What is Fatty Liver Disease?
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a health problem where fat builds up in your liver. It’s not caused by drinking too much alcohol.
Up to 25% of people around the world have this issue. It’s the most common type of chronic liver disease.
The scary part is that NAFLD often doesn’t cause any symptoms. So, lots of people don’t even know they have it. Some people might feel tired or have pain in their upper right belly.
It’s often linked to being overweight or having health problems like high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes. In some cases, it can even lead to liver inflammation or liver damage.
Liver Health and Brain Health
A new study suggests that people with NAFLD might be more likely to get dementia.
This is a brain condition that causes problems with memory and thinking. The study was published online in the journal Neurology on July 13, 2022.
This risk might be even higher for people with NAFLD who also have heart disease or who’ve had a stroke.
“Common risk factors for both NAFLD and dementia include metabolic disorders like high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity,” says Ying Shang, Ph.D., who led the study.
Understanding the Link Between NAFLD and Dementia
Shang and her team wanted to see if there was a connection between NAFLD and the risk of getting dementia. They didn’t want other risk factors to get in the way, so they did their best to rule those out.
They looked at 30 years of health records from Sweden. They found 2,898 people who were 65 years old or older and had NAFLD. They also found 28,357 people who were about the same age and didn’t have NAFLD.
After following these people for more than five years, they found that 5% of people with NAFLD were diagnosed with dementia. In the group without NAFLD, 4.6% were diagnosed with dementia.
What the Numbers Tell Us
After adjusting for other risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes, the researchers found that people with NAFLD had a 38% higher rate of dementia overall.
They also had a 44% higher rate of a type of dementia caused by not enough blood flow to the brain. They did not find a higher rate of Alzheimer’s disease.
People with NAFLD who also had heart disease were 50% more likely to get dementia. Those who had NAFLD and had a stroke were over 2.5 times more likely to get dementia.
The Bigger Picture
“Our study shows that NAFLD is linked to a higher chance of getting dementia,” says Shang. “This might be mainly caused by problems with blood vessels in the brain.”
She suggests that treating NAFLD and any heart disease might help lower the risk of dementia.
However, there’s one thing to keep in mind. Because NAFLD often doesn’t have symptoms, it might not be diagnosed as often as it should be.
This could mean that the link between NAFLD and dementia is even stronger than this study suggests.
It’s clear that more research is needed. But one thing is certain: taking care of your liver could help you protect your brain. So, keep an eye on your liver health. It might just save your memory.
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 therapy for fatty liver disease, and results showing Mediterranean diet could cut fatty liver disease by half.
The study was published in Neurology.
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