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Now people in China have drugs to treat viral hepatitis C and hepatitis B, which can achieve the ideal control goal and greatly reduce the threat. On the other hand, some public health workers worry that the prevalence of fatty liver (also a kind of liver disease) is increasing year by year. If we add the research and observation published in recent years, the harm of fatty liver seems to be obviously underestimated.
According to the data of Taiwan Province Liver Academic Culture and Education Foundation, about 26-34% adults in China suffer from mild to moderate fatty liver, and the prone age is about 40-60 years old. Even people with slim appearance but high body fat may have fatty liver.
Not only overnutrition, but also long-term weight loss, drugs and diseases can cause fatty liver.
Everyone knows that overnutrition can lead to fatty liver, but why is undernutrition? Luo Jialin, director of the family medicine department of Tai 'an Hospital, explained that if certain vitamins, choline, amino acids or fat-expelling substances are lacking in food, adipose tissue will release a large amount of fatty acids into the liver, which will make the fat in the liver accumulate. For example, people who lose weight for a long time are often in a state of losing weight. Due to long-term malabsorption, the whole body fat is forced to enter the liver, waiting to be decomposed into glycerol for use. Therefore, long-term lack of nutrition or protein can also lead to abnormal lipid metabolism.
Taking some drugs for a long time may also lead to the disorder of lipoprotein synthesis in the body, which in turn may cause drug-induced fatty liver. These drugs include growth hormone, adrenal sebum hormone, tetracycline, anti-tumor drugs and so on. In addition, patients who have undergone small bowel bypass surgery, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, congenital metabolic diseases such as galactosemia and familial hyperlipidemia are all high-risk groups of fatty liver.
Harm of fatty liver
Luo Jialin said that it is worrying that fatty liver has no symptoms in the early stage and is easily overlooked. If it is not controlled for a long time, it may be the driving force of steatohepatitis, liver fibrosis and liver cancer in the future, and it is also the main reason for the failure of liver transplantation. In addition, because fatty liver is a problem of fat metabolism in the body, the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke will increase greatly in the future.
◆ Decline of liver function: Because liver cells are responsible for detoxification and metabolism of wastes in the body, when nutrients such as sugar and protein are absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract, they will be collected in the liver first and then released after treatment. When such an important liver cell is filled with a large amount of oil, it is conceivable that liver function will definitely decline.
◆ Hepatic fibrosis: indexes such as GOT and GPT, which are often heard in daily liver function tests, reflect the content of enzymes in liver cells. When liver cells are destroyed by fat cells, these enzymes will be released, leading to inflammatory reaction. Of course, everyone dies some liver cells every day, which is a natural phenomenon, but the repair of each cell is limited. When liver cells die quickly and more, and their regeneration ability is poor, they are bound to be irreparable. At this time, the body will use scar tissue to repair, and when the whole liver is covered with scar tissue, fibrosis will eventually form.
◆ Liver cancer: Once the liver is fibrotic, it means that the function of liver cells is already very low, and what is more serious is cirrhosis. Jaundice and ascites will appear at this time, but it is too late. Clinical statistics show that patients with fatty liver complicated with abnormal liver index have higher probability of liver fibrosis than the general population, and the probability of turning into liver cancer in the future will be greatly improved.
◆ Diabetes: According to statistics, 20 ~ 75% of fatty liver patients have diabetes, and most diabetic patients also have fatty liver. Of course, this is not only a problem of obesity, but also related to insulin resistance Tutiya, a nutritionist at Zhenxing Hospital, said that diabetes is closely related to fatty liver because insulin deficiency, in addition to poor blood sugar control, can also cause abnormal fat metabolism, prone to hypertriglyceridemia and fatty liver. Of course, there is something wrong with the mechanism of body fat metabolism in people with fatty liver, which reduces the sensitivity of human body to insulin, affects the abnormal control of blood sugar and increases the risk of diabetes.
◆ Hyperlipidemia: Tutia said that the occurrence of hyperlipidemia is related to abnormal body fat metabolism, and there is an inseparable causal relationship between hyperlipidemia and fatty liver. It is possible that hyperlipidemia leads to fatty liver, but it is also possible that fatty liver appears first and then hyperlipidemia. Whatever the reason, most of them are related to too greasy diet, obesity and excess calories.
◆ Hypertension: Due to excessive fatty acids and cholesterol in the blood, fatty plaques are formed and accumulated on the blood vessel wall. In addition to thickening and narrowing, the blood vessel wall will lose its elasticity. Because the blood vessel wall narrows, blood needs more pressure to flow all over the blood vessels, which will cause high blood pressure.
◆ Stroke and sudden death: When the blood vessel wall narrows and the elasticity becomes worse, it will cause blood flow to slow down or blood flow to be insufficient, which can cause fatigue, headache and other symptoms; If it is serious, it will cause blood vessel obstruction. If it happens in the brain, it is a stroke. If it happens in the heart, it will cause heart disease, myocardial infarction or sudden death.
Thin people don't have fatty liver?
Although obesity is the most common cause of fatty liver, it does not mean that thin people will not get fatty liver. Autopsy case reports in the United States show that 70% of obese people have fatty infiltration in their livers, but 35% of slim and thin people also have fatty infiltration in their livers, and 2.7% of them have steatohepatitis, indicating that thin people also have fatty liver.
Can taking medicine treat fatty liver?