Fatty liver disease, whether caused by alcohol consumption or not, is managed by eliminating alcohol use and following your doctor’s or nutritionist’s guidelines for medication, weight loss, and proper diet. Abstaining from alcohol is crucial to restoring the liver to good health, provided the damage to the liver is not too great. If alcohol is an issue, your doctor or a counselor may help, as well as a recovery program. You will also need to follow a nutrition program that helps achieve and maintain a healthy weight and healthy cholesterol levels; limiting salt and sugar is important. If you have diabetes, it will need to be controlled. Regular exercise is also considered important. Make sure to take any medications as prescribed. Finally, make sure your doctor knows about all over-the-counter medications and supplements you are taking, as some can cause liver damage.
Fatty Liver Disease
Fatty liver disease (FLD) is the first in three stages of alcoholic liver disease. Some 90% of alcohol abusers develop FLD. Other risk factors include nutritional deficiency, especially of protein, and iron build-up in the liver. If left untreated, the liver becomes inflamed and cirrhosis of the liver may develop. Learn more from our experts about diagnosing and treating fatty liver disease with expert advice from Sharecare.
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As part of a clinical workup for pediatric fatty liver disease, the child's pediatrician or gastroenterologist will screen for comorbid conditions, such as diabetes, cholesterol problems, thyroid dysfunction, vitamin D deficiency and sleep apnea. Sometimes, for example, correction of sleep apnea improves liver health, so it's very important that doctors screen for comorbid conditions. In addition, doctors may test for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, autoimmune hepatitis, Wilson's disease, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, celiac disease, and other metabolic problems that can lead to elevated levels of the enzyme alanine transaminase (ALT), which might masquerade as fatty liver. -
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The two main types of fatty liver disease are nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Fatty liver disease is a process where fat infiltrates into normal liver tissue. In NAFLD, the fat hasn't caused any damage to the function of the liver. In NASH, there is fat in the liver plus signs of inflammation and liver cell damage. -
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Dr. Mehmet Oz, MD , Cardiology (Cardiovascular Disease), answeredFatty livers-which are usually due to too many calories and too big an omentum (a fat-storing organ in your gut), also can be caused by excessive alcohol, viral infection, metabolic and nutritional disorders, and effects of certain medications-affect 20 percent of Americans.
If you're exposed to additional toxins, you'll get even more inflammation and scarring. The effect: Cirrhosis.
The best tactic is to reduce your waist size to half your height. At the same time, you'll also help out your pancreas, since our biggest diabetes challenge is not an inability to secrete insulin, but rather our responsiveness to insulin, which is blocked by the belly fat.
By the way, the weight loss should be gradual, since extreme weight loss may actually increase a fatty liver.