A liver disease expert from MountSinaiNYC walked us through the risk factors for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
NIH states that you're more likely to develop NAFLD as you get older. Those who are overweight, particularly those who have visceral fat, or fat in their abdomen, are also at an increased risk. As weight management experts have explained in the past, this type of fat is located around your organs within the abdominal cavity and can cause protrusion. Your body, in other words, looks more like an"apple" shape.
But, there are certain people who can develop NAFLD despite not having a lot of visceral fat or appearing to be overweight. For instance, Dr. Dinani said that some people have lean NASH, orin which their bodies are leaner, but they accumulate fat in the liver. Eduardo Grunvald, MD, FACP, medical director of the UC San Diego Weight Management Program, also told POPSUGAR in a previous interview that people with rare cases called lipodystrophy. Instead, they store much of their fat in the organs.
. People with fatty liver disease also have a greater chance of developing cardiovascular disease and, often, those with NAFLD can die from heart attacks and strokes, she told us. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death in people with either kind of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to NIH. Diagnosing NASH requires a liver biopsy, Dr. Armand noted in her work for Harvard Medical School, though doctors are trying to find noninvasive ways to do so.
Right now, there are no FDA-approved medications to treat NAFLD, but according to Dr. Dinani, there are some diabetic drugs that are currently being looked at in clinical trials to see their impact on fatty liver disease. The key to managing NAFLD, she said, is treating the risk factors such as diabetes and obesity. Patients should manage their cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other metabolic diseases that are associated with fatty liver disease, she said.
If someone is an uncontrolled diabetic, for instance, meaning their blood sugars stay too high often, Dr. Dinani might work with an endocrinologist to tailor their diabetes treatment."If you're already thinking about adding another medicine to someone who's diabetic who could be better controlled, then you could consider doing a treatment that would attack both the diabetes and the fatty liver disease," she said.
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