According to Lawrence Friedman, M.D. and professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School in "Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment," 20 percent to 30 percent of Americans have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Alcoholism also causes a fatty liver. It's estimated that at least 10 percent of Americans abuse alcohol, and 90 percent of those people have a fatty liver.
Diabetes Mellitus Type 2
Your body must have insulin to move the glucose that's in the bloodstream into the fat cells and skeletal muscle. If high levels of glucose stay in your bloodstream, it damages many of your organs. As explained by Elizabeth Corwin, Ph.D., in "Handbook of Pathophysiology," if you have Type 2 diabetes, either your pancreas doesn't release enough insulin or your cells are no longer sensitive to the insulin that's released. This leads to high levels of glucose in your bloodstream. But you may also have a problem with metabolizing fats, which takes place in the liver. This problem causes fats to accumulate in your liver. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 40 percent to 69 percent of American diabetics have (nonalcoholic) fatty liver disease.
Obesity
Gary Wittert, M.D. and professor and head of the Department of Medicine at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, writes in "The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals" that obesity can lead to diabetes, osteoarthritis (arthritis because the cartilage in the knee has deteriorated), sleep disorders, heart problems, reflux and (nonalcoholic) fatty liver disease. The association between obesity and fatty liver disease was corroborated in the May 2, 2007, issue of "Epidemiologic Reviews." In this issue, Dr. Marianne Jakobsen wrote about her study that shows there's a connection between excessive abdominal fat and the increase of fat in the liver.
Pregnancy
Women can have fatty liver disease after their 35th week of pregnancy. It's usually seen in some women who are either pregnant for the first time or carrying twins. Physicians aren't sure why this occurs. They hypothesize that women with this disorder and fetus have a deficiency of a specific enzyme, called LCHAD (long-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase). This enzyme is needed to metabolize fats and without it, fats build up in several tissues and organs, including the liver.
Cushing's Syndrome
Cushing's syndrome describes any disorder in which there are high levels of the cortisol hormone in the bloodstream. This disorder can occur for several reasons. It can develop if you take a lot of corticosteroids. It can be due to several malignant tumors: oat cell carcinoma of the lung, carcinoid tumor and an adrenal carcinoma. An adrenal adenoma can cause Cushing's syndrome. (An adenoma is a benign tumor that has structures resmbling a gland.) Adrenal hyperplasia, or an enlarged adrenal gland, can also cause Cushing's syndrome. According to Paul Fitzgerald, M.D. and clinical professor of medicine at the University of California in "Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment," one of the symptoms of Cushing's is central obesity, or obesity in the abdominal area. Thus, people with Cushing's can also develop fatty liver disease.
Alcohol
Elizabeth Corwin, Ph.D., explains in "Handbook of Pathophysiology" that long-term, excessive use of alcohol can lead to cirrhosis of the liver. Cirrhosis is the final result of liver disease. It happens due to repeated injury and inflammation. Fatty liver disease is the first stage of cirrhosis. Like diabetes, excessive alcohol interferes with fat metabolism and causes fats to accumulate in the liver. But if people with fatty liver disease stop drinking alcohol, the damage to the liver from the accumulation of fat can be reversed.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: ACIP Hepatitis Working Group
- "Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2009"; Stephen McPhee, M.D., Maxine Papadakis, M.D.; 2009
- Epidemiologic Reviews: Abdominal Obesity and Fatty Liver
- "Handbook of Pathophysiology"; Elizabeth Corwin, MSN, Ph.D., FNP; 2000
- The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals: Obesity
