Are you at risk for fatty liver disease?
We all know the immediate effects excessive drinking can have, whether it’s experiencing a hangover, engaging in risky behavior while intoxicated or even getting in trouble with the law. But do you ever stop to think about the long-term effects it can have on your body?
Excessive drinking can lead to elevated levels of fat in the liver, which can cause alcoholic fatty liver disease, says Dr. Steven Flamm, medical director of the liver transplant program for Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.
Typically, this occurs in people who have abused alcohol for “many, many years,” Flamm says.
And while it takes time for fat to accumulate in the liver from alcohol abuse, once the disease is in progress, the symptoms can develop fast, Flamm says.
“It can happen relatively suddenly,” he says. “It can be a life threatening illness over a matter of a week or two. Often there are no symptoms until you get sick in the end.”
Any woman who has more than two drinks on a daily basis and any man who has more than three is considered an excessive drinker and at risk for the disease, says Dr. Talal Adhami of the department of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Cleveland Clinic.
The disease can also develop in those who may consume alcohol only occasionally but who binge drink when they do, says Adhami.
Reversing the symptoms
The early symptoms of alcoholic fatty liver disease are fatigue, weakness, weight loss and discomfort in the right upper abdomen.
Because those symptoms are common to a number of ailments, doctors will look for elevated liver enzyme levels in blood tests and ask patients if they abuse alcohol. An ultrasound or CT scan can point out the abnormalities in a fatty liver, but the only way to know for sure is for your doctor to perform a liver biopsy.
If the disease progresses, people can develop a number of other serious symptoms, including:
- Jaundice
- Fluid build-up in the abdomen
- An enlarged spleen
- Swelling—and possible rupture—of the veins in the esophagus or stomach
- Confusion caused by poisons in the alcohol—which are not filtered by the malfunctioning liver—making their way to the brain
- Cancer
There is only one treatment for alcoholic fatty liver disease, and that’s to stop drinking, Flamm says.
“Usually the liver recovers over the course of six to nine months (of sobriety),” he says. “But if they resume drinking they will get sick even faster. They really have to stop drinking completely.”
it’s not just alcohol
Fatty liver disease doesn’t just affect those who abuse alcohol. The number of people who suffer from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is greater than the number of people with all other kinds of liver diseases combined, Flamm says.
“It has been dramatically rising over the last 15 to 20 years,” he says.
The cause of the surge can’t be entirely pinpointed, but most of the people with NAFLD also are significantly overweight and have diabetes and high cholesterol.
The rise in people with NAFLD corresponds to the growing number of Americans who are overweight and obese, Adhami says.
“People think if you don’t drink you can’t have a liver problem and they are surprised,” Flamm says.
People with NAFLD are advised to lose weight, exercise and better control their blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
“Even a 10% weight loss can be a huge improvement in the liver,” Flamm says.