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Cirrhosis of the Liver; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Introduction
There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.
Dietary causes:
Polyunsaturated vegetable oils and margarines; high-carbohydrate diet; cereals; low cholesterol intake.Cirrhosis information
Cirrhosis of the liver is a potentially fatal
condition. Many people probably think of cirrhosis as
being restricted to those who drink prodigious amounts
of alcohol. But, in fact, many things may cause
cirrhosis.
Both experimental and epidemiological studies have
shown that alcohol drinkers who eat 'unhealthy'
saturated animal fats have no liver injury.[1] It was
only when subjects replaced animal fats with 'healthy'
polyunsaturated fats containing linoleic acid that
problems arose. Linoleic acid even at levels as low as
0.7 or 2.5%, with alcohol, caused fatty liver,
necrosis, and inflammation.
Omitting cholesterol from the diet had very similar
harmful effects.[2]
A major — and increasingly common — form
of liver damage is a condition known as non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This can progress to
fibrosis and then to cirrhosis.
It is estimated that NAFLD affects between 14% and 21%
of the populations of Europe and Asia, and 24% of the
United States population. It is more common among
adults who are obese or have diabetes,[3] NAFLD is more
common in males in all age groups. The prevalence of
NAFLD in both sexes increases with age and with weight.
Among women, the risk of NAFLD increases after
menopause. But lately there has emerged a worrying
trend as NAFLD is increasingly found in children.[4]
Despite its name, fatty liver is not necessarily caused
by an 'unhealthy' fatty diet — quite the
reverse. You may be surprised to learn that 'healthy'
starchy foods such as cereals are the prime cause of
NAFLD. The French delicacy, pâté de fois gras, is a
perfect example of how it develops. The pâté is made
from goose livers, but not just any goose livers: they
have to be fat ones. To achieve this, the geese whose
livers are to be used are force-fed grain which is high
in starch for several days. It is this that fattens the
liver.
The same thing happens in humans who eat a starchy
diet. Presenting the results of a study conducted by
the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to the
54th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the
Study of Liver Diseases, Dr Jeanne Clark told delegates
how a study of liver biopsies showed that the
high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet often recommended for
very obese patients with NAFLD increased their risk of
liver inflammation as much as seven times compared with
patients with the lowest carbohydrate intake.[5]
Conversely, she told delegates, high-fat diets appeared
to be protective.
This confirmed an earlier study in which patients with
established alcoholic cirrhosis benefited from a
saturated fat diet.[6]
References
[1]. Nanji AA, French SW. Dietary linoleic acid is
required for development of experimentally induced
alcoholic liver-injury. Life Sciences
1989; 44: 223-301.
[2]. Laitinen, M., et al., Effects of dietary
cholesterol feeding on the membranes of liver cells and
on the cholesterol metabolism in the rat. Int J
Biochem 1982; 14: 239-41.
[3]. Sargin M, Uygur-Bayramicli O, Sargin H, et al.
Association of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease With
Insulin Resistance: Is OGTT Indicated in Nonalcoholic
Fatty Liver Disease? J Clin Gastroenterol
2003; 37: 399-402.
[4]. Schwimmer JB, Deutsch R, Rauch JB, et al. Obesity,
insulin resistance, and other clinicopathological
correlates of pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver
disease. J Pediatr 2003; 143: 500-505.
[5]. Diet for Obese Patient Tied to Liver Inflammation.
Reuters Health, 27 October 2003.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=3698408§ion=news
, accessed 28 October 2003.
[6]. Nanji AA, Yang EK, Fogt F, et al. Medium chain
triglycerides and vitamin E reduce the severity of
established experimental alcoholic liver disease.
J Pharmacol Exp Ther 1996; 277:
1694-700.
Last updated 3 March 2009
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