Fatty Liver Disease:
What is Fatty liver disease?
Fatty liver is the build-up of excess fat in the liver cells. It is normal for your liver to contain some fat. But if fat accounts for more than 5-10% of your liver's weight, then you have fatty liver and you may develop more serious complications.
What causes fatty liver?
Fatty liver disease is caused by eating excess calories, which causes fat to build up in the liver. When the liver does not process and break down fats normally, too much fat accumulates. People tend to develop fatty liver if they have other conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, or high triglycerides. Most (but not all) fatty liver patients are middle-aged and overweight. Alcohol abuse, rapid weight loss and malnutrition may also lead to fatty liver. However, some people develop fatty liver even if they have none of these conditions.
What are the symptoms of fatty liver?
Fatty liver disease may produces no symptoms on its own, so people often learn about their fatty liver when they have medical tests for some other reason. Fatty liver disease can damage your liver for years or even decades without you noticing any symptoms. If the disease is severe, you may experience symptoms such as: fatigue, weight loss, weakness and confusion.
What are the consequences of fatty liver?
Fatty liver may cause no damage, but sometimes the excess fat leads to inflammation of the liver. This condition, called steatohepatitis, does cause liver damage. Sometimes, inflammation from a fatty liver is linked to alcohol abuse; this is known as alcoholic steatohepatitis. Otherwise the condition is called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). An inflamed liver may become scarred and hardened over time. This condition, called cirrhosis, is serious and often leads to liver failure. NASH is one of the top three leading causes of cirrhosis
How is fatty liver diagnosed?
Your doctor may see something unusual in your blood test or notice that your liver is slightly enlarged during a routine checkup. These could be signs of a fatty liver. To make sure you do not have another liver disease, your doctor may ask for more blood tests, an ultrasound, a CT scan or an MRI. If other diseases are ruled out, you may be diagnosed with NASH. The only way to confirm that you have fatty liver disease is to get a liver biopsy. Your doctor will remove a sample of liver tissue and send the sample to a pathologist for the final results.
How is fatty liver disease treated?
There are no medical or surgical treatments for fatty liver. If you have fatty liver, and in particular if you have NASH, you should try to
- Lose weight
- Lower your triglycerides through diet, medication or both
- Avoid alcohol
- Control your diabetes (if you have diabetes)
- Eat a well-balanced, healthy diet
- Increase your physical activity
- Get regular checkups from a doctor who specializes in liver care (a hepatologist)
What potential new treatments are being studied?
If you have fatty liver, you should know that scientists are studying whether various medications can help reduce the inflammation on your liver, including new diabetes medications that may help you even if you don't have diabetes.
Related information:
| University of Missouri Health Care | This information is not intended to replace the advice of a doctor. |
