Liver troubles one in three
Awareness should be created about fatty liver, say docs
By : kaniza garari
Update: 2015-05-04 00:54 GMT
Hyderabad: One in three persons in the city suffer from fatty liver. Clinical evaluations carried out in major corporate hospitals of the city found that a large number of patients suffered from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The rising number has made liver specialists take stock of the situation since health checkups are the best indicators of the disease, which does not have any symptoms otherwise. The disease is caused due to excess of fat deposition in the liver cells.
The normal content of fat in the liver is 5 per cent of the total body weight. When fat in the liver becomes 10 per cent, it leads to fatty liver. Dr R. Vidya Sagar, consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist, said, “As the fat content in the liver increases, it leads to inflammation or swelling.” Estimates state that two in 100 people with fatty liver progress to cirrhosis over 15 to 20 years and about 12 in 100 people progress to cirrhosis in eight years.
Dr Naveen Polavarapu, medical gastroenterologist and transplant surgeon at Apollo Hospitals, explained, “The liver is a big chemical factory of the body. It helps remove toxins from the body and produces bile to help digest food. When there is excess fat accumulation in the liver, these functions are hampered. Over a period of time, the extended damage leads to a permanent condition that can’t be reversed."
Terming it as a “silent killer”, doctors say there is a strong need to create awareness about it because of the growing obesity levels in the population. By 2020, it is expected that fatty liver related cirrhosis will be the most common cause of liver transplant in the country, said Dr Polavarapu. The changing eating habits with high-fat foods like biryani, fast foods, red meats, milk products and trans-fats like vanaspati, are leading to accumulation of fats in the liver cells.
Nutritionist S. Madhurima said, “The problem is that these foods are no longer eaten once in a while, but has become an everyday affair. For this reason the problem is so high. If someone consumes these foods only once in 15 days it would not lead to these problems.