Tuesday, August 11, 2015

How fat is your liver?

Fatty Liver:
Its one of the most commonly seen problems in Asian population.

Diagnosis?
Fatty Liver can be diagosed via ultrasound of the abdomen, usually its an incidental finding. No many people will go looking for it.

How does it happen? 
Liver is a regenerative organ, it is the place in our body where most metabolic processes take place, so if we eat fat laden food or food very rich in carbohyrates and fat or even alcohol, the liver is not able to process the excess and starts storing fat molecules. Some drugs and chemicals can also cause it. So best is to speak to your health care provider for the monitroing the drug levels.There are grades of fatty liver. Grade 0-3, zero being no fatty liver and 3 being high fatty liver.

Do you have to be alcoholic to have it or even other people can have it?
People who consume no alochol can also have it. Its called NAFLD/NASH(Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/Non Alcoholic SteatoHepatitis).
If you are consuming excess calories or consuming more carbohydrates and fat or have pre-diabetes or diabetes. The liver is inflamed and also can lead to cirrhosis and eventually Liver failure.
But if you drink alcohol it can worsen the NAFLD.

Can you prevent it/reverse it?
Prevention of fatty liver can happen if you watch your alcohol intake, food intake, type of food (processed or natural) and make some form of exercise as a part of your daily regime.
Reversal is not possible if the grade of fatty liver is more than 3 but you can still halt progress into cirrhosis.

Interesting fact: Starvation can lead to fatty liver too.

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