Fatty liver is a common clinical phenomenon that can be caused by various reasons, leading to the accumulation of lipids in liver cells, followed by liver cell damage, which is the most common type of liver damage. Every year, there are many people who are found to have fatty liver during medical checkups, and many people do not consider it as a disease and do not pay attention to it at all.
You can’t let your guard down about fatty liver
Most people with fatty liver do not have symptoms, which is similar to chronic hepatitis, and it is easy for people to relax their vigilance, but liver damage persists, and once symptoms appear, it may be that liver function has declined to the point where it can no longer support basic daily functions. Research shows that if alcoholic fatty liver patients continue to drink alcohol, may develop into alcoholic hepatitis, 40% of those who continue to drink alcohol progress to cirrhosis, after the occurrence of alcoholic cirrhosis still continue to drink alcohol for 5 years, the mortality rate of 85%; non-alcoholic fatty liver patients, if simple fatty liver, the prognosis is relatively good, but if not treated in time, may be developed into steatohepatitis, the latter cirrhosis within 10 years of the incidence of up to 25%.
Fatty liver more often implies an unhealthy lifestyle for the patient, and its occurrence is closely related to obesity, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and hypertension, all of which are components of the metabolic syndrome, with approximately 70% of obese patients suffering from fatty liver. In fact, most of the direct causes of death in patients with fatty liver are not the liver disease itself (even in cirrhosis, which progresses slowly), but rather metabolic syndrome-related malignancies, atherosclerotic cardiovascular and cerebral vascular disease, and so on. Therefore, the most important thing to do with fatty liver is not to worry about the damage to the liver, but to focus on changing an unhealthy lifestyle.
Who should know they have fatty liver?
People who are overweight need to be aware that they have fatty liver, especially if they are abdominally obese. Half of diabetic patients may have fatty liver, which is the majority of adult patients. Because 50% to 80% of adults with diabetes are obese, and still abdominal obesity, fatty liver is related both to the degree of obesity, but also to eating too much fat or sugar. The degree of fat accumulation in the liver is directly proportional to body weight, 30% to 50% of obese people combined with fatty liver, the incidence of fatty liver in severely obese people is as high as 61% to 94%. After obese people’s weight is controlled, their fat infiltration is also reduced or disappeared, at the same time, insulin resistance will also be well controlled, therefore, the benefits of weight control are more than two or three, often a multi-purpose.
Fatty liver is not “exclusive” to obese people, and its occurrence is related to a number of factors, which is why some people are diagnosed with fatty liver even if they are of normal weight. For this group of people, it is important to find out if they drink alcohol, if they take medications that damage the liver, if they have recently lost weight, and if they have problems with obesity or malnutrition.
Fatty liver is not just a problem for middle-aged people. Although it is most commonly seen in middle-aged and elderly people, many young people who have been working for a year or two also develop fatty liver as they gain weight. So regardless of your age, you can get fatty liver just as easily if you are overweight.
Can fatty liver be reversed?
In most cases, fatty liver is not treated in a hospital or by doctors, but mainly by you. The key to treatment is to eliminate the causes of the disease, control body weight, and adopt healthy lifestyle habits. For example, abstain from alcohol, eat a reasonable diet, do not eat high-fat, high-calorie food, and exercise actively, so that the weight will gradually return to the normal level and maintain it for a long time. As long as you do the above, you will find that fatty liver is gone when you go for liver ultrasound after some time.
Self-Treatment Recommendations
Diet: There is a strong relationship between fatty liver and diet. People who eat high-fat, high-sugar, high-carbohydrate diets are most likely to develop fatty liver, so the first step in treating fatty liver is to change your diet and avoid fatty, high-fat, high-energy, low-protein diets.
Appropriate exercise: according to physical condition, strengthen the physical exercise, such as walking, playing tai chi, swimming and so on can be, in order not to fatigue is appropriate.
Weight loss: it is a good way to reverse fatty liver, but not too fast, need to be gradual, because excessive dieting, too fast weight loss may be due to insufficient supply of protein to transport lipids, so that fat metabolism is disturbed, but aggravate the accumulation of lipids in the liver.
Quit drinking: alcohol metabolism in the liver, drinking alcohol aggravates liver damage, this is what everyone knows, but it is easy to know and difficult to do, a lot of people can not do well, regardless of whether they are addicted to alcohol before, want to reverse fatty liver, please stay away from alcohol.
Don’t use drugs indiscriminately: Be cautious about using health drugs that are advertised as cures for fatty liver, most of which are false propaganda. Most drugs must be metabolized by the liver, and indiscriminate use of drugs from unknown sources is bound to increase the burden on the liver. If the level of aminotransferase remains high, it is necessary to use reasonable medication under the guidance of a doctor.
Special reminder:
In the face of fatty liver should not be left unchecked, and do not have to worry too much, as long as early intervention, to correct the bad lifestyle, can generally return to a healthy state. Treatment of fatty liver is not difficult, the difficulty is whether the patient has the determination to change lifestyle habits.