People assumed that Alyson Johnson must be a heavy drinker when she told them she had a liver problem. ‘But nothing could be further from the truth — I’ve never been a drinker, having at most maybe one or two beers a week,’ she says.
‘My liver problems were actually all down to being overweight and taking no exercise,’ adds Alyson, 52, a digital project manager.
In 2017, her liver was so badly damaged that she was told that unless she lost weight, she’d be dead within two years.
At the time she weighed more than 17 st, which, at 5 ft 7in, gave her a BMI of 35, officially obese.
Health fact: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a spectrum condition that starts with the build-up of fat cells in the liver and, in some cases, can progress to inflammation and scarring - and it can be caused by both red wine and seemingly harmless orange juice
‘I was only 50 at the time and it was a huge wake-up call,’ says Alyson, a mother of one who lives with partner Laura, 49, a software developer, in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Alyson is one of a growing number of people in the UK diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) — cases are soaring as obesity levels rise.
A LIVER DISEASE NOT LINKED TO BOOZE
Most people associate the words ‘liver disease’ with hard drinkers, such as footballing legend George Best, who eventually needed a liver transplant.
But there is another form of liver disease, not connected to alcohol but, like so many conditions these days, related to obesity and type 2 diabetes.
An estimated 20 per cent of the UK population has this condition — up from 15 per cent in 2005 — with increasing numbers of children and teenagers affected.
A fatty liver has been described as yellow, like foie gras (pate made from the liver of a specially fattened duck or goose) and it may also be enlarged.
Many will have no idea they have it and, alarmingly, some experts are predicting NAFLD will overtake alcohol-related liver disease as the most common cause of liver disease in the UK in the next few years.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a spectrum condition that starts with the build-up of fat cells in the liver and, in some cases, can progress to inflammation and scarring.
Overweight people are more prone because they have higher levels of fats circulating in their blood, and lay down fat not only under the skin, but in and around their organs.
Danger: In 2017, Alyson Johnson - from Newcastle - was told her liver was so badly damaged that she was told that unless she lost weight, she’d be dead within two years
Many obese people also have type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes/insulin resistance, which means that insulin is not working properly. As a result, excess sugar is converted into fat, then stored in the body, including in the liver.
One in six people with fatty liver disease will go on to develop inflammation known as NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis) — in fact, 1.4 million people in the UK are already at this stage, and of those, 5 to 10 per cent will end up with cirrhosis, when the liver becomes stiff due to scarring.
This can progress to liver failure and raises the risk of liver cancer; NAFLD is thought to be one of the main reasons liver cancer cases have risen by more than 60 per cent in the UK in the past decade.
The scale of the problem is such that experts warn we will soon face an ‘epidemic’ of fatty liver disease.
‘One in three adults in the UK is overweight or obese and, as a result, the prevalence of NAFLD is increasing at an alarming rate,’ says Pamela Healy, chief executive of the charity British Liver Trust.
SHUN SUGARY FRUIT JUICE
The risk of developing a fatty liver is especially high among those who are overweight, have type 2 diabetes, take no exercise, smoke, have raised cholesterol or blood pressure, and in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (a common hormone condition which causes excess body hair and acne). Sugary drinks have also been implicated (see box, above right).
Around 5 per cent of cases occur in people who are not overweight — they have what’s called lean NAFLD. It’s thought a faulty gene variant called PNPLA3, which causes fat to build up in the liver, could be to blame for some cases. An underactive thyroid might also be a trigger.
Patients who have type 2 diabetes and NAFLD are more than twice as likely to develop serious liver diseases such as cirrhosis, according to research published last week in the journal BMC Medicine.
This is worrying news for the four million people in the UK with type 2 diabetes, 70 per cent of whom are estimated to have fatty liver disease.
‘My liver problems were actually all down to being overweight and taking no exercise,’ she says
‘Doctors treating patients with type 2 diabetes already have a lot to check on — eyes, kidneys, heart risks — but these results remind us that we should not neglect the liver,’ says Naveed Sattar, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Glasgow and a co-author of the latest research.
Another reason for concern is that the condition, previously mainly a disease of those in their 40s and 50s, now increasingly affects teenagers and children.
‘We see patients in their early teens with significant fatty liver disease,’ says Professor Jonathan Fallowfield, chair of translational liver research at the University of Edinburgh. ‘Up to 20 per cent of all children have NAFLD. Even children who are just overweight [with a BMI of 25 or more] can have it.’
The speed at which a fatty liver can progress to an aggressive disease varies from less than five years to ten years or more.
‘The number of people with NAFLD is so large that even a small percentage ends up being a lot of people,’ says Professor Fallowfield; 360,000 people in the UK have cirrhosis.
NO SYMPTOMS FOR YEARS, THEN IT HITS
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has no symptoms in most cases, so many people are unaware they have the condition. It is typically diagnosed when blood tests investigating something else show elevated levels of liver enzymes (suggesting damage to liver cells) and a follow-up scan such as an ultrasound shows a fatty liver (which will typically ‘light up’ on an ultrasound and look white).
‘There are some rather vague symptoms associated with NAFLD, such as fatigue and maybe some mild abdominal discomfort, but there are so many other potential causes of these,’ says Professor Fallowfield.
‘Most people have no idea they have it and will say they feel fine when they are diagnosed.’
It’s only in the later stages that symptoms such as jaundice, abdominal pain — typically in the upper right-hand side of the body under the rib cage, where the liver is — swelling, dark urine, itchy skin and black tarry stools occur.
Adding to the problem is the fact that some of the blood tests used by GPs are not sensitive enough.
‘Simple liver enzyme blood tests are not perfect, you can have fatty liver and have normal blood tests,’ says Professor Fallowfield.
The most sophisticated diagnostic tool is transient elastography — a non-invasive technique with ultrasound to measure scarring or the ‘hardness’ of the liver.
According to the British Liver Trust, 75 per cent of those with liver disease are only diagnosed in a hospital or emergency setting, when the disease is already well advanced.
Did you know? A 2010 study at the University of Catania in Italy linked drinking several cups of coffee a day with a reduced risk of a fatty liver
Obesity is one of the key drivers in the rise of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). ‘Losing 10 per cent of body weight improves the liver function and, in some cases, losing this amount can reverse the scarring of the liver that is caused by the condition,’ says Vanessa Hebditch, of the British Liver Trust.
Excess fat acts as a toxin to liver cells, causing inflammation that can progress to a build-up of scar tissue, and even cancer, if no steps are taken in time to reverse this.
As well as losing weight, here are five diet-related ways you can help prevent,
