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Hepatic steatosis, popularly known as fatty liver, consists of an accumulation of triglycerides in the liver.
The condition occurs, especially after an excessive consumption of alcohol; this anomaly has even been observed in 90% of individuals with chronic alcoholism. However, there is also nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis, and in this case the condition is not related to alcohol consumption and may appear in abstemious patients or without a history of significant alcohol consumption.
Abdominal pain, loss of appetite or diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss, drowsiness, asthenia are some of the nonspecific symptoms that patients with fatty liver may suffer.
Currently it is said that this liver disorder is the clinical expression of the metabolic syndrome in the liver. It can also occur in children, also interacting with 50% of obese children.
Its incidence has been increasing due to the greater number of people with obesity and diabetes.
Its relationship with obesity, in individuals with a normal body mass index, hepatic steatosis occurs in approximately one in 10, while in individuals with a BMI in the range of obesity, its prevalence is around 80%.
Fatty liver is associated with chronic alcoholism, but there are other causes that cause the disorder, as well as various risk factors that increase the chances of suffering from it, such as:
- Diabetes mellitus: occurs in half of patients with type II DM.
- Obesity: 60-90% of people with significant obesity end up developing hepatic steatosis.
- Hypertriglyceridemia
- Metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. The increase of free fatty acids in these situations leads to a greater accumulation of these in viscera, such as the liver fundamentally, and at the muscular level.
- Diverticulosis: presence of diverticula in the intestine.
- Family history of hepatic steatosis.
- Chronic hepatitis C
- Poor nutrition: cases of steatosis have been described in patients with prolonged starvation and with protein-calorie malnutrition.
- Drugs: intravenous tetracyclines, corticosteroids, tamoxifen, methotrexate, valproic acid, etc.
- Exposure to toxic agents: such as carbon tetrachloride (used as a cooling liquid).
- Sleep apnea syndrome.
- Pregnancy: acute hepatic steatosis of pregnancy, a very rare complication whose cause is unknown.
The recommendations to anticipate hepatic steatosis are:
- Do not consume alcohol, especially if you have a family history of hepatic steatosis or any other pathology that affects the liver.
- Maintain an adequate weight; overweight and obesity, and especially accumulate abdominal fat (central obesity), are frequently associated with steatosis. But this must be done under medical supervision, so that you do not lose more than 3-4 kg per month, because a more pronounced or sudden loss can worsen the disease.
- Eat a balanced diet and exercise regularly.
- Control diabetes correctly, according to the doctor’s instructions, in case you suffer from this disease. Likewise, a correct control of blood lipids is recommended, both cholesterol and triglycerides.
- Do not self-medicate, and consult with the doctor any symptom or anomaly that is related to a pharmacological treatment that the patient is following.
- Supplementation of the diet with fish oil rich in omega 3, or other compounds with this molecule (docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid), has generated many research works with satisfactory results in the protection of the liver against the causes that cause steatosis.
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