Recent studies estimate that up to 39% of the world’s adult population has fatty liver. People with fatty liver have a higher risk of developing other major diseases (cardiovascular, metabolic, etc.), with a worse prognosis.
A review focused on the comprehensive treatment of fatty liver during 24 hours a day, including diet, exercise, sedentary lifestyle, substance abuse (alcohol, tobacco, etc.) and sleep, was recently published in the journal Hepatology International. It has been proven that improving the quality of the diet, increasing physical activity, reducing or abstaining from drinking alcohol, quitting smoking and getting enough sleep has hepatic and extrahepatic benefits and improves general health and well-being. These changes contribute to reducing fatigue, increasing energy (physical and mental) and improving gastrointestinal symptoms. Thus, it is known that people with fatty liver and overweight must lose between 5-10% of their weight to improve or cure fatty liver. Also, in patients with fatty liver who are not overweight (body mass index less than 25 kg/m2), a weight loss of 3-5% leads to a cure for fatty liver in 50% of cases with improvement in cardiovascular health.
Tips on diet, sport and quality of sleep
In relation to diet, in addition to the various diets and weight loss procedures discussed in previous blog posts, it is important to keep in mind that people with a high salt intake have a 64% probability of suffering from fatty liver.
Regarding physical activity, to avoid the appearance of fatty liver, you must do between 2.5 to 4-5 hours a week of physical exercise (bicycle, gym, etc.) or walk between 8,000-10,000 steps daily. It should be noted that people who spend more than 7 hours a day sitting are 34% more likely to suffer from fatty liver than those who sit for less than 4 hours. For this reason, it is important that people with a very sedentary job do physical exercise and, if possible, walk or take public transportation to work, go up and down stairs, etc.
Finally, people who sleep less than 5-6 hours a day have a 14% higher risk of having fatty liver, so it is recommended to sleep between 7-8 hours and reduce nap time to a maximum of 30 minutes.
In summary, all these concepts are very important to reinforce the treatment of fatty liver and Dr. Carreño and his team strive to explain and transmit them to patients so that they change their lifestyle habits.
