Fatty Liver

[ButtterflyLady]

Mine was ultrasound (also showed fatty pancreas), though usually they only do those after raised ALT or GGT levels in liver function blood tests or they find it doing imaging for other symptoms.

Seems to be part of the whole metabolic syndrome.

Thanks. I've never had raised ALT or GGT levels but I did have the triad of raised BG, BP, and dyslipidaemia, so I have always assumed I had the metabolic syndrome. Maybe I didn't - can you have T2 without having had the metabolic syndrome?

It all reminds me of what happened about 10 years before my T2 diagnosis. I had gained a lot of weight, due to meds, and I felt my blood sugars were very up and down, with intense sugar cravings/weakness and binge eating. So I bought a copy of a book on "Syndrome X" and attempted a very low carb diet for 2 weeks before giving up because I felt so weak on it. (If only I had known then what I know now!) The book had said people with my BMI and symptoms usually had fatty liver but I had no tests other than the usual LFTs and they were fine. I decided I didn't have "Syndrome X" after all and forgot about it and continued overeating and getting sicker.

Around the same time I went to a private endocrinologist who held herself out as an obesity expert. She ran some bloods and said I didn't have the metabolic syndrome and I should try adding muesli to my weetabix as it was lower GI. That was basically all I got out of that visit, lol. A few years later, still obese of course, I was diagnosed with sleep apnoea, high BP, and then diabetes.

How I wish she had done things differently. I was trying to get help, by buying the book and seeing her, but it didn't work. It wasn't until 2 years after I was diagnosed with T2 that I finally did something about my diet and my weight. I'm lucky I don't have major complications.

And I still don't think I had or have fatty liver. But I don't know for sure.

 

[NoCrbs4Me]

I'm a bit late in the conversation, but I don't think NAFLD is caused by eating too much fat in the diet. The British Liver Trust page previously linked it states "Too much fat in your liver is caused by the build-up of fats called triglycerides." It is well known that a high carb diet will cause elevated serum triglyceride, whereas a low carb, high fat diet will result in low serum triglyceride levels. Anyway, I eat lots of fat and my liver is fine, but when I ate lots of carbs my liver was not so good, according to ALT test results.

 

[DawnPhenomenon]

Can anyone tell me how fatty liver is diagnosed? Blood tests, scan, or biopsy?

Mine was diagnosed after a scan on my gallbladder

 

[Indy51]

Similar for me - was having all sorts of upper GI issues, so they did an ultrasound to check it out. The fatty liver was just one of the results found in the scan.

People like Dr Robert Lustig are talking about fatty liver as yet another epidemic caused by the Western diet.

 

[Brunneria]

And I still don't think I had or have fatty liver. But I don't know for sure.

Nor me. None of my blood tests have ever shown the indications.

It is very trendy at the moment to blame fatty liver for T2.
And i am glad that it is getting this publicity, because it is leading to some T2s taking weight loss, diet and carbs seriously.

But defatting the liver won't help all of us, and i think that is an equally valuable lesson to get out. I mean (for example) why subject yourself to 8+ weeks of a starvation diet (ND) when it won't defattify? Might as well follow a gentler, slower diet, that achieves weight loss over a longer time, and doesn't stress the body into switching on its 'thrifty gene'.

 

[Indy51]

I think the imaging options are a much better way of diagnosing that relying just on the liver function test. I never had alarming values either, but the imaging definitely showed NAFLD.

 

[SunnyExpat]

I never had any abnormal readings, but a serious cut in the calories reduced a lot of body fat, and from the results, I am going to guess I had something affecting my BG, and 'fatty liver' fits the profile.
As for the 'thrifty gene', it obviously takes more than eight weeks of not stuffing myself to affect mine!

 

[Lamont D]

I was diagnosed for a fatty liver because my liver function tests showed abnormal readings! (Surprise there then!)
Then a scan or two!

I think it is intrinsically linked between all the endocrine organs and how the body stores fat from carbs, sugars and the bad fats.

Not having them has reversed the fatty liver and my now normal liver function tests!

 

[smigger62]

My "specialist" said I have a fatty liver and to stop drinking

 

[Gravity-Carb]

My "specialist" said I have a fatty liver and to stop drinking

Do you? And did you?

 

[smigger62]

The liver. ..apparently .. The drinking..stopped last Feb . I don't even drink what I would say is normal ..

 

[Squire Fulwood]

Can anyone tell me how fatty liver is diagnosed? Blood tests, scan, or biopsy?

When Dr Lustig does his lectures it looks like an MRI. He puts up two cross sections of a human and asks which one is sick. Most people go for the one with subcutaneous fat but, of course, it's the other one with visceral fat.

 

[Squire Fulwood]

While I am mentioning Dr Lustig he says that fatty liver is caused by the fact that ethanol and fructose are metabolised in a similar way to each other in that they both produce fat in the liver directly.

A most interesting part of his lectures is when he says that NAFLD is most prevalent in the Middle East where alcohol is banned. Water is also scarce so people buy lots of fizzy drinks. Unlike alcohol you don't end up under the table and keep drinking it.