I think most Doctors need to be trained in knowing the real symptoms of fatty liver disease and the consequences of the symptoms going unchecked. They say its benign well it might be if the fat content is low like 30 percent but once fatty liver gets severe like I have at 70 percent it can cause all sorts of gastrointestinal problems like pain nausea vomiting etc. If the liver gets so congested with fat it can totally clog up and the blood must find a new way around the liver which can cause toxins to leak in to the blood causing encephalopathy its happened to me. Vasoconstriction of the arms and legs with raised white blood cell count can happen as well...the body thinks its under attack .....and the scary thing is the Doctors and Hospitals don't know how to diagnose it.... since I have stopped eating fat I have no more bloated stomach and I feel so much better some of the time. Thank God there is the internet and websites like this so we can access this critically important information.
Fatty Liver Disease: I think most... - British Liver Trust
Fatty Liver Disease
Too true.
Agreed, so many folks come on here saying their doctor has said it might be 'just fatty liver' and not giving them sensible advice. Like you say it isn't a benign condition, it is not JUST fatty liver. It is the early stages of full on liver disease ..... reversible if treated properly or proper appropriate life style changes are put in place early enough. Full on fibrosis and/or cirrhosis if it is just left.
From that Birmingham QE online course it said that something like 48% of the European population currently have some degree of 'fatty liver' and don't know it. The healthy lifestyle messages need to get out there better.
Katie xxx
Ooh did you do the liver online course ??? I did too 😄😄 it was quite basic but very good 😘😘😘
I don't know anything about the training in Canada of what we in the UK call General Practioners or GPs but I do know that in the UK GPs are aware of the rise of liver damage caused by both alcohol or diet. It's something the NHS has on its priority list for the next 5 years. I believe that only a very small % of the training given to doctors covers the liver, there is just so much medicine to cover if they have to know a bit about everything. Also in the UK we have had, over the years, plenty of public information via the government, the media and the NHS on healthy diets, healthy lifestyles etc. We don't all take heed though, we don't all like being told what to do. Are there media campaigns in the Canada that advise on things like eating your 5-a-day and the equivalent of our 'drink aware'.?
I think there needs to be more awareness of this silent killer and I think I may try to start some sort of campaign myself as we know I and most of the other people on the British Liver Trust website have first hand experience at this problem.
As you say many people don't know they have it and it is an epidemic just waiting to explode as a very expensive issue for any Healthcare system.
More education about this disease and what we can do about it if found early could possibly save a Healthcare system from going Bankrupt.
Lets do this together as a community as we will get far better results.
You could try contacting Liver4 Life as I think they are the charity rolling out free Fibroscan testing across the UK which would pick up liver damage and hopefully prompt the person to go see their doctor for advice. They have been approved to train and certificate UK medical staff to use FibroScan on patients. They also have a list of hospitals that have the machine.
It might be better to link up with an existing 'liver' organisation that promotes education and liver health, rather than start from scratch with a new one.
I agree..... hi Bolly thanks for the information and I think that's a great idea...we need more education about this disease here in Canada as I have never seen any information about this anywhere over here.
I could make a presentation and send it to the media outlets and maybe they would show it on the news or something to better educate the public.
Hi,
You might get in touch with the Canadian Liver Foundation as a starting point....
Their information on fatty liver disease is here...
liver.ca/liver-disease/type...
at a quick glance it looks fairly comprehensive.
Cheers.
Thank you for the info
Fatty liver is one of those conditions where people latch on to the word 'fatty' and make the assumption that it is caused by eating fatty foods or being fat. It can be caused by this, but also it can be found in people who generally have a poor diet and do little or no exercise...or smoke....or who have insulin resistance....or who have type 2 diabetes... or who have high blood pressure.... or who have too much cholesterol and triglyceride in their blood...or who have polycystic ovaries...or who have hepatitis B.. or who have hepatitis C... or who are taking certain drugs prescribed for other conditions.
So the treatment will vary, as in cases where the patient has something like viral hepatitis or polycystic ovaries the medics would offer different treatment compared to someone where the first treatment would be to educate the patient to change their diet/lifetstyle etc. Its not a one treatment fits all problem.
Medics know it as NAFLD, or Non alcoholic fatty liver disease, though its also possible to have NAFLD alongside ALD.
I would guess it is as much a problem in the US as it sounds you think it is in Canada. Its certainly becoming more of a problem in the UK as is diabetes and liver damage caused through alcohol. That's why the NHS here are focussing on both diabetes and alcohol in their 5 year plan.
Not sure what needs to change first - is it the supermarkets for selling us crap food, or us for buying it and eating it! Before supermarkets, the previous generation would shop locally at specialist shops selling mainly fresh rather than convenience foods, cook from scratch, and probably ate healthier than we do. Our generation mainly shop at supermarkets, with most shelves stocked with processed or convenience foods. There are plenty of tv cookery shows, cook books, internet advice, government advice etc etc about eating well so we have no excuse not to... its just easier and cheaper to do a one-stop-shop and stick something in the microwave.
Good luck and I hope you succeed with your plan where others have failed!
I was told I had fatty
Liver two years ago.
But the docs are not
Monitoring or doing anyhing ro help. I guess they wait till it's worse it's ridiculous in uk I
Am having to do
My own research and herbal cures etc .
State of the nhs .. Have to even beg
For
Blood tests ...
