Fatty liver disease

What is fatty liver disease and how to recognize it?

Fatty liver disease or simply fatty liver is a conditionthat is characterized by the accumulation of the fat in the liver. It may occurdue to the number of reasons, but the fact is that it is most frequentlyassociated with either alcohol, or some metabolic syndrome, such as diabetes,hypertension or obesity, for example. Depending on the cause, fatty liverdisease is classified into nonalcoholic fatty liver, nonalcoholicsteatohepatitis, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease-associated cirrhosis.

Alcoholic liver disease occurs in people who use alcoholexcessively, while non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can be caused by any otherreason. When it comes to the symptoms of this disease, the fact is thatmost people do not have any symptoms at all, and they find out that they sufferfrom it by accident, usually when they go to the doctor or do some tests (bloodtests or imaging procedures) for some other reason. However, if the symptoms dooccur, the disease usually manifests through the pain in the upper area of the abdomen,fatigue and loss of weight.

Can fatty liver disorder be treated and what methods areavailable?

Since the liver is the organ that has the ability toregenerate, this is a very helpful feature in cases of various liver disorders.However, when it comes to this one, the fact is that there is no standardtherapy that is prescribed to people with this problem, and the treatmentgenerally depends on the cause. This further means that the treatment is focused ontreating the underlying cause, be it obesity, diabetes, alcoholism, or someother problem. What can help regardless of the cause are certainly a proper andhealthy diet, as well as exercising, although there are serious cases in whichonly the surgery might help. In cases where it is necessary, the person willneed to lose weight, or keep the blood pressure or levels of sugar under control,since this will affect the state of the liver a lot. Also, in cases in whichalcohol is the cause, it is necessary for the person in question to stop usingit.

There are a number of researches on the medicines that mightbe helpful in the treatment of fatty liver disease, and among those that arebeing tested are also statins, metformin, omega-3 fatty acid supplements andvitamin E supplements.