Home » Fatty liver, is it true that there are no therapies to cure it? – breaking latest news

Fatty liver, is it true that there are no therapies to cure it? – breaking latest news

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Fatty liver, is it true that there are no therapies to cure it? – breaking latest news
from Roberta D’Ambrosio

Medicines for this condition are not yet available, but a diet for weight reduction and especially exercise can go a long way

I was recently diagnosed with fatty liver, but the doctor said there are no medications to cure fatty liver. He suggested that I lose weight by exercising: correct?

He answers Roberta D’AmbrosioHead of Outpatient Clinics, UOC Gastroenterology and Hepatology, IRCCS Ca ‘Granda Foundation – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico Milano (GO TO THE FORUM)

Fatty liver disease is a condition that is encountered more and more frequently, often associated with sedentary, improper eating habits, overweight and / or alterations in glucose (diabetes) or lipid (hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia) metabolism. Especially in obese and / or diabetic subjects, the fat that is deposited in the liver (steatosis) can cause chronic inflammation (steatohepatitis or NASH), which over time causes the appearance of liver fibrosis and need for specialist follow-up. There are currently no drug therapies, although some antidiabetic medicines have also shown very positive effects on the liver. In addition to the correction of the risk factor, the international recommendations indicate in the weight loss the most useful strategy for the treatment of metabolic liver disease (NAFLD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease), regardless of cause and severity.

The Finnish study

Regular physical exercise therefore plays a role of primary importance: it induces weight loss and normalization of blood pressure, improves insulin resistance and affects liver enzyme levels. Recent studies have shown that the benefits of physical activity are expressed through the production of some substances, the functions of which are still unclear. Their identification could be useful not only to delineate the natural history of NAFLD and explain the heterogeneity of its presentation, but also to develop molecules capable of at least treating those at risk of clinical events. In the magazine Scientific Reports data from an interesting study conducted in Finland on 46 NAFLD patients, half of whom treated with 12 weeks of intensive physical activity (HIIT, high intensity interval training), but without changes to the diet.

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Physical activity and metabolism

Complete data of 42 patients were obtained: 20 who underwent HIIT and 22 who continued their sedentary lifestyle (controls). Of these patients, plasma, urine and faeces were collected both at enrollment and at the end of the 12-week study; of 19 patients it was also possible to analyze the composition of the adipose tissue, obtained by biopsy. The authors compared the subjects subjected to HIIT with the controls, analyzing anthropometric and clinical parameters but also, through very complex analyzes (metabolomics), the composition of biological fluids and tissues collected. The comparison was made both at baseline and after the 12 weeks of the study, thus allowing to evaluate the metabolic changes induced by regular exercise. For the first time, this study made it possible to demonstrate how physical activity is able to qualitatively influence the body metabolism.

Protective substances

The regular performance of HIIT, in fact, has had an impact on some specific metabolic functions, leading to the production of substances (metabolites) protective with respect to the appearance of NAFLD and its risk factors. These are important but still preliminary data, which will be confirmed and further contextualized. But these results show that the pathogenesis of complex NAFLD and they support the efforts that the research world is carrying out in an attempt to arrive at a definition of the natural history of this condition and the development of possible therapies.

June 6, 2022 (change June 6, 2022 | 10:51)

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