Unlike the heart and stomach, which manage to call attention to themselves on a regular basis, the liver just quietly goes about its business. Generally, you don’t think about your liver at all, until it misbehaves.
Given how large it is—about 3 pounds and the size of a football—and how much it accomplishes and how much abuse it takes, it’s pretty amazing that the liver is so quiet and typically well-behaved. That’s why most people who get a diagnosis of fatty liver disease are surprised.
Livers can get fat? And . . . what exactly does the liver do?
While early-stage fatty liver can cause some discomfort—fatigue and perhaps a little water retention or tenderness high in the upper right abdomen—most people who have the condition find out when the doctor tells them that they have it. Typically, a doctor starts monitoring the liver, in someone taking medications for high cholesterol, for example, and notices that the liver enzymes aren’t quite what they should be. The diagnosis of fatty liver follows. How concerned should you be?
To answer that question, it helps to take a quick look at what the liver does.
It manufactures proteins, in particular the albumin in your blood.
It manufactures bile, which helps you digest and use fats.
It helps you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.
It stores the carbohydrate that you use for fuel—glucose—and releases it as you need it.
It detoxes the body, removing alcohol, drugs, medications, caffeine, and any toxic substances that have gotten into the body that don’t belong there.
It manufactures clotting factors for your blood.
The list is actually a little longer, but you get the idea. The liver performs a lot of vitally essential functions. You want to do everything you can to keep it healthy.
“Fatty liver” is actually an accurate description of what’s happening in someone who has this condition. For a variety of reasons, the main one apparently being poor diet choices, the liver becomes overgrown and shot through with fat. As the disease progresses, the liver can become more and more dysfunctional. As the liver becomes more fatty, it begins to develop fibrosis, a condition in which the liver becomes scarred and damaged. Eventually the condition can even lead to cirrhosis, a thoroughly scarred and damaged liver. Generally, cirrhosis is the result of alcohol abuse, but a fatty liver that does not get the healing attention that it requires can actually develop this much more serious problem.
The good news here—and there is some remarkably good news—is that the liver has an incredible capacity to regenerate itself. You can even remove a significant portion of the liver, which is done when a person donates some of his or her liver to someone needing a liver transplant, and the liver will actually regrow the missing portion.
So when you follow the prescription for dealing with fatty liver—weight loss, exercise, right diet—you are literally breathing new life into your liver and giving it what it needs to heal.
Fatty liver is mostly linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, according to British Columbia naturopathic physician Peter Bennett, ND, author of 7-Day Detox Miracle and The Purification Plan.
As the number of people with diabetes and prediabetes continues to grow, so too does the number of people with fatty liver, says Dr. Bennett, adding that “our generation is going to see more of this disease.”
How much do you like your sodas?
If you’re among the millions of Americans who down two sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup every day, you might want to forgo that indulgence. Your liver will thank you.
A couple of recently published scientific studies have independently concluded that consumption of soft drinks, which are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, may contribute to fatty liver disease.
One 2008 study done at the University of Florida in Gainesville did blood tests and examined biopsied liver tissue obtained from people with known nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Researchers compared these tests and tissues with those taken from a similar group of people without fatty liver disease. They also took a dietary history from both groups.
Researchers found that the consumption of fructose was two to three times higher in the group with the disease. They also found a significant increase in a liver enzyme that is an important marker for fructose metabolism (hepatic mRNA expression of fructokinase). The researchers concluded: “The pathogenic mechanism underlying the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease may be associated with excessive dietary fructose consumption.”
In another study, done in Israel and published in 2007, researchers did a medical examination and looked at the diets of a group of people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease selected from the Israeli National Health and Nutrition Survey. In addition to a variety of biochemical tests, the researchers did an abdominal ultrasound on the study participants. At the end of the study, researchers summed up their findings: “NAFLD patients have a higher intake of soft drinks and meat and a tendency towards a lower intake of fish rich in omega-3. Moreover, a higher intake of soft drinks and meat is associated with an increased risk of NAFLD, independent of age, gender, BMI (body mass index), and total calories.”
Bottom line: The results of both studies sure do make a strong case for fructose-sweetened sodas as a contributing factor to fatty liver disease.
If you’re looking for a sweet fizzy beverage to help wean you away from the soda habit, try adding fruit juice to seltzer water. A little orange juice or grape juice mixed with seltzer makes a great-tasting, refreshing alternative to soda pop.
Not surprisingly, the dietary strategies for dealing with fatty liver are the same as those for diabetes and prediabetes. So please see the chapters related to those two conditions on pages 131 and 312. And anyone who has cirrhosis as a result of alcohol abuse should see the chapter on Addictions.
A number of nutrient supplements can be helpful in dealing with fatty liver and cirrhosis, but perhaps the most important supplement for anyone with a liver disease is not a nutrient at all, but an herb, says Dr. Bennett. “Milk thistle is absolutely essential,” he says. “There’s nothing that comes close to what milk thistle does.” He suggests taking 600 milligrams a day.
Studies show that the antioxidant nutrient alpha lipoic acid is helpful for fatty liver, according to Sanford Levy, MD, an integrative holistic medicine specialist in private practice in Amherst, New York. Dr. Levy recommends taking a 200-milligram supplement daily.
Your body takes the proteins that you consume in foods and breaks them down into their component amino acids, then uses those aminos to manufacture the kinds of proteins that you need. One of the liver’s main functions is to play a key role in that protein-manufacturing process, says Dr. Bennett. When your liver is damaged or not functioning to full capacity, there’s every likelihood that you’re being shortchanged in the protein department. For that reason, says Dr. Bennett, it makes sense to take a supplement that provides the amino acids that your body needs.
Dr. Bennett recommends taking 4 tablespoons of whey powder a couple of times a day.
Lecithin, a supplement that many people are more familiar with, is approximately 15 percent phosphatidyl choline. Phosphatidyl choline is a nutrient that has been shown in studies to actually reverse the damage from fatty liver and cirrhosis, says Dr. Bennett. The substance helps move fat out of the liver, decreases inflammation, and helps restructure liver cell membranes, he explains. It also breaks down scar tissue in the liver.
Dr. Bennett suggests taking 1,500 to 3,000 milligrams of phosphatidyl choline.
Studies show that people with cirrhosis (but not fatty liver) can benefit from high doses of the mineral zinc, says Dr. Bennett.
The amounts required, in the range of 200 milligrams three times a day, should be taken only under a doctor’s close supervision, says Dr. Bennett. This is not a therapy to try on your own, he warns. Zinc at high doses can be toxic.
7-Day Detox Miracle: Revitalize Your Mind and Body with This Safe and Effective Life-Enhancing Program by Peter Bennett, ND, and Stephen Barrie, ND
If you’ve been diagnosed with fatty liver or cirrhosis, you should be under a doctor’s care.
Alpha lipoic acid |
200 milligrams |
Amino acids |
4 tablespoons of whey powder, two or three times a day |
Milk thistle* |
600 milligrams |
Phosphatidyl choline |
1,500 to 3,000 milligrams |
For cirrhosis only: |
|
Zinc† |
200 milligrams, three times a day |
*Milk thistle is, of course, an herb, not a nutrient. But it belongs on the supplement list for anyone with a liver condition.
†Zinc at such high doses can quickly become toxic. This therapy should be done only under a doctor’s close supervision.