Can Fatty Liver Result in Cirrhosis? Check Expert Opinion on How to Avoid Progression

Fatty liver disease is a real health issue, and it can progress to cirrhosis, which is serious and potentially fatal if not managed properly. Knowing how to monitor for this progression and how to treat and/or prevent it is vital to maintain liver health.

What is Fatty Liver?

Fatty liver disease occurs when there is a build-up of fat found in the liver that is more than 5-10% of the weight of the liver. There are two broad categories, which include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcoholic fatty liver disease. 

NAFLD is broken down into simple fatty liver and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which has fat build-up and inflammation with liver cell injury. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) now affects approximately 33% of adults in the United States.

Check out Dr. Sarin's video to know what fatty liver is and whether you should worry or not. 

How does it progress to cirrhosis?

Fatty liver can progress to cirrhosis through various stages. At first, the accumulation of simple fat may be hepatoprotective, but prolonged storage of the lipid causes metabolic dysfunction and inflammation, and those with NASH have an 11% chance of progression to cirrhosis versus a 1% chance of progression to cirrhosis if no inflammation is present. 

Fatty liver disease progresses through liver cell damage, development of fibrosis, and scarring of normal hepatocytes. Diabetes has emerged as the single greatest independent risk factor for progression, with higher rates of cirrhosis than in a non-diabetic cohort.

How to avoid progression

Prevention includes lifestyle changes and weight loss strategies. Fatty liver disease, while it has no treatment approved specifically for fatty liver disease, physicians advocate for weight loss as the initial treatment, as this has been shown to decrease liver fat content, inflammation, and fibrosis. 

The primary treatment for this is weight loss and lifestyle change through diet, exercise, and managing their metabolic conditions like diabetes and obesity problems. No medications for fatty liver disease have been directly approved, making lifestyle modification the foundation of preventive treatment. 

Creative interventions with these approaches to initiate change early enough can easily reverse simple hepatic steatosis and avoid progression to severe liver disease.

Learning and knowing the risk factors, we can increase the chances of maintaining proper liver health and avoid complications of advanced liver disease.