Fatty Liver - Help please

[floralandfresh]

My mums in her early 60’s and about 5 years ago was told she had a fatty liver. I don’t believe she changed her life style an awful lot since that time as I think it was fairly mild fatty liver at that time. She has a couple of alcoholic drinks max once a week, exercises (walking several times a week) but could certainly do more and eats relatively healthy meals but eats far too much cake / biscuits. She can polish off the entire pack of biscuits and comfort eats of an evening. She has been feeling tired so had a scan which shown the fatty liver is worse. She doesn’t seem to be giving me any info on what stage this is at though which is causing me significant worry.

She has said her liver function test is within normal range. She has decided to totally overhaul with a lot more walking and exercise, completely cut out the sugar / fatty food and stick to eggs and healthy food and not drink alcohol. This I’m pleased to hear. She has also decided to come off some medication as she takes a lot, and is worried this may be contributing. She has been referred by gp to a specialist. I can tell she is worried about this.

Has anyone got experience or anything at all that may help me understand more. I believe it can be repairable but as I’m in the dark about the stage, I don’t know how possible this is.

Thanks for reading. Anxious daughter

Choline deficiency is one common cause of fatty liver and it can be reversed with supplementation. You'll find plenty of info if you google.

Did she speak to her GP about stopping certain meds? Its true that some meds can be contributing to it, but she shouldn't just stop something prescribed without discussing alternatives.

How did they know she had a fatty liver if blood tests are normal? Did she have treatment privately (wondering if I have too but blood tests are normal).

I'd never even heard of Choline
@AngelDog .I've just googled it and that is very interesting and helpful. Thanks.

And thanks for the thread OP.

I have slightly elevated liver enzymes not fatty liver. I now start my day with proper Greek yoghurt and blue berries, raspberries walnuts and seeds for the protein and polyphenols. I try to have advocado and cottage cheese for lunch 2 or 3 times per week. Evening meals usually are around tofu, beans etc with barley and quinoa instead do of rice. I take milk thistle, turmeric with pepper and omega 3 tablets. I try to exercise after eating as well to stop a sugar high.

There's alcoholic and non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Sounds like your mum's like of cakes and biscuits could have contributed to it. I think certain drugs and illnesses like diabetes can exacerbate it. What medication was your mum on and what illness does she have?

I didn’t know this but will certainly google it thank you!!

Her bloods are normal but she had routine ultrasound which shown the fatty liver.

She is saying that the GP didn’t tell her to come off any meds but she is obviously very scared and has come off some. Some sleep aid for helping her sleep was one example and another was ibuprofen for pain so neither I would imagine would have negative consequences. Thank you for your comment x

B vitamins and especially B1 are really important as well. Alcohol consumption and eating sugar / refined carbohydrates drastically depletes B1 and most alcoholics have a significant deficiency. Ellipt Overton is a nutritionist who has lots of information about it on YouTube

Thank you - I will share that info with her.

DHs stepmum has been diagnosed with fatty liver disease. She also hasn't taken it seriously and is really unwell with it.

I think sometimes people get to a point of thinking that a couple of glasses of wine a night are fine, because loads of people do it. Similarly with poor diet / too much sugar and fat - "lots of people bigger/unhealthier than me, so I will be fine!" I am so guilty of this mindset too.

It has been a big wake up call for everyone. There is still hope our end, so we are just trying to be supportive as much as possible. One thing that seemed to help is to normalise really nice healthy food that is a treat when we host. Trying to make sure no one feels that they are missing out on the goodies.

Really hope your mum recovers OP.

Thank you for sharing. Has DHs stepmum been told what stage she has and what the likely outcome will be?

Ive got limited info on my mum currently as I believe she is keeping things quiet for my sake but she said before she has been checking if she’s yellow which says a lot I think. She has also snapped at me when I ask questions which makes me think it may be worse than I’m being lead to believe.

Has she had a fibroscan? I think it gives more info than an ultrasound.

my mum didn’t drink but she reversed a lot of her damage through diet, exercise and weight loss.

thanks for your message. She hasn’t yet but it is something we will be doing privately after she’s had a few days to look into. Did your mum find benefit to having it (the Fibroscan) and what stage / what was the extent of damage that she was able to reverse. My mum is doing weight loss through exercise and a new diet which is very strict.

