The need for liver transplants because of heavy drinking soared during the pandemic, researchers reported Tuesday.They found the number of people who got a liver transplant or were put on a waiting list due to alcoholic hepatitis was 50% higher than what was forecast based on pre-pandemic trends.With alcoholic hepatitis, the liver stops processing alcohol and instead creates highly toxic chemicals that trigger inflammation. The inflammation can kill off healthy liver cells, creating irreversible damage to the liver that may force the patient to get a liver transplant to survive.Alcoholic hepatitis is a condition that often develops after years of heavy drinking, but it can also develop after a short period of excess. Scientists still don’t know why some people develop this condition and others don’t.For this study, University of Michigan researchers compared the actual number of new people put on the U.S. organ transplant list from March 2020 to … Read More
Need for liver transplants due to heavy drinking soared during pandemic, study finds
They found the number of people who got a liver transplant or were put on a waiting list due to alcoholic hepatitis was 50% higher than what was forecast based on pre-pandemic trends.
With alcoholic hepatitis, the liver stops processing alcohol and instead creates highly toxic chemicals that trigger inflammation. The inflammation can kill off healthy liver cells, creating irreversible damage to the liver that may force the patient to get a liver transplant to survive.
Alcoholic hepatitis is a condition that often develops after years of heavy drinking, but it can also develop after a short period of excess. Scientists still don’t know why some people develop this condition and others don’t.
For this study, University of Michigan researchers compared the actual number of new people put on the US organ transplant list from March 2020 to January 2021 with the projected numbers that were based on pre-pandemic data.
Seemingly healthy levels of liver fat can trigger type 2 diabetes, UK study suggests
New research presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), held online this year, found that the amount of fat stored in the liver is higher in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), whatever their BMI.
It also suggested that levels of liver fat currently considered to be healthy can be metabolically harmful in people with a normal BMI, causing T2D.
The most common form of diabetes, T2D occurs when the pancreas can’t make enough insulin (a hormone which helps turn the sugar in food into energy) or the insulin it makes doesn’t work properly.
Previously, the landmark Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT), from Glasgow and Newcastle universities, showed that an intensive weight loss programme delivered by GPs can put T2D into remission in people who are overweight.
The DiRECT trial suggested that excess fat stored in the liver
Coffee reduces risk of liver disease, cancer: BMC Public Health study
Drinking three to four cups of coffee a day may reduce your risk of liver cancer and other alcohol-related liver diseases, according to a new study.
Researchers looked at the coffee habits of more than 494,000 people in the UK Biobank, a biomedical database, and monitored their liver health over 11 years.
Participants ranged from 40 to 69 years old, with 384,818 saying they were avid coffee drinkers, and 109,767 saying they were not. People who drank ground caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee saw the most benefits, while some reduction in risks was also found in instant coffee drinkers.
Coffee drinkers were 21% less likely to develop chronic liver disease, 20% less likely to develop chronic or fatty liver disease, and 49% less likely to die of chronic liver disease than non-coffee drinkers, according to the study published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal BMC Public Health.
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is