danielm

Hello kymwho.

I can probably give you a little advice because I've also been diagnosed with fatty liver myself.

Fattyliver can be gotten through a number of different ways. Most commonly though, it's associated with being overweight or by drinking alcohol. Since you do both, it's likely to be either one of those as the main cause.

What happens is you get fatty infiltration of your liver cells and over time, it will lead to a hardening of the liver. It is quite dangerous if left unchecked, so if you can, you need to make changes right now.

The liver is actually a very resiliant organ in the body and can recover from damage from fatty liver as long as you are proactive about it and do the right things.

Firstly, quite drinking alcohol - period. Not even a drop. It can be very hard for some people to effectively go cold turkey like this and some medical practitioners will advise the odd glass won't hurt, but seriously, don't take the risk. If you're fatty liver is a result of drinking, by simply stopping drinking you can fix the problem.

If it's from being overweight, you need to change your diet to a low fat one. Eat plenty of fresh fruit and veg, avoid processed foods where you can. Drink plenty of water (about 2 litres a day is good) and eat low fat foods. Fish is really good as well (whole or filleted). Avoid fatty or greasy foods as much as possible, don't use things like butter or margarine. The idea is to remove as much fat from your diet as you possibly can because it's just going to keep building up in your liver - and with your liver already fatty, it's struggling to process what you already have.

You also need to introduce some weight reduction exercise into your day. Fatty liver can come about by being as little as 10% over weight and it's very important you do what you can to reduce weight. Do it gradually though - losing too much weight too quickly isn't actually good for you either. You will find that going for a good 30 minute walk each day along with a low fat diet will be enough to reduce your weight.

Besides a low fat diet and regular exercise, there's little more you can do in order to treat Fatty liver. There's no medication you can take to help at this stage, so it's a fairly slow recovery process. However you can take a Milk Thistle supplement which is what I do three times daily. The jury is still out on how much it helps, but the fact is, I noticed a considerable difference in my liver enzyme tests after I started taking it, so I can definitely recommend it. Milk Thistle has an active ingredient in it called Silybum, which is shown to protect new liver cells from damage. It's a natural supplement that has been used as far back as the Roman era for the treatment of liver diseases.

As I mentioned before, I had also been diagnosed with Fatty liver (mine was from being overweight) about 5 months ago. I was very very sick during this time with a number of different symptoms (nausea, dizzyness, chest and tummy pain, digestive problems, headaches, right rib soreness etc etc) - it was a horrible experience. But with a good diet and regular exercise under the supervision of a heptologist (liver specialist) I have been able to get my liver enzymes back down to NORMAL again and I'm much better for it. I lost 27kgs (from 105kgs down to 78kgs) and have a lot more energy than before.

It's a horrible disease to get, but you can get over it with time and dedication.

Hang in there and don't be afraid to chat about what you're going through. Anything to do with liver can be scary and I found it was through talking with people I was able to get through it all.

Best wishes and good luck.