Fatty liver disease, often called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), affects a lot of people. About one in four adults around the world has it.
It’s most commonly linked to being overweight and having other health problems like high blood sugar or high blood pressure.
As more people around the world struggle with obesity, fatty liver disease has become the top reason why people end up with severe liver issues. But there’s more to it than just affecting the liver.
A Swedish Study Reveals New Risks
Researchers in Sweden wanted to know if having fatty liver disease also made people more likely to get really sick from infections.
So they ran a big study involving over 12,000 people who were already diagnosed with this liver disease. They also looked at about 58,000 people who didn’t have it for comparison.
What they found was eye-opening: people with fatty liver disease had a 71% higher chance of getting severe infections that needed hospital care.
The most common types of infections they got were lung infections and urinary tract infections. This was the first study of this kind to look at how the disease can affect people on a national scale.
Dr. Fahim Ebrahimi, who led the study, said this shows that fatty liver disease is a big deal and affects more than just the liver.
He said we should start thinking about it as a health issue that could also make you more likely to get other kinds of illnesses, even if you don’t have other health risks like diabetes.
Why Infections? The Connection to the Immune System
The liver is a major player in our immune system. It has a lot of cells that help fight off germs. Dr. Ebrahimi explained that these special cells make up around 20% of all liver cells.
So, it makes sense that if your liver is not doing well, your body might have a harder time fighting off infections.
Even more surprising was that people who had a milder form of fatty liver disease, without any extra liver damage or inflammation, were still more likely to get serious infections.
The risk was even higher for those who had a more severe form of fatty liver disease, which comes with inflammation and other liver damage.
What Should We Do About It?
Jonas F. Ludvigsson, another researcher in the study, crunched the numbers and said that after being diagnosed with fatty liver disease, the risk of getting a severe infection was quite high.
Specifically, about one in every six people with the disease would get a severe infection within 20 years of their diagnosis. That’s why catching this disease early on and treating it properly is so important.
Dr. Ebrahimi added that right now, there aren’t clear guidelines on how doctors should help people with fatty liver disease avoid infections.
Based on this study, he thinks that should change. He believes that taking steps to prevent infections should be a key part of managing fatty liver disease from now on.
In summary, if you or someone you know has been diagnosed with fatty liver disease, it’s more than just a liver issue.
It can make you more prone to other serious health problems like infections, so it’s something to take seriously.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about a diet that can treat fatty liver disease and obesity, and coffee drinkers may halve their risk of liver cancer.
For more information about liver health, please see recent studies that anti-inflammatory diet could help prevent fatty liver disease, and results showing vitamin D could help prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
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