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What Is A Fatty Liver?

A fatty liver is the buildup of excess fat in the liver cells. This build up can cause inflammation and lead to liver damage.

Fatty liver is simply defined by the name. It is the build-up of excess fat in the liver cells. While it may be normal for your liver to contain some fat, if fat accounts for more than 10% of your liver’s weight, then you have fatty liver and you may develop more serious complications.

Fatty liver may cause no damage, but sometimes the excess fat leads to inflammation of the liver.

Inflammation of the liver is called steatohepatitis and it causes liver damage. Sometimes, inflammation from a fatty liver is linked to alcohol abuse; this is known as alcoholic steatohepatitis. Otherwise the condition is called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH.

An inflamed liver may become scarred and hardened over time. This condition, called cirrhosis, is serious and often leads to liver failure.

There are actually no symptoms of a fatty liver. Many people learn about their fatty liver when they have medical tests for other reasons.

To diagnose a fatty liver, your doctor may see something unusual in your blood test or notice that your liver is slightly enlarged during a routine checkup. To make sure you don’t have another liver disease, your doctor may ask for more blood tests, an ultrasound, a CT scan or an MRI.

So what is causing this inflammation? There are many lifestyle habits that can lead to a fatty liver. First, 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.

Further people tend to develop fatty liver if they have certain other conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, or high triglycerides. Alcohol abuse, rapid weight loss and malnutrition may also lead to fatty liver. However, some people develop fatty liver even if they have none of these conditions – so everyone should know about it.

Unfortunately, there are no medical treatments for a fatty liver. However, there are lifestyle changes that can help prevent or reverse the damage. To treat a fatty liver, you can:

•    Lose weight – safely, which means losing no more than one or two pounds a week.
•    Lower your triglycerides through diet, medication or both
•    Avoid alcohol
•    Control your diabetes, if you have it
•    Eat a balanced, healthy diet
•    Increase your physical activity
•    Get regular checkups from a doctor who specializes in liver care

Like many health conditions, it is possible to prevent this with simply changing your lifestyle, your diet, and other habits.