Fatty Liver, or - to give it its official title - Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - is one of the most commonly diagnosed conditions that many people don't even know they have. One in four adults has fatty liver and the numbers are increasing all the time. But - there is no medical treatment available for it. Thankfully, naturopathic and nutritional interventions are effective, especially if the condition is caught early.
Read on to learn all about:
- what fatty liver is
- how it's diagnosed
- the symptoms you may experience
- contributing causes (ie. what drives the development and progression of fatty liver
- risks it poses to your health
- how we treat it using naturopathic and nutritional treatments
Jump to:
What is fatty liver or NAFLD?
Put simply, fatty liver or NAFLD is the accumulation of fat inside the liver. This excess fat interferes with the many functions of the liver. Our livers are an essential powerhouse, driving essential processes that keep us alive and healthy. Some examples of what the liver does for us include hormone production and detoxification and metabolism of hormones and medications.
Fatty liver is a key part of metabolic syndrome, so it usually occurs alongside insulin resistance, weight gain, inflammation and dyslipidemia (eg. high cholesterol). It commonly becomes more of an obvious problem during midlife, including during perimenopause and menopause.
Fatty liver becomes more harmful the longer it progresses, so early detection and treatment is key. There is no medical treatment for fatty liver, but lifestyle medicine is very effective.
Fatty liver is found in men more often than women.
Symptoms you may experience
Early stage fatty liver may not be detectable and you may not experience any obvious symptoms at first besides generally not feeling your best.
As the condition progresses, people typically report:
- fatigue or malaise
- general feeling of reduced wellbeing
- poor energy levels
- sleep disturbances
- mood changes
- pain or discomfort in the upper right area of the abdomen
- brain fog
- unexplained weight loss
Of course, all of the above can be multi-factorial and are not completely caused by the impaired liver function.
Contributing causes
As fatty liver is considered a metabolic condition, metabolic and lifestyle factors drive its development and progression:
- insulin resistance, which results in high blood glucose levels - present in most cases
- inflammation
- weight (fat) gain - not present in all cases, but present in most cases
- dysbiosis of the gut microbiome
- mitochondrial dysfunction
- excess cholesterol
- poor diet - such as low fibre intake, lack of plant foods, low Omega 3 intake and high levels of saturated fat
How it's diagnosed
Fatty liver is typically diagnosed with a liver ultrasound and liver function blood tests. However, it's important to understand that fatty liver can be present without anything being detected on these tests.
A FibroScan test is an advanced ultrasound that is more helpful for detecting fatty liver and liver scarring/fibrosis - a more advanced complication of fatty liver.
Other tests related to the drivers of fatty liver are useful, including blood glucose related tests (fasting insulin, fasting glucose, HbA1c) and lipids (total cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides).
Risks it poses to your health
Fatty liver can affect most body functions and researchers are always discovering more impacts of fatty liver on health.
Some of the well-established areas/conditions that fatty liver can worsen or contribute to include:
- brain ageing
- increased cardiovascular risk (eg. heart attacks, strokes)
- increases risk of kidney disease
- NASH - Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis
- cirrhosis
- liver failure
- liver cancer
- Type 2 diabetes
How we treat fatty liver disease
Naturopathic and nutritional approaches are perfectly placed to treat fatty liver because they both address all the drivers behind the condition as mentioned above. Also, there is no medication to treat fatty liver. Diet and lifestyle improvements are the treatments that gets results.
It's incredibly important to think about treatment for fatty liver as a change for the rest of your lifetime, but it certainly doesn't mean living life as a monk! You can still enjoy your favourite foods, just less frequently.
Treating fatty liver is definitely a journey and you have to be in it for the long haul - the benefit is that when you work with a Naturopath, you gain skills you can draw on time and time again to help yourself. Another benefit of nutritional and naturopathic treatment is that any improvements we make in one area will benefit something else - for example, treatments that support liver function will also benefit other areas you need help with such as skin health.
In terms of what that looks like for you as a client:
- diet optimisation - anti-inflammatory and nutrient dense
- microbiome modulation
- stress management
- herbal medicine
- targeted nutritional supplements
- exercise
Most people have fantastic results within about 4-6 months of starting treatment. There is hope!
If you'd like to get some help with your fatty liver, you can make a booking here:
I'm looking forward to helping you get back to feeling your best.
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