Study: Fatty Liver Disease May Be Improved by Weight Loss

A few months ago I was diagnosed with a poorly understood disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL). I am always on the look out for information on this disease and ways to treat it. I have found some pretty good information in a recently published article that hope it will help myself and other people with this disease.

Researchers and scientists from Saint Louis University have found that a weight loss of only 9% may help patients reverse nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Until now, it was now that loosing weight may be helpful with the disease. But now, this study is showing that a mere 9% weight loss could in fact eliminate the disease. Think about it, if you have NASH and weight 220 pound, losing 22 pounds (roughly 10 Kg) will definitely get out of NASSH and put your liver back in optimum health state.

Steatosis hepatitis is a recently discovered disease (around 1980). The disease is related to a problem with fat metabolism. The symptoms of NAFL are the consequence of a fat metabolism imbalance. It may be an imbalance in energy consumption and its combustion that results in fats being stored as adipose tissue in the liver. Also, it could be the result of a peripheral resistance to insulin (metabolic syndrome).

The study was set to test if the diet drug orlistat (also known as Xenical and Alli) would improve liver disease. Results showed that it is weight loss but not the drug, which helps patients with NASH. According to the results of this study now we, NAFL sufferers, have a benchmark to follow to see improvement in our disease.

In the study 50 patients with NASH were instructed to follow a 1,400 calorie diet and vitamin E. Half of those received orlistat for 36 weeks, the other have did not. Liver biopsies were made at the beginning and after the 36-week period. These biopsies showed that participants who lost 5 percent of their weight over the study's period had improvement in steatosis (fat accumulation in the liver), and those who lost at least 9 percent completely reversed their damage to the liver. In regard to orlistat, the drug did not itself improve liver function or reverse NASH.

S,o if you are a NASH sufferer like myself start losing weight. In my particular case I have to lose about 20 pounds. I have already lost 4 so I am on my way to reverse NASH if the study is statistically correct.

Source:

Orlistat for overweight subjects with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: A randomized, prospective trial. Hepatology. 49 (1): 80-86