Fatty liver and probiotics

This is the 2946th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

What is fatty liver?

Fatty liver, in layman's terms, means that the liver is too fat, with too much fat accumulated inside. If the accumulated fat exceeds 5% of the liver weight, or if more than 50% of the liver cells have fatty degeneration in histology, it can be called fatty liver. The incidence of fatty liver is very high now, mainly due to two factors:

01

Eat too well

This leads to overnutrition and lack of exercise, which eventually causes a large amount of fat to accumulate in the liver. Patients with this type of fatty liver are generally overweight.

02

Frequent alcohol abuse

Alcoholic fatty liver is caused by quitting drinking. The other treatments are similar to those for ordinary fatty liver.

Many people think that fatty liver is a minor issue, which is a wrong view. Because the liver has limited space, too much fat in it will occupy the living space of normal liver cells, and even squeeze the liver cells, causing liver damage, and eventually leading to cirrhosis and even liver cancer. In patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis progresses one level every 7-10 years on average, and the incidence of cirrhosis is as high as 15-25% within 10-15 years. Therefore, fatty liver must be taken seriously.

What are probiotics?

Probiotics are microorganisms, usually bacteria, that can have beneficial effects on human health.

Research has found that people with fatty liver have different intestinal flora from healthy people, which is a common phenomenon. For example, when the intestinal flora of obese mice was transplanted into normal mice, the normal mice also quickly developed obesity and fatty liver, indicating that there is a close relationship between intestinal flora and fatty liver.

Researchers at the University of Granada in Spain found that giving experimental mice probiotics for 30 days reduced the amount of fat in their livers. Although the use of these microorganisms cannot cure fatty liver disease, it can help fight the disease as an adjunct to standard treatment.

Therefore, by supplementing with probiotics to forcibly change the patient's intestinal microecological environment, it can have a therapeutic effect on fatty liver.

Experts say that in addition to using some liver-protecting drugs, the effect of using some probiotics for microecological treatment will be better. For patients with fatty liver whose liver function is still normal, using probiotics alone can have a good effect. This is mainly because

Probiotics can regulate the balance of intestinal microecology

Competition for nutrients and adhesion sites

Protects the intestinal mucosal barrier

Exerts multiple anti-inflammatory effects

Others: Improve fat metabolism and insulin resistance, etc.

The microecological treatment in gastroenterology helps patients lose weight by improving the intestinal flora, thereby reducing or even eliminating the symptoms of fatty liver.

Many overweight patients have mild clinical symptoms at the beginning, and even have no specific symptoms for a long time. When they come to the doctor, they have symptoms of liver disease such as discomfort in the right upper abdomen, bitter taste in the mouth, aversion to oil, and general fatigue. Examinations reveal fatty liver. However, after persisting in microecological treatment for about 20 days, many people's symptoms such as not wanting to eat, general fatigue, and pain in the liver area have disappeared. Many patients with mild symptoms have even restored normal liver function. At present, some of the patients with fatty liver who have been tracked have achieved relatively good results by taking probiotics for treatment.

Experts emphasize that as long as bad eating habits are corrected, alcohol is stopped, exercise is adhered to, and regular microecological treatment is combined, the liver function of most fatty liver patients can be restored to normal and fatty liver can disappear. In other words, fatty liver is a disease that can be cured, but it must be treated for a long time, and lifestyle habits must be controlled after the cure in order to stay healthy.

Author: Zhu Wenjie, Chief Physician, Department of General Medicine, Tongren Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine

Expertise: diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular and digestive system diseases, management of chronic diseases