Fatty Liver: All You Need to Know
This past week on Your Health First, Dr. Galati interviewed Dr. Eric Lawitz, a fellow liver specialist, and they spent the hour talking about nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Fatty liver is a leading cause of chronic liver disease in the United States, and can lead to cirrhosis, which is scarring of the liver, as well as liver cancer. One amazing statistic is that there are 100 million people in the United States with fatty liver. Most people are unaware that they have a liver problem and thus ignore it. The liver has no nerve fibers, and as a result, in the vast majority of cases, patients will not have any outward signs or symptoms that something is wrong. Risk factors for fatty liver include metabolic syndrome, which includes obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and elevated cholesterol or triglycerides. …