Thought it was only alcoholics who need to worry about liver disease? Think again.
Your evening tipple isn’t the only culprit when it comes to causing liver damage – and anyone with excess weight on their belly is in the firing line.
It’s estimated that, thanks to rising obesity levels, a third of the UK population now has non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the medical term for too much fat building up in your liver.
And while most sufferers are oblivious to the fact that they have the condition, left unchecked, it’s a killer.
Alyson Johnson, a digital project manager from Newcastle upon Tyne, was just 50 when her doctor told her she would be dead within two years if she didn’t lose weight.
“My GP told me bluntly that I was putting my life at risk because my weight had led me to develop a fatty liver, which had become inflamed and scarred,” admits Alyson, who weighed 17st 7lb and had uncontrolled Type 2 diabetes at the time.
“It was the wake-up call I needed.”
Her case is by no means unusual.
Dr Stephen Ryder, consultant physician at the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham and medical adviser to the British Liver Trust, said: “Almost two-thirds of people in the UK are overweight or obese and, as that is the main cause of NAFLD, the condition is becoming very common indeed.”
Latest figures from the UK Biobank suggest that as many as 12 million people in the UK may have fatty liver disease and 1.4 million could have the more serious type – non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) – which is stage 2, where the liver becomes inflamed.
Around 360,000 of these cases will develop cirrhosis.
And worryingly, those developing the disease are getting younger all the time.
While NAFLD was once most prevalent in people aged over 50, in April a study from the University of Bristol revealed that one in five young adults in the UK have early signs, with one in 40 having already developed fibrosis – a precursor to cirrhosis of the liver – by just 25.
Pamela Healy, chief executive of the British Liver Trust charity, said we’re facing a liver disease epidemic.
“It’s really alarming that one in five of the people we see at the mobile Love Your Liver screening sessions have a high liver scan reading and need further investigation,” she said.
“This is a wake-up call to the liver disease epidemic the UK is facing. It needs to be addressed urgently before it’s too late and costs unnecessary lives.”
As for Alyson, in the two years since her doctor’s blunt diagnosis, she has turned her health around.
“At the time, my health was a mess,” she admits. “I was lazy and ate portions that were too large. I also comfort ate: half tubs of ice cream and chocolate if I was feeling low. I was killing myself with food and not moving enough.”
Alyson set about improving her lifestyle.
“I knew I had to make big changes so I hired a personal trainer and worked out with them three times a week. At the same time, I cut my calories to 1,700 a day.
“I approached it like simple maths: I had to cut what I was consuming and create a 300-a-day calorie deficit.”
Thankfully Alyson’s hard work has paid off. “In just under two years my weight has dropped by six stone and I’m down from size 22 to a size 12,” she said.
“My latest scans show I have a normal liver and have reversed the scarring and my Type 2 diabetes is in remission.
“I now exercise a lot and enjoy hiking and weight training. People ask me how I’ve stuck to it, but the answer is easy: I didn’t want to die young.”
