Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

WholeFoods4Lyfe

Anyone else have this? After having completely normal Liver Enzyme levels last May, I had emergency gallbladder surgery in November and my Liver Enzymes have been elevated since then. I had an ultrasound this past Monday and they determined that I have NAFLD. Obviously, I need to lose the weight, like yesterday. Just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat and if you have any tips or advice for me.

Colorscheme

Interesting. I was convinced my boyfriend would have a fatty liver since he's obese, but his liver ultrasound was fine, he just had hepatomegaly and high liver enzymes due to mono.

I wish you luck. Exercise, weight loss and a change in eating should be enough.

cathipa

I see patients with this daily (I'm a GI PA) so I understand what you are going through. Typically this is a finding that was incidental, but once the liver functions go up its time to treat. The initial step is to lose weight, maintain low fat diet, if you are diabetic or have high cholesterol get those under control, limit alcohol, limit/avoid Tylenol, exercise 30min 4-5 times a week. I'm sure they will be rechecking your labs, but have they also checked for any autoimmune markers, thyroid and celiac testing (since it may not all be NAFLD). Hope this helps and best of luck to you!

WholeFoods4Lyfe

cathipa wrote: »

I see patients with this daily (I'm a GI PA) so I understand what you are going through. Typically this is a finding that was incidental, but once the liver functions go up its time to treat. The initial step is to lose weight, maintain low fat diet, if you are diabetic or have high cholesterol get those under control, limit alcohol, limit/avoid Tylenol, exercise 30min 4-5 times a week. I'm sure they will be rechecking your labs, but have they also checked for any autoimmune markers, thyroid and celiac testing (since it may not all be NAFLD). Hope this helps and best of luck to you!

My Thyroid was tested last Spring, but not recently. I had a Celiac Blood Panel done a few weeks ago and it was negative. In addition to NAFLD my u/s also showed biliary ductal dilation, so when I see my GI doc on Monday, I'm thinking that he may be sending me for some additional testing because there have been some concerns since my gallbladder surgery that a/some stone(s) may have moved to my bile duct as I'm still having abdominal pain. Clinically, I do know that I have issues with Gluten, even if it isn't Celiac, and recently eliminated it from my diet. I think that I was also tested for Autoimmune Hepatitis, and that came back negative. From the reading I've been doing though, there are still quite a few other Autoimmune Diseases out there that I haven't been tested for and I'm going to talk to my GI about these as well on Monday.

cathipa

Sounds like they need to do an MRCP to look at the duct since a small stone could be the culprit and if necessary an ERCP. It just seems too coincidental for you to have elevated liver functions right after a cholecystectomy and it all be related to the NAFLD.

FhoShplunk

*waves* me too!
Diagnosed last November. Only just trying to do something about it. This was the first time I had concrete evidence my weight was starting to impact my overall health.

brb_2013

I was diagnosed with a fatty liver years ago. Haven't really paid much attention to it except to lose weight as I'm able. I worked for a GI specialist at the time and she'd been reading studies that dropping overall body fat doesn't help, it's that visceral fat that needs to go and one study in a medical journal she had at the time was showing no change in patients doing moderate exercise, only intense exercise which was recommended as HIIT, since most obese patients can't start sprinting on day 1 but may be able to handle the intervals. I can't remember sources, but it was definitely a legitimate medical journal.

Yi5hedr3

This is a classic case of too many carbs. Lower them and keep below 100 grams/day. Good starting macro would be 20/20/60.

Tiffanylynn1024

I just got diagnosed the other day myself. It's so hard trying to cut back the sugar and carbs. Everything that is bad is what I eat (pop, chips, bread, potatoes, fried foods, fast food). But have to change all that for my health. It's very hard. You can add me if you'd like.

Pawsforme

I was *thisclose* to being diagnosed with NAFLD right before my thyroid blood work came back indicating that I was hypothyroid. I don't know if the hypothyroidism was the root cause of the elevated liver numbers (although I think it was) or if it was due to the weight I gained. FWIW -- mine was definitely not due to carb consumption, as I was eating pretty low carb for over a year before my "almost diagnosis." When I went back for my six week blood work after starting levothyroxine (for hypothyroidism) my liver counts were all back to normal although at that point I'd only lost a few pounds.

baciodolce18

I had elevated liver enzymes in routine blood work. (Really elevated in the 300s). Had an ultra sound and they unofficially said it looked fatty. GI redid blood to rule out autoimmune and came back clear. He said to lose 20 pounds and then to recheck. It's taken me 2 years to lose 20 pounds so I need to get rechecked. Made me really nervous when I found out. Still get nervous cause my mom came down with pancreatic cancer a month after I found out so I don't want to have to worry about GI issues with that.

jwcanfield

My sister, who is not now and never has been as much as 1 lb over ideal, just had gallbladder surgery. & she got the same fatty-liver diagnosis. & she doesn't drink at all. So there is some other connection other than weight or alcohol.