Fatty Liver. Causes, Symptoms and Treatment of Fatty Liver.

 

Dr. Rajan Poudel 
MBBS(BS/MD)
Health Care Team Leader at UN CAMMAY Volunteer 2020

Today I am writing about a very important topic which is very common and many people don’t know at all about this ailment, they have a lack of knowledge about it. So today’s topic is about fatty liver.
Fatty liver is a medical care condition in which gradually fats build up in the liver. Many people feel if they have fatty liver then all the stomach complaints related to indigestion or gastric are caused by the ailment, but it is not correct at all.
CAUSES:
One of the main reasons for fatty liver is the consumption of alcohol apart from that, there are few medicines which can cause the fat to build up in liver. Apart from that , viral infections such as Hepatitis B, C can cause problems in liver, which can also lead to build up fats in the liver.
In today’s age one new reason has come up which is related to our life style. Ailments related to lifestyle such as hypertension, Diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol in the blood are also some of the reasons.
Cholesterol in the blood slowly enters in to the liver and becomes reason for fatty liver, we call this ailment as Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Diseases, in short we call it NAFLD. Alcoholic fatty liver disease which happens due to alcohol consumption. Both have different reasons but the impact of disease is almost same. 
Next question arises is whether this fatty liver is harmful for human body? 
--- It is seen that in maximum cases fatty liver does not give any problem to patient but in few people around 15-20% of those who have fatty liver, fats which is there in the liver cells gives swelling or inflammation in the cells, we call it Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis. 
In few percent of NASH patients this ailment can increase further. 
In plain steatosis or simple steatosis, where there is no swelling in liver cells it does not harm at all for year's. But in NASH state where there is swelling in cells, gradually the liver can damage. 
Gradually when liver gets swelling, scars occurs we call it scarring. In 15-20 year's whole liver becomes scarred and sometimes it fails too. Even stage occurs where there is a need of liver transplantation. But the good thing is this is very rare condition and only 8% people reach up to this level. 
As I said this ailment is very common, so if we talk about general public almost 30% people can have this NAFLD( Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease) and those who have problems of obesity, blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, 60% of such population can have fatty liver problem. 
SYMPTOMS:
If we talk about the symptoms of this then at initial stage there are no symptoms at all but in almost 10-15% people it is seen that in upper right portion of abdomen there is a dragging sensation or heaviness which can be due to this disease. Apart from this there are no other symptoms, they can be seen in very late stage of the ailment.
Hence it is necessary to diagnose this disease at a very early stage so that it can be treated. Nowadays through whole body check up investigation like ultrasound, fatty liver can be diagnosed or else if you are doing ultrasound may be for kidney in that also fatty liver can be diagnosed. In this when we learn if any patient has fatty liver then we try to find out whether it is plain or simple steatosis or something that we call simple fatty liver or Is it a NASH as I already talk about it earlier, in NASH stage liver problem can increases further. From tests we try to find out whether it is NASH or plain steatosis. The test which we mainly do are blood tests such as SGOT, SGPT, Complete liver function test and special test call Fibro scan which is similar to sonography in which we can capture earlier scarring in the liver as well.

TREATMENT:
Now when we know it is NASH or little scarring has started then is it curable? 
---- Yes, it is definitely curable. 
As we know this is a lifestyle related disease. So that ailments which are causing this if we control them properly such as if we control obesity, BP, sugar level is normal and if we control the amount the cholesterol in the blood then we can prevent this ailment and those who have this disease in advance stage can be cured. 
It is seen that if we can reduce our weight by 5-10% then easily this ailment can be controlled. Healthy lifestyle means daily we should have 30 minutes of fast walking, we should change our food habits and we should consume less fries and sweet food. In short we should do 30% reduction of our calories to protect ourselves from these diseases. At the end I would like to say that as this is lifestyle related ailment, if we control all other diseases and adopt a healthy lifestyle then we can prevent this ailment and if anybody already has it can be treated. 
There are few medicines which are not that much effective and you should always consume these with doctors consultation.
Thank you have a good day 🙏
Location: Bharatpur, Nepal

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