Liver plays a significant role in keeping our body at its best condition. It facilitates in digesting and getting rid of the waste products in our system. Like the other major organs in human body, liver is as well fragile and entails much attention when hit by a disease. You must have the idea of different diseases relating to liver, and you must have the heard about alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver. We know that these diseases somehow bring threat to our health. More of the nonalcoholic fatty liver and its symptoms will be tackled in the succeeding parts of this post.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver is one root of fatty liver. As the name suggests, this fatty liver is not due to excessive ingestion of alcohol. Non-alcoholic fatty liver is linked with what we call insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. This may respond to treatments originally made for other insulin resistant diseases such as Diabetes Mellitus Type 2. This treatments include weight loss and by taking metformin and thiazolidinediones.
Some people with nonalcoholic fatty liver do not demonstrate symptoms. But when it happens, non-alcoholic fatty liver symptoms include fatigue, malaise, and dull right-upper-quadrant abdominal discomfort. Mild yellow discoloration (jaundice) may also appear but this rarely happens. Commonly, this disease is diagnosed after a series of abnormal liver function tests. You might be wondering when you should see your doctor. If the symptoms mentioned above persists and worsen, make an appointment with your physician right away.
There are types of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease that can be harmless or life threatening. First type is Nonalcoholic fatty liver. It causes excessive fat accumulation in the liver but will not lead to any complications. Also, this condition is believed to be very common. Second type is known as Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. In some people with fatty liver, the fat triggers inflammation in the liver. As a result, this inflammation can impair the liver’s function and causes complications. Third type is nonalcoholic fatty liver disease- associated cirrhosis. As mentioned earlier, accumulation of fats can cause inflammation which leads to scarring of liver tissues. In time, this can worsen that impedes the function of the liver and worst, will lead to liver failure.
There is no typical treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver. Instead, your physician will work to take care of the risk factors that contribute to the disease. For example, if your weight is beyond the normal range, your doctor can assist you in losing weight. In some instances, people undergo medications and surgery.
There is so much to know about nonalcoholic fatty liver and what was discussed beforehand was just a glimpsed of a bigger picture of the disease. Once you experience health problems, don’t hesitate to contact your doctor right away.