Fatty liver is closely related to metabolic syndrome! Famous doctor: Losing 5% of body weight can reverse fatty liver

Fatty liver has become a national disease among modern people! There are three stages of liver disease, namely liver inflammation, cirrhosis and liver cancer; in fact, fatty liver disease may also go through the three stages. In particular, fatty liver is related to other metabolic syndromes such as waist circumference, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance. Fatty liver can even skip the process of cirrhosis and directly develop into liver cancer, which is very dangerous. How to reverse fatty liver disease? Do you need to rely on drugs or swallow health foods? What should we do in daily life to stay away from the threat of fatty liver? (Video and photography by Zheng Mingjun, Jiang Minjun, Song Meiyao)

"Health Elementary School" specially invited Su Zhisheng, attending physician of the hepatobiliary gastroenterology department of Taiwan Adventist Hospital, to give a lecture on "Can fatty liver be reversed without taking medicine?" He said that fat is divided into subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Subcutaneous fat can be felt, but visceral fat cannot be felt, and visceral fat is the most harmful to health.

《》Healthy Primary School specially invited Dr. Su Zhisheng, chief physician of the Department of Hepatobiliary Gastroenterology at Taiwan Adventist Hospital, to give a lecture on "Can fatty liver be reversed without taking medicine?" (Video and photography by Zheng Mingjun, Jiang Minjun, Song Meiyao)

The most common visceral fat is fatty liver. Fatty hepatitis should not be ignored.

Fat is not only stored in the liver, but also in the head, neck, chest, abdomen, and skin of the limbs. Of course, the largest space is still in the abdomen, so why is it called "fatty liver"? Because the liver is the most easily detected of all these organs. However, it is not just fatty liver. It can also be called fatty heart, fatty lungs, and fatty stomach. As long as there is too much energy that needs to be stored, body fat will be stored everywhere.

Dr. Su Zhisheng said that the most common visceral fat is fatty liver. When fat weighing more than 5% of the total liver weight accumulates in the liver, transparent fat bubbles can be seen in the liver cells under a microscope in the liver pathology section. Imagine that liver cells are so small. If you eat too much fat, the energy will accumulate and be stored in the liver cells. The liver cells will become larger and larger, and may rupture and become inflamed. If there is more than 5% fat in all liver cells, or even more than 25% or 50%, pathology will reveal different levels of inflammation, and blood tests will reveal that it is fatty liver hepatitis. When the inflammation becomes chronic, it may lead to cirrhosis or even liver cancer.

Dr. Su Zhisheng said that fatty liver can even skip the process of cirrhosis and directly develop into liver cancer. (Video and photography by Zheng Mingjun, Jiang Minjun, Song Meiyao)

Fatty liver can even skip the process of cirrhosis and directly jump to liver cancer.

The harm of fatty liver, if we talk about the liver itself, is that there is a worry that it may worsen into cirrhosis and liver cancer. According to local research in Taiwan, fatty liver can even skip the process of cirrhosis and directly develop into liver cancer, which is very dangerous. In other words, without any warning signs, the patient directly develops into liver cancer. The chance of liver cancer caused by fatty liver is 70%. However, if the patient skips steps and does not follow up regularly, it is a big challenge for hepatobiliary gastroenterologists.

Ways to detect fatty liver: self-test, BMI, blood test, ultrasound, liver fibrosis scanner

How to detect fatty liver? The first thing is to pinch your waist. If there is a layer of fat, you may have fatty liver. You can also measure your height and weight. If the BMI is greater than 24, you may have fatty liver. In addition, a more accurate method is to draw blood to test cholesterol and blood sugar, or use ultrasound to check. Fatty liver appears as a shiny layer under ultrasound. The whiter and brighter it is, the more serious the fatty liver is. In addition, if you want to know whether fatty liver has worsened, the degree of liver fibrosis, and the chance of it worsening into liver cancer, you can now use a liver fibrosis scanner, which can replace a biopsy.

The formation of fatty liver is related to energy consumption. If the energy consumed every day is greater than the energy consumed, the energy will be stored in the human body and accumulated in the form of visceral fat.

Fatty liver is closely related to other metabolic syndromes including waist circumference, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, etc.

Fatty liver is a clue sign. In fact, fatty liver is closely related to other metabolic syndromes, such as waist circumference, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance. So, to put it simply, worrying about fatty liver is actually worrying about metabolic syndrome.

There are many causes of fatty liver, the most important of which is obesity. Obesity is the first cause of metabolic syndrome. There are also "three highs", such as high blood fat (high triglycerides) accumulated in the liver, which makes fatty liver prone to occur. High blood pressure is also a very important factor in metabolic syndrome. In addition, it also includes alcoholism (which can cause alcoholic liver disease), viral hepatitis (increased risk of fatty liver, especially genotype 3 hepatitis C virus), as well as drugs and endocrine abnormalities. If factors such as viral hepatitis and alcohol addiction are excluded, fatty liver caused by other metabolic factors is generally called "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease" and has become the most common liver disease.

Thin people can also have fatty liver! It may be due to genes, preference for high-fat foods, etc.

Dr. Su Zhisheng said that we should pay special attention to the fact that thin people may also have fatty liver. For example, a person with a BMI less than 24 does not look fat, but is found to have fatty liver. The characteristics of these people may be that they are more likely to have diabetes than those who do not have it. Their insulin resistance, blood pressure, and blood fat are also higher. This may be due to genes, or they like to eat high-fat foods, which may lead to increased visceral fat, increased insulin resistance, and fluctuating blood sugar levels. Therefore, thin people may also have fatty liver. There was a previous study that showed that 44% of patients in Japan who look thin have fatty liver, while only 17% in Taiwan. Japanese people are thin in appearance, but the proportion of fatty liver is not low, about twice that of Taiwan. It is estimated that this is related to their eating habits.

According to a local report in Taiwan last year, the rate of fatty liver disease is already 44%. People seem to be eating more and more like the Japanese. When the age is under 30, the probability is 25%; when the age is over 50, half of the people have fatty liver. It is also important to note that people who were obese in childhood, including junior high school, should pay attention to controlling their weight when they grow up to avoid increasing the risk of fatty liver.

The dangers of fatty liver that need to be paid attention to include comorbidities, such as cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases.

The dangers of fatty liver that need to be paid attention to include comorbidities, such as cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke and myocardial infarction, which are very dangerous. If you have fatty liver, it suggests that you may have other risk factors for metabolic syndrome. Or it may have deteriorated into cerebrovascular or cardiovascular disease. Therefore, we would like to remind everyone that if you are diagnosed with fatty liver, you should also check other problems to ensure your health.

How to reverse fatty liver disease? Dr. Su Zhisheng said that there are some liver-protecting tablets, fish oil, or drugs for high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and high blood sugar on the market. Past studies have found that they are not very helpful in improving fatty liver. In fact, the most fundamental way is to achieve a balance in energy. As long as you control your diet or increase energy consumption through exercise and maintain a balance in daily energy intake and output, you can achieve the goal of reversing fatty liver and maintain it for a long time.

An effective way to reverse fatty liver disease: Losing 5% of your body weight can improve the condition! Control your diet and increase your exercise habits

Dr. Su Zhisheng said that many studies in the past 20 years have found that the most fundamental way to reverse fatty liver is still to control diet and increase exercise habits, both of which are far more effective than other drug treatments. Just by losing 5% of your body weight, not only liver inflammation, fatty liver stock, but other metabolic syndromes can be improved.