Have you heard of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)? This liver condition is becoming more common, especially among people who are overweight.
Now, researchers from West Virginia University have found out that a type of weight loss surgery can help people with this liver disease.
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Growing Concern
NAFLD is a medical condition where fat builds up in the liver. It’s not caused by drinking alcohol but is often seen in people who are overweight or have health issues like type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure.
NAFLD can lead to severe health problems like liver cirrhosis and cancer.
Right now, there are no specific medicines to treat NAFLD. The main advice doctors give is to lose weight.
But the good news is, the researchers led by Dr. Shailendra Singh have found that bariatric surgery, a type of weight loss surgery, can help.
How Bariatric Surgery Helps
Bariatric surgery is a procedure that makes changes to the stomach and intestines to help a person eat less and feel full quicker. It’s usually done to help people who are significantly overweight.
There are different types of this surgery. The researchers looked at two types, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy.
In Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, the stomach is divided into a small part and a big part. The small part stores the food, and the big part is bypassed.
The small intestine is also divided and connected to both parts of the stomach.
In sleeve gastrectomy, about 80% of the stomach is removed. This limits the amount of food and calories a person can consume.
Study on Bariatric Surgery and NAFLD
The research team studied 9,374 adults who had both obesity and NAFLD. They divided these people into two groups: one group had bariatric surgery, and the other group didn’t. They then compared the health outcomes of both groups.
The researchers found that the people who had bariatric surgery had a much lower risk of severe heart problems and death.
They also found out that these benefits lasted for up to seven years after the surgery.
Implications of the Study
Dr. Singh hopes that their findings will help increase the awareness of bariatric surgery as a treatment option for people with NAFLD and obesity.
Although NAFLD is a complex disease that can come with other health problems, this research provides hope for better treatment options.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about dairy foods linked to liver cancer, and coffee drinkers may halve their risk of liver cancer.
For more information about liver health, please see recent studies about new drug to treat fatty liver disease, and results showing vitamin D could help prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The study was published in JAMA Network Open.
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