Understanding Fatty Liver Disease

I recently had a family member diagnosed with end-stage liver disease about 5 years ago. A while ago, her Doctor let her know that her bloodwork showed she had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. He did not, however, tell her how to reverse it or that it could be reversed! That provoked me to take a deep dive into fatty liver disease and liver cirrhosis. Here's what I've found.

Fatty liver disease, scientifically known as hepatic steatosis, is essentially what it sounds like: too much fat stored in the liver cells. It's normal for the liver to contain some fat, but if the fat makes up more than 5-10% of the liver's weight, it's considered fatty liver.

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There are two main types:

• Alcoholic fatty liver (AFLD) is caused, of course, by heavy alcohol consumption.

• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is linked to metabolic risk factors such as obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

  
  

There are four stages of liver disease.

-Stage 1: (The earliest stage) when excess fat is accumulating in the liver cells. At this point, it can be reversed. There is no significant inflammation or cell damage. You usually wouldn't feel anything at this stage. Diet, exercise, and addressing any underlying metabolic issues can reverse it.

Stage 2: This is a critical turning point at which inflammation becomes a factor in addition to the fat accumulation. This can lead to liver cell injury and even cell death. It's this inflammatory process that leads to the progression of the disease. You may start to experience more noticeable fatigue, dull pain or discomfort in the upper right abdomen, general malaise, and unexplained weight loss. It may be possible to reverse at this stage, but it requires more aggressive intervention.

-Stage 3: Is fibrosis. This is the body's attempt to repair the damage by laying down scar tissue. This scar tissue begins to replace healthy liver tissue, distorting the liver's ability to function optimally. Fibrosis is graded from F0 to F4, with F0 indicating no fibrosis and F4 indicating cirrhosis. In this stage, you may experience increased fatigue, persistent pain in the upper right abdomen, loss of appetite, and mild nausea. The early stages of fibrosis may be reversed if managed effectively. Advanced fibrosis is much harder to reverse, if at all.

-Stage 4: Cirrhosis. This, of course, is the advanced and irreversible end stage of liver disease. Extensive scarring has occurred, replacing most of the healthy tissue, severely disrupting the liver's ability to function correctly. It can no longer effectively detoxify blood, produce proteins, aid in digestion, and store vitamins. At this stage, you may experience overwhelming fatigue and weakness, jaundice, Itching, Edema, Abdominal swelling and bloating, dark urine, pale/clay colored stool, easy bruising and bleeding, spider angiomas, redness of your palms, a decline in brain function, loss of muscle mass, no appetite, weight loss, enlarged spleen, and portal hypertension.

This disease becomes life-threatening when you experience complications of cirrhosis, such as esophageal variceal bleeding, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and hepatorenal syndrome.

This is a scary disease, but there is hope! It can take years, even decades, for fatty liver to turn into cirrhosis. You can reverse it if you catch it early enough by modifying your diet, exercising regularly, and reducing inflammation. Early detection is key to most diseases. If your Doctor mentions fatty liver disease, take it seriously and start working on that reversal! Here is my link to Milk Thistle supplement to help with your liver detox if you have the early stages of fatty liver disease:

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** = affiliate links