and therefore quite obviously it needn't be serious. The risk of it - it gets associated with people having high cholesterol, people having a tendency to get what we call maturity onset diabetes - diabetes in later life - a tendency to have a high blood pressure. And actually in a way it's quite a good thing to have found out when you're relatively young because really it's a wake up call about your lifestyle, it reminds you that if you do take exercise, if you keep your weight down you're actually in 20, 30 years time much less likely to be suffering from a heart attack, from a stroke. And so there's nothing terribly worrying about being found to have a fatty liver but it is a wake up call to do the lifestyle things we all know that we ought to do.
So when you're asking about treatments and so on I mean there aren't any magic medications for this?
No, it's - it's losing weight and taking exercise. And I give this advice to a lot of people and of course not everybody takes it. But the people who do - who come back and they've shed a stone, a stone and a half, over the course of three to four months - not rapidly but slowly - they come back and they say I feel so much better.
(After I lost the weight, I started regularly binge drinking in college. Luckily, I still haven't had a high enzyme count the whole time, and I've since quit that.)
which may save you a lot of grief in the future
Well done!