Hepatomegaly is the medical term for an enlarged liver. It is a symptom of disease, not a disease in itself. Some conditions that can cause hepatomegaly include fatty liver diseases, alcohol use disorder, hepatitis, and cancer.
Diabetes raises your risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition in which excess fat builds up in your liver even if you drink little or no alcohol. This condition occurs in at least half of those with type 2 diabetes.
Fatty liver disease is a common condition caused by the storage of extra fat in the liver. Most people have no symptoms, and it doesn't cause serious problems for them. In some cases, though, it can lead to liver damage. The good part is that you can often prevent or even reverse fatty liver disease with lifestyle changes.
In most cases, fatty liver causes no noticeable symptoms. But you may feel tired or experience discomfort or pain in the upper right side of your abdomen. Some people with fatty liver disease develop complications, including liver scarring.
Fatty liver disease is becoming increasingly common in many parts of the world, affecting about 25% of people globally. It is linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other disorders characterized by insulin resistance.
Fatty liver and gallstones have common risk factors like obesity, DM, dyslipidemia, and hyperinsulinemia. Patients with gallstones may be susceptible to developing fatty liver as a result of impaired gallbladder motility and increased bile lysogenicity.
An increased risk of developing NAFLD (non-alcoholic liver disease) can be passed through generations in families, but the inheritance pattern is unknown. Variations in several genes, as well as lifestyle and environmental factors, contribute to the risk of developing this complex disorder.
Yes, it can be reversed if addressed at an early stage. Following a healthy diet, increasing physical activity and perhaps taking supplements can reduce excess liver fat and decrease the risk of its progression to more serious liver disease.
Refer to question number 8.
Can fatty liver cause gas?
“Increased pressure within the blood vessels around the liver can lead to fluid build-up in the abdomen,” says Dr. Menon. It's important to see a doctor, who will be able to tell you if you're bloated from gas, food, or fluid.
Symptoms of a fatty liver may include a constant dull pain in the right upper quadrant or diffuse abdominal discomfort, dyspepsia, problems with digestion, lack of energy, and chronic fatigue.
Reversing fatty liver disease Grade II is rare, but not impossible.
People who have an advanced liver disease can have complications that affect the heart and lungs. It is not unusual for a person with severe liver disease to have shortness of breath.
In many cases, it's possible to reverse fatty liver through lifestyle changes. These changes may help prevent liver damage and scarring. The condition can cause inflammation, damage to your liver, and potentially irreversible scarring if it's not treated. Severe liver scarring is known as cirrhosis.
A poor liver function can cause weight gain, especially around the belly. When your liver cannot regulate fat metabolism efficiently, too many fats can build up in the liver cells and lead to fatty liver.
Fatty liver disease may even play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes.
Sometimes hair loss may be a sign of a serious underlying condition such as kidney or liver disease or the autoimmune disease lupus erythematosus.
Liver pain can be dull and nonspecific, but it can also be severe. It may result in a backache. Liver pain is sometimes confused with pain in the right shoulder, or the abdomen, or the kidney.
Too much fat in your liver can cause liver inflammation, which can damage your liver and create scarring. In severe cases, this scarring can lead to liver failure. When fatty liver develops in someone who drinks a lot of alcohol, it's known as alcoholic fatty liver disease.
People with fatty liver disease often have no symptoms until the disease progresses to cirrhosis of the liver. If you do have symptoms, they may include: Abdominal pain or a feeling of fullness in the upper right side of the abdomen (belly), nausea, loss of appetite, or weight loss.
Compared with a normal liver, a fatty liver appears enlarged and discolored. Tissue samples reveal fat deposits in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, while inflammation and advanced scarring (cirrhosis) are visible in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
Eating excess calories causes fat to build up in the liver. When the liver does not process and break down fats as it normally should, too much fat will accumulate. People tend to develop fatty liver if they have certain other conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, or high triglycerides.
Currently, no medications have been approved to treat fatty liver disease. More research is needed to develop and test medications to treat this condition. In many cases, lifestyle changes can help reverse fatty liver disease.
Refer to question number 23.
As with other chronic noncirrhotic liver diseases, follow-up of NAFLD patients should consist of monitoring biochemical, metabolic, and anthropometric parameters every 6 months and performing abdominal ultrasonography yearly (Table 6). Patients with NAFLD can usually be managed in primary care.
You shouldn't drink at all if your fatty liver disease was caused by heavy drinking. It can lead to even more serious liver damage. If you have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, it's probably OK to have a drink once in a while, but not more than every other month.
Foods that may help you in fatty liver disease are:
. Fish and seafood.
. Fruits.
. Whole grains.
. Nuts.
. Olive oil.
. Vegetables.
. Avocados.
. Legumes.
Too much fat in your liver can cause liver inflammation, which can damage your liver and create scarring. In severe cases, this scarring can lead to liver failure. When fatty liver develops in someone who drinks a lot of alcohol, it's known as alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD).
You may feel tired or experience discomfort or pain in the upper right side of your abdomen.
Resistance or strength training exercises, like weight lifting, can also improve fatty liver disease. Aim for 30 to 60 minutes or more of mid-to high-level aerobic exercise on at least 5 days a week and mid-to high-level strength training 3 days a week.
No drug treatment has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
In many cases, fatty liver disease is diagnosed after blood tests show elevated liver enzymes. For example, your doctor may order the alanine aminotransferase test (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase test (AST) to check your liver enzymes.
Based on the observation of raised plasma FFA, Lewis31 proposed that the fatty liver of kwashiorkor is due to increased influx of FF A, which in turn results in the synthesis of TG above that which can be handled by the normal liver.
Diabetes does not cause fatty liver disease. Instead, the two diseases tend to occur in the same people because the same conditions cause both problems. “So, it's not diabetes per se. People with diabetes also have obesity and insulin resistance, and so the fatty liver is thought to be part of that.
Pregnant women with the metabolic condition known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have more than four times the risk of serious adverse maternal-fetal outcomes, such as hypertensive complications, bleeding after delivery, and pre-term birth, according to a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco.
Ultrasound can also evaluate diffuse liver diseases, such as fatty liver, hepatitis, and cirrhosis. For example, a fatty liver (steatosis) is typically brighter (more “echogenic” or “hyperechoic”) on a liver ultrasound than normal liver, while hepatitis may be less bright (“hypoechoic”).
Individuals who have fatty liver, are at a greater risk of being diagnosed with GERD.
Even after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, and cause of pancreatitis, fatty liver was significantly associated with moderately severe or severe acute pancreatitis.
Elevated serum bilirubin levels are inversely associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
Vitamin B12 levels were significantly lower in patients with NAFLD. Vitamin B12 levels are inversely correlated with cholesterol and triglyceride levels.