1.Who is prone to fatty liver?
Recent increases in weight and waist circumference are associated with the development of NAFLD, and waist circumference is a more accurate predictor of fatty liver than body mass index (BMI). 2005 International Diabetes Federation recommended diagnostic criteria for obesity: waist circumference > 90 cm (men), > 80 cm (women), and/or BMI > 25 kg/m2. Therefore, if waist circumference and weight meet or exceed such criteria, you should seek regular systematic examination to determine whether you have fatty liver. You should go to the hospital for a formal systematic examination to determine if you have fatty liver. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has become one of the most important public health problems in the 21st century, and is also an increasingly important chronic liver disease in China. So, who are the people who are prone to fatty liver? In summary, there are mainly obese people, meatless people, middle-aged and elderly people, heavy drinkers and sedentary people with little movement, etc.
2.Why is aminotransferase high?
There are many reasons for the increase of transaminases, the most common is viral hepatitis, such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis D, hepatitis C, hepatitis E, etc. These can be diagnosed by checking the corresponding serum markers or viral nucleic acid. Other causes of elevated transaminases include drug-related liver injury, alcoholic liver disease, autoimmune liver disease, genetic metabolic liver disease, and liver injury caused by some systemic diseases; in addition, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can also cause elevated transaminases. Your son has been clearly found to have fatty liver for 3 years, but before considering the increase of transaminases related to fatty liver, other causes should be excluded first.
People are often under-aware of the dangers of fatty liver. In fact, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease includes non-alcoholic simple fatty liver, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and its associated cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Simple fatty liver progresses very slowly, but steatohepatitis may have developed when transaminases are elevated, while the incidence of cirrhosis in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis can be as high as 15% to 25% within 10 to 15 years. In addition, it has also been shown that the life expectancy of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease may be shortened, and the causes of death include malignancy, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and liver cirrhosis.
3.Does exercise alone work for mild fatty liver disease?
Since non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a metabolic stress liver injury associated with insulin resistance, the primary goal of treatment is to improve insulin resistance and prevent and treat the metabolic syndrome. In your case, a metabolic evaluation can be done first. If there are some metabolic risk factors or comorbidities, some angiotensin receptor blockers, insulin sensitizers and statins can be considered to lower blood pressure and prevent glucolipid metabolism disorders and atherosclerosis. As for hepatoprotective and anti-inflammatory drugs, they are not recommended for routine use in patients with fatty liver disease because their role and status in the prevention and treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is still controversial. However, they can be used as an adjunct to basic therapy in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis on liver histology or in those with significant liver injury or progressive liver fibrosis, such as those with combined serum transaminase elevated disease.
Lifestyle changes and weight control are the basis of fatty liver treatment and should be adhered to over time, self-monitored and reviewed regularly. If you relax self-management because the fatty liver is no longer there, or even revert to the previous poor lifestyle and behavior, fatty liver may come back again.
4.Can soy milk cure fatty liver?
Soybeans are rich in a component called essential phospholipids, which can be used as medicine to treat various liver diseases, including fatty liver, after processing. However, there is no convincing evidence as to whether soy or soy milk as food, in regular consumption doses, has the effect of protecting the liver and treating fatty liver.
5. Can fatty liver also become cirrhotic?
Fatty liver can develop into cirrhosis. In general, about 0.6-3% of people with fatty liver develop cirrhosis after 10-20 years. However, the incidence of cirrhosis in patients with steatohepatitis (e.g. those with abnormal liver function) is 15-25%. In foreign countries, it has become an important cause of end-stage liver disease leading to death or liver transplantation. Therefore it must be detected early and intervene early.
6.Is there any medicine for alcoholic fatty liver?
Alcohol consumption can directly lead to liver damage and the development of “alcoholic fatty liver”. If it is early and the liver damage is mild, this kind of fatty liver can be recovered after strict abstinence from alcohol. However, if the liver has become fibrotic or cirrhotic, then it may not be possible to recover. The most basic treatment for alcoholic fatty liver is abstinence from alcohol and nutritional support, because patients who drink alcohol eat little and unbalanced meals and usually have malnutrition. The need for medication depends on the liver function. For alcohol-dependent patients who cannot stop drinking, the internationally recognized “Metadoxine” can be used to promote alcohol metabolism and reduce the damage of alcohol to the liver.
7.Why do thin people also get fatty liver?
Obese people are more likely to develop fatty liver, but obesity is only one of the risk factors for developing fatty liver. Other reasons, such as insulin resistance, genetic and metabolic factors also affect the occurrence of fatty liver or not. Some patients who are lean but have excessive visceral fat deposits can also develop fatty liver. People who are particularly lean or who lose weight quickly in a short period of time can suffer from protein-calorie malnutrition, leading to a lack of important nutrients such as carnitine, which affects the fat metabolism of the liver and can also lead to fatty liver.
8.How to choose liver care supplements?
The treatment of fatty liver is a very complex issue, including dietary control, lifestyle adjustments such as enhanced exercise, and the use of drugs such as lipid-lowering and insulin-sensitizing agents according to the patient’s specific situation, and a combination of liver-protective drugs with multiple mechanisms of action in order to achieve better therapeutic effects. Therefore, it is unrealistic to rely solely on one or a certain type of nutraceuticals to prevent and treat fatty liver. However, there are some ingredients in foods and supplements that are beneficial to the liver, such as vitamin C, vitamin E silymarin, glutathione, oleanolic acid, chasteberry, and porcine polysaccharide. These ingredients have certain antioxidant effects, and the main pathogenesis of fatty liver is oxidative damage. In the process of diet control to reduce weight, nutraceuticals containing free amino acids can improve protein intake and thus reduce malnutrition. But health supplements have not undergone rigorous clinical trials, and the actual effect of each health supplement often lacks exact data, so they can never replace drugs.
9.Why do vegetarians get fatty liver?
The global prevalence of fatty liver is mainly closely related to the obesity disease, the prevalence of simple fatty liver in obese patients is as high as 60% to 90%, but in the Asia-Pacific region, body mass index (BMI) and (or) waist circumference normal non-alcoholic fatty liver patients are not uncommon. In fact, there are major risk factors in our life that can easily lead to the formation of fatty liver, including high-fat and high-calorie dietary foods, a sedentary lifestyle, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and its components (obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia and type 2 diabetes), etc. Thus, it can be seen that the causes of fatty liver formation are diverse and complex, and a thin body does not mean that it can be insulated from fatty liver. In addition, some chronic diseases such as chronic hepatitis C, inflammatory bowel disease, hypothyroidism, Wilson’s disease, and drugs such as tamoxifen, ethamivudine, sodium valproate, and glucocorticoids can also lead to fatty liver. Therefore, if people are found to have fatty liver during physical examination, especially for those who are thin, they should carefully look for the causes of fatty liver and clarify whether other underlying chronic diseases or the use of certain drugs exist.
10.Can I recover from fatty liver after stopping the medication?
Anastrozole is a potent and selective non-steroidal aromatase inhibitor that can lower plasma estrogen levels and is mainly used clinically for the adjuvant treatment of advanced breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Similar to the administration of other endocrine therapeutic agents, some patients may develop dyslipidemia, mainly hypercholesterolemia, and elevated triglyceride levels have also been reported.
Increased triglycerides cause a large amount of fatty acids to accumulate in the liver, and when they exceed the liver’s capacity to transport and process them, they are converted into neutral fat and deposited in the liver, resulting in a fatty liver. If the condition permits, after discontinuation of this drug, hyperlipidemia will improve and fatty liver will be relieved accordingly.