@floralandfresh - Interestingly DSMIL won't tell us much either. However I believe she is pretty ill with it. She has been vomiting a lot, which could indicate that it is advanced or could be related to her anxiety about it, which she has suffered with. DH is worried and we get the feeling that DH's Dad is worried about his wife. But when we ask she brushes it off so we don't press.

I think she experiences some shame. She has mentioned a few times that she feels "Can't complain, I brought this on myself" kind of thing.

It is incredibly sad.

Did she have a lot of symptoms that made her get it checked? I don’t believe my mum is vomiting, she just feels very tired. She came round to my house this evening and looks really well. I’m sorry about your family member.

when I’ve googled it, it seems like it can be reversible completely up to stage 2, partially at stage 3 but less so at stage 4.

Yes my dad had it and reveresed it. No carbs, processed carbs including bread, biscuits and cakes etc. Fasting, no feuit juice. Just water and eating more vegtables.
Having apple cider daily.
He never consumed alcohol. So ot was non alcohol fatty liver. It is no joke ahe needs to take it seriously today. It can can sxarring and the liver will shut down.

Walking and exercise will do Jack Sh*t if your eating carbs galore.
And even sqitching to a total Keto diet - ketosis is healthy for the liver.
Bread and carbs are horrendous for the liver.

It was the nausea and feeling really fatigued that made her go to the Dr. She also started to repeat herself a lot during conversations which made DHs dad push her to go as she was just not herself. We thought it could be a really bad UTI or something.

During the chat with the GP we think she mentioned how much she was drinking which then made the GP send her for blood tests etc and it came back fatty liver disease.

Thank you, she has been in DHs life a long time. It is all a bit fraught as she didn't drink before meeting DHs dad. His dad has cut everything out now but there is so much guilt from everyone. We are all so avoidant, no one openly discusses anything in our family.

I am glad your mum is looking well. Has she been able to have a rethink about not coming off her meds? She must have been scared, but maybe she will have time to come to terms with the info and listen to the Drs advice.

My mum knew she had mild fatty liver around 4 years ago and she’s found this as she went to doctor with tiredness and the helpful GP decided to do thorough testing as she’s turned 60. She said today that the doctor said the reason for the milder fatty liver progressing is because she came off her statins some time in the past year (not off the advice of the doctor either)! She was encouraged by a family member to come off them for some reason. I’ve read today up on this and it what I read, confirmed what the doctor has said. Her cholesterol is around 7, which has obviously shot ip since coming off the statins. Her gp now has her back on 2 types of statin/ cholesterol controlling meds.

As a result, similar to you, we are all more conscious now of what we eat ourselves but also ensuring we all eat healthy around her to support her. We also went on a good walk this morning and I’ll commit to doing this regular.

why do you think there is so much guilt? Because of drinking around her etc or something else?

Thank you for your replies.

That is reassuring thank you. My Mum has never been a drinker so I assume it is the food. She came off her statins without guidance from GP within the last year which has apparently caused this progression of the milder fatty liver. Safe to say she is back on them now, only 2 types now. She has been walking twice a day, eating eggs, whole meal bread only and rationing this, fruit and lentils etc so she has committed to this healthy diet. No cakes / chocolate or anything like that. I will read up on the keto diet thanks.

It's the biscuits and other sugary rubbish. Tell her she needs to seriously cut down on that stuff.

I had a fatty liver for years and I also stuffed down biscuits like she does and other sugary stuff. Two years ago, I cut it right down and lost 2 stone. My latest LFT has revealed that all the liver fat had gone.

Thank you. How long did you have the fatty liver for and did they give you any info about staging?

Pleased that you are doing better and all liver fat has gone. I am presuming her liver has some scarring which I believe makes it more difficult to reverse. She has cut out all crap.

I probably had the fatty liver for a decade or more. Nobody said anything about staging but having just looked up what staging is, I was at stage 2 (the non-alcoholic thing).

If your mum is at stage 3, there can still be improvement.

She was stage 3, fibrosis, so it’s possible to make changes even at that stage. She was very strict with diet and exercise and her consultant was wonderful. I think the fibroscan worked as she knew where she was at and what she had to do, she was so shocked she just got straight to work. We’d always associated liver with alcohol, I had no idea that diet could do so much damage.