If you have fatty liver then there is very little they can do medically. It's in your own hands to fix it by making sure you have a healthy diet and exercise.
There are no herbal cures for fatty liver. It's nearly always a lifestyle disease.
That said, if you're eating healthily, getting lots of exercise, not drinking too much and are of normal weight and the fatty liver continues then you should be monitored.
Agreed but one needs to know that they have fatty Liver and how fatty the Liver is so one can start treatment on themselves. All fatty Liver needs to be diagnosed because the Medical Community says there is nothing they can do. If a Patent is diagnosed they can start treating themselves before Fibrosis sets in. Early detection is critical for a positive out come.
Well it's definitely useful to know if you have fat infiltration - although it takes a while for that to happen so in most cases it will be preceded by poor diet, exercise alcohol beforehand.
The degree of fat infiltration is actually much less useful - any degree of fat infiltration indicates that things have gone too far. Since the infiltration usually reverses fairly quickly once weight is lost and a healthy diet and exercise are adopted - including in the earlier stages of fibrosis. The treatment and outcome (usually) are the same whatever the degree of infiltration so knowing the degree make little or no difference to what needs to be done.
Obviously public health systems usually promote exercise and healthy eating. People certainly should be more aware of what they may be doing to their livers. If you're proposing more pre-emptory screening then obviously that's an issue that public health officials need to take up.
Cheers.
Agreed.
Hi yes I am advocating for pre-emptive screening which doesn't have to be Biopsies I think it would be much safer and less costly to use the Fibro Scan.
No decent doctor would do a biopsy as part of a general screening programme. It's an invasive procedure, not without risk, and more expensive I would imagine than a Fibroscan (though Fibroscan machines costs £1,000s and at the NHS hospital where I am treated it took public fundraising matched with NHS money to buy one!). Fibroscans are being used more and more, but the rollout is slow and steady here, not everyone has access to one. What might be more what you had in mind is the type of "roadshow" either the British Liver Trust, or Liver4Life - I can't remember which - run annually where they take a Fibroscan machine around the UK and offer free screening. However... offer someone liver screening and many would probably make an immediate assumption that you were accusing them of being an alcoholic.
In Canada one can go to Toronto without a referral from a Doctor and get a Fibro Scan for $100. That's what I did or I would still have been sick and not known why. It doesn't help that my Doctors were telling me I had nothing wrong with me and actually my Doctor saw my Fatty Liver progressing for 11 years and didn't even tell me. I fired my Doctor requested my Medical Records and was totally shocked at what I saw on the Hospital reports as I have been sick and in the hospital over 20 times. This is why I had to get myself Diagnosed and i don't want anybody to go through what I went through. This is why the Public in North America needs to be informed and educated about this disease.
Cheers.
Google "medical screening services" and you find 100s of companies that offer this - not for free I add. Is your message to be along the lines of advising the public that poor lifestyle choices can lead to fatty liver, or is it that you want to persuade the medics to offer Fibroscans to everyone with abnormal liver enzymes?
Early detection is critical so we can treat ourselves, un-diagnosed fatty Liver is not Benign.
Thanks 😥😥 am obese never drink try to watch diet and get reasonable excercise will try harder thanks
To be fair - I think most adults can decipher what a 'unhealthy' life style is - eating crap - drinking - smoking - no exercise etc 😘😘😘 I am incredibly unhealthy - at 44 I smoke drink and eat once a day - not many veg and I don't like fruit !!!! So I know that eventually it will catch up with me and I will have 'something' ???! At some point in my life - it's the lifestyle I am choosing at the moment - I can't blame that on any doctor or medical person 😅😅 as I am well aware of the implications !!! I don't know how good the Public Health info is in Canada/US but screening won't happen - we are all encouraged to eat our '5 a day' exercise 30 mins at least 3 times a week - drink moderately etc - so I think that a lot lies with the 'public' taking responsibility for their own health 😘😘😘😘 There is a routine that happens here in UK - you visit GP with illness or problem - blood test is done normally for FBC and LFTs Renal and anything that might be linked to your problem - whatever is shown then gets looked into - I agree a lot of GPs will possibly have an obese patient that has deranged LFTs that they will decide is due to 'fatty liver' - so the advice would be to 'exercise cut out crap' etc - I can't see what else they could do ???? After all we are all adults and responsible for our own health !!! Hubby has fatty liver (in new transplanted liver) but he has had an awful time since transplant and is diabetic etc - so we expected it !!!! We didn't expect the HCV to batter it so quickly or so much 😩😩😩 - creating awareness is great - good luck 😘😘😘😘😘😘
Funny you should mention this. I was having a discussion the other day in work and subject of Liver damage came up. My colleague said he was diagnosed with fatty liver 18 months ago. He went to the dentist for tooth out and im not sure what happened but he was advised to see a doctor by the dentist, something about his blood. After a battery of tests and ultrasound he was advised he had fatty liver and was told to lose weight and thats it, be on your way! I was amazed, I have advised him for christs sake get some follow up tests to see its under control , for something to show in the blood, indicates to me that there is some inflammation which is when its starts to get serious! He wasn't given any advice on what diet to follow or anything, shocking!
yes I agree
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in some cases may actually be alcoholic liver disease (ALD).
Alcoholic Fatty liver likely
Fatty liver
Post Liver Transplant - MASLD (Fatty Liver Disease)
Fatty Liver (Non Alcoholic) I think
