Recently, many middle-aged friends and even young friends have routine physical examinations, abdominal B-ultrasounds or CT scans have suggested fatty liver. Everyone was shocked when they saw fatty liver. Is this a serious disease? I am still young! What about the wife and children? Don’t worry, come, the gastroenterologist will give you super comprehensive and professional answers.
Fatty liver, also known as fatty liver disease, is a disease caused by steatosis of liver cells caused by various etiologies and excessive accumulation of fat in liver cells. It is a genetic-environment-metabolic stress related disease. Liver disease. Normal human liver tissue contains a small amount of fat, such as triglycerides, phospholipids, glycolipids and cholesterol, and its weight is about 3% to 5% of the liver weight. If there is too much fat accumulation in the liver, more than 5% of the liver weight or if more than 50% of the liver cells have steatosis on histology, it can be called fatty liver. At present, fatty liver disease is seriously threatening the health of Chinese people, becoming the second largest liver disease after viral hepatitis. The incidence rate is increasing, and the age of onset is getting younger.
What factors are associated with the occurrence of fatty liver?
1. Unreasonable dietary structure
Excessive consumption of high-fat, high-calorie foods (including fructose-containing beverages) and highly processed foods.
2 Bad Eating Habits
Eating too fast, eating too full, snacking, fond of sweets and meat, frequent late-night snacks, and skipping breakfast.
3 Sitting More Lifestyles
Excess fat in sedentary people is particularly likely to deposit in the abdominal viscera, leading to visceral obesity and fatty liver.
4 Alcohol Abuse
The number of drinkers in my country is increasing, and the per capita alcohol consumption is increasing year by year. It is not uncommon for children and adolescents to drink alcohol and the elderly to drink excessively.
5 Genetic Predispositions
People with obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, and a family history of fatty liver are more likely to develop fatty liver.
What are the symptoms of fatty liver?
Fatty liver is divided into mild, moderate and severe. If the fatty liver is mild, there are generally no symptoms. When it is moderate or severe, it may cause fatigue and even discomfort in the liver area. If you have symptoms such as loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting, you need to go to the hospital for examination in time. If it is severe fatty liver, it is necessary to receive systematic treatment under the guidance of a doctor in time.
How to treat fatty liver?
1. Fatty liver can be “cured”, but requires long-term treatment.
2. “Treatment for cause” is most effective. Alcohol withdrawal is effective for alcoholic fatty liver disease, and fat deposits in the liver generally subside completely within weeks or months of abstinence. Weight loss can reverse non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. If obese fatty liver patients reduce their basal body weight by 10% within six months, the fat deposition in the liver can be completely subsided, and the liver function can also return to normal.
3. Scientific and reasonable dietary system. Adjust the dietary structure, adhere to the traditional Chinese dietary plan of “plant-based food, supplemented by animal food, and grain-based calorie source”, and avoid the “high-calorie, high-fat, high-protein, low-fiber” dietary structure, Prevent excess heat.
4. Correct bad eating and living habits, such as lack of exercise, alcoholism, overeating, staying up late, etc.
5. Mainly aerobic exercise, supplemented by anaerobic exercise. Insist on participating in more than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise every week, and persevere, and do some resistance exercise according to personal preferences.
6. Use drugs with caution, no more than 3 anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective drugs. The liver is the main site of drug metabolism. Improper drug use can easily lead to drug-induced liver damage including fatty liver and abnormal liver enzymes.
Finally, I remind everyone that both simple fatty liver and steatohepatitis are curable diseases. Don’t worry too much
Original author: Zhou Jihai
Review: Zheng Wenwen, Liu Zhu, Gao Fengyu