Fatty Liver? High Liver Enzymes? What does this mean?
Did you know that having a fatty liver can make it harder to stick to a healthy eating plan? Your liver finds it harder to regulate blood glucose which leads to blood sugar drops and therefore intense sugar cravings and energy crashes.
A Fatty liver produces high levels of inflammation which causes damage to the liver cells (as evidenced with elevated liver enzymes on blood test). This makes it harder for liver to function properly, to detoxify your blood and to burn fat as a fuel source. If your liver is inflamed (and fatty) and its not detoxifying properly, this can lead to accumulating toxins in your blood stream contributing to inflammation elsewhere in your body.
How do you know if you have a fatty liver? This is usually diagnosed by your GP with a blood test (liver enzymes and cholesterol panel) as well as ultrasound.
Often there are no symptoms in the early stages of fatty liver but as time goes on, certain symptoms such as weight gain in abdominal region, constant fatigue, bloating, intolerant of heat. Women may experience hot flushes at menopause but attribute it to lack of hormones. So yes, addressing fatty liver can reduce the risk of hot flushes in peri-menopause.
Risk factors for fatty liver:
Diet! Low fibre, high sugar and vegetable oils
Obesity – fat storage around our internal organs, particularly our liver (abdominal weight gain)
Sedentary lifestyle and muscle loss
Insulin resistance - high glucose, high triglycerides.
Gut inflammation (overgrowth of some bacteria that secrete inflammatory chemicals)
Genetics – but don’t think this is a guarantee. Genetics only come into play in the right environment ie. see gut inflammation or poor diet.
- Thyroid disorders – people with low thyroid function tend to have high cholesterol build up and liver dysfunction
The BAD news - is that fatty liver increases the risk of a number of cancers and metabolic diseases such as stroke, diabetes and heart disease.
The GOOD news – Fatty Liver is reversible in the majority of cases with the right eating plan and sometimes supportive supplementation recommended *.
There are also lots of diet hacks that we can do to reduce sugar cravings and reduce the risk of blood sugar crashes.
Here are my top 3 Dietary recommendations that you can start to put in place now:
The number 1 thing I advise is to priorities a high protein, high fibre breakfast. This will help to stabilise blood glucose for the rest of the day.
Increase fibre and water to encourage daily bowel motions. When we pass bowel motions we are actually excreting excess cholesterol and toxins from our body. Having fibre enables binding to this cholesterol and toxins for excretion and to prevent reabsorption.
Eliminate sugary soft-drinks and high sugar foods. Replace with water, and high fibre and protein snacks.
Many people undertaking my Metabolic Balance program or gut healing program see decreases in liver enzymes at later testing.
* Note – many supplements are contraindicated with any medications so please check with natural health practitioner trained in nutritional biochemistry or herbal medicine before self-prescribing.
