Fatty Liver – The Secret Cause of Many Health Concerns

Keeping your liver healthy and strong is one of the most important steps you can take to maintain overall wellness. This critically hard-working organ, which is located in the right abdominal area, has been called the “laboratory of the body,” and for many good reasons.  Researchers estimate that the liver performs over 500 functions in the body. Some of these include:

• Filtering all food and liquids, assimilating and distributing nutrients, and removing toxins and waste products.
• Creating bile, necessary for digestion of fats and other substances
• Burning and metabolizing fat in the body
• Regulating hormones
• Purifying the blood and removes damaged blood cells
• Performing many necessary circulatory functions
• Balancing blood sugar
• Regulating fluid levels in the body
• Storing and distributing vitamins, minerals, and other crucial nutrients
• Boosting the immune system

The liver is actively involved in keeping your body free from disease of all types. It is also true that a poorly operating liver can contribute to a mired of illnesses and debilitating health conditions. There are many types of liver disease and dysfunction, but the most common and hazardous is called fatty liver.

What is Fatty Liver?

Fatty liver is also known as Non-Alcoholic Steatorrhoeic Hepatitis (NASH) or Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). The technical description of fatty liver is quite complex, but basically fatty liver disease is just as it sounds – too much fat in and around the liver. In fact, healthy liver tissue can be displaced by unhealthy fats, and vacant spaces within the liver are abnormally occupied by fat. In addition, those with fatty liver disease will often accumulate excess fat surrounding the organ itself, contributing to an overabundance of body fat in the abdominal area.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease affects as many as one in five Americans, according to the American Liver Association. And for those with diabetes, says VA physician-researcher Kenneth Cusi, MD, the rate may be as high as four in five.

A healthy liver is typically reddish in color because the blood is meant to flow through channels in the interior of the liver composed of layers of liver cells. This is the way the liver is meant to function – as a very efficient filter for absorbing nutrients and ridding the body of toxins. A fatty liver becomes clogged with excess fat cells, seriously hampering the liver’s ability to do its many vital jobs. A fatty liver loses its red color and becomes heavier, enlarged, and greasy yellow in appearance. These abnormalities can often be discovered by an ultrasound scan or via a liver biopsy.

What Causes Fatty Liver Disease?

Some common causes of fatty liver include:

• An unhealthy lifestyle of poor diet (high in animal fat. preservatives, and toxic chemicals), lack of exercise, and poor hydration.
• Obesity. This is probably the biggest factor in fatty liver, especially for people over 30.
• Medications. Many are very hard on the liver including pain drugs (NSAIDs and narcotics), corticosteroids, certain antibiotics (especially tetracycline), and others. Some causes are associated with the drug tamoxifen (used to prevent breast cancer recurrence).
• Complications of pregnancy
• Exposure to toxic cleaning products, personal care products, water, food, the air, etc.
• Excess alcohol consumption.
• May also occur in people affected by hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid gland), high blood cholesterol and polycystic ovarian syndrome. Simply put, the harder your force your liver to work because of exposure to hazardous substances and a high-fat, nutrient-poor diet, the greater your risk for fatty liver as well as other types of liver dysfunction.

What Are the Symptoms and Complications of Fatty Liver?

Symptoms that may point toward fatty liver disease include:

• Being overweight, especially around the abdomen
• Pain and tenderness near the liver
• Elevated liver enzymes (blood test)
• Possible gall stones
• High Cholesterol and/or blood triglycerides (blood test)
• Difficulty losing weight. If you are having a difficult time taking off pounds, it may be because your fatty liver has reverted to storing fat instead of metabolizing it.
• A weakened immune system. This can open one up to a number of autoimmune and other harmful conditions.
• Chronic fatigue. When the liver is not able to rid the body of excess fat and other waste products, one will likely feel sluggish most of the time.
• Greater risk for diabetes. Fatty liver can result in insulin resistance, a key factor in diabetes. A recent study estimated that about 70% of individuals diagnosed with type-2 diabetes may also have fatty liver disease.
• Syndrome X. Also known as Metabolic Syndrome, this condition can also be a complication of fatty liver. Syndrome X involves a number of factors including abnormally high blood pressure and/or insulin levels, too much cholesterol, and excess body fat around the waistline. Metabolic Syndrome increases risk for diabetes, stroke, and cardiac disease.

How Can Fatty Liver Be Treated or Prevented?

Obviously, prevention is always the best medicine. Fatty liver disease is definitely a “lifestyle” disease (in most cases) that can be prevented and even eliminated by making healthy choices. These include:

• A healthy diet composed mainly of nutrient-rich foods such as fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, essential fatty acids and plant-based protein sources.
• An ample supply of pure filtered water. A well-hydrated liver is a happy liver that can perform its many duties optimally.
• Supplementation (and pure food sources) of antioxidants such as vitamins C and natural E.  Also liver supporting organic/wild-crafted herbs such as Milk Thistle seed, Wildcrafted Chanca Piedra (helps with liver stones), Fringetree bark, Dandelion root, Organic Nettles root and Organic Turmeric Root. There are several reasons to use the milk thistle seed rather than silymarin extract. Using the whole herb is recommended as often it will have a more balanced effect. The milk thistle extract silymarin, for instance, has proven useful in treating liver disease. However, the main drawback to using silymarin is that, if a healthcare professional prescribes other drugs, such as steroids, silymarin can interfere with the liver’s ability to detoxify them. Milk thistle seed has the same healing effect on the liver without interfering with the organ’s ability to detoxify drugs or environmental chemicals. It also has a side benefit of normalizing blood lipids as the liver heals.
• A regular program of physical exercise. Helps the liver to purify as well as helps the body to effectively move toxins and wastes out of the body.
• Healthy weight. As stated above, obesity is one of the top allies of fatty liver disease.
• Liver cleansing. Choose an effective liver cleanse that will flush, purify and support your liver so that it can operate at peak efficiency. Many herbs are great for the liver but they should either be organic or wild-crafted. Even if you do your best to live a clean life, a yearly liver cleanse is highly recommended, to “head off trouble at the pass,” so to speak.