NASH's Disease

I ran into someone who has Nash's Disease... huh? I had never heard of that before. It's also called "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease". What is it? I looked it up in Wikipedia. (I've paraphrased some of the info and included it below):



"NASH (Non-Alcoholic Steato Hepatitis) Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is fatty inflammation of the liver when this is not due to excessive alcohol use. It is related to insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome, and may respond to treatments originally developed for other insulin resistant states (e.g. diabetes mellitus type 2), such as weight loss, metformin and thiazolidinediones. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the most extreme form of NAFLD, which is regarded as a major cause of cirrhosis of the liver of unknown cause.

Treatment:

Trials to optimise treatment of NASH are being conducted (2007), and no treatment has yet emerged as the "gold standard". General recommendations include improving metabolic risk factors and reducing alcohol intake.

Treatment of nutrition and excessive body weight. Diet changes have shown significant histological improvement. Gradual weight loss may improve the process in obese patients; rapid loss may worsen NAFLD. Weight-loss surgery leads to improvement and or resolution of NASH in around 80 % of patients.

Insulin sensitisers (metformin and thiazolidinediones) have shown efficacy in some studies.
Antioxidants and ursodeoxycholic acid, as well as lipid-lowering drugs, have little benefit.

In a study it has been shown that mild alcohol consumption (one glass of wine a day) reduces the risk of NAFLD by half."

Bottom line is more liver transplants in the future.

A surgeon friend of mine said that childhood and adult obesity is a cause of not only NASH but type II diabetes. Sedentary lifestyles, overeating, sugar laced and non-nutritious fatty foods are contributors.

Why is this important? Well today's children are at high risk to type II diabetes and now NASH Disease in their adult futures. How many other health problems will today's sedentary lifestyle be in our kids future? Just something to make you think about whether we are making things better or worse for generations to come with our advanced technological breakthroughs.