Blood work back to normal. NASH is gone?

[Baracuda25]

Hello community,

I wanted to check if some of you had a similar situation.

Long story short i had for almost 5 years elevated liver enzymes (with the highest values of ALT - 147 and AST - 53 on 08.07.2020) and was diagnosed with fatty liver (borderline NASH) last year in September.

After 7 months of diet (low carb, low fat, mainly vegetarian) and lifestyle intervention (running everyday 7-8 km and Half Marathon last weekend) i managed to reduce my ALT to 41 and AST to 25 on 13.04.2021. So all the blood work is finally back to normal after 5 years.

So now i'm wondering if i managed to reverse my fatty liver(NASH) or it's just the inflammation which went away and the damage NASH did to my liver(i was told i have F2 fibrosis last September based on biopsy) is going to stay forever and i should keep all the lifestyle/diet intervention for the rest of my life?

Love and hugs to everyone.

[nash2 Partner]

The damage is scar tissue just like you get in your skin when you cut yourself. You have probably seen scars fade over time from cuts and a similar process is at work in your liver if you have stopped damaging it every day. They say it never goes away because you probably won't live long enough for that to happen but if you stay kind to it the scarring can reduce and soften which will help you even if it is still there. If you have functional liver tissue you can live a normal life as long as you don't damage it more so staying with the lifestyle changes is the smart money bet.

[Baracuda25 in reply to nash2]

Thanks for your prompt reply.

That's what i thought as well. Just was wondering why doctors keep saying that NASH can be "reversed", since the damage it does to the liver is not reversible which means that at best you can just halt it and hope that it wasn't too late. Which makes it crucial to be diagnosed at the early stage of the disease otherwise it can go as far as cirrhosis.

[popthefrog in reply to Baracuda25]

You can reverse fibrosis at low levels.

[Bellaranger in reply to popthefrog]

I thought fibrosis 3 could be reversed

[nash2 Partner in reply to popthefrog]

When people think of reversed they usually think the organ returns to normal. That never actually happens. Function may return to normal levels but like all your other parts life leaves its mark. It becomes a question of specific meaning at some point and we aren't typically careful with our word choices or explanations.

[Banditsmom09]

I was diagnosed with fatty liver 17 years ago. Do not drink. It is now cirrhosis 3-4. I was given little info at that time of the original diagnosis. Keep choosing healthy. My liver enzyme levels were "slightly elevated" at the time of the second diagnosis.