30% of the population suffers from metabolic fatty liver, an abnormal accumulation of fat in the liver caused mainly by the existence of metabolic factors, and many patients are unaware of it, according to Alba Martínez Escudé, a family doctor at the Catalan Society of Medicine. Family and Community (CAMFiC).
Of these cases, between 5 and 10% present significant fibrosis, which occurs when liver cells are damaged by different mechanisms and scars are generated, giving rise to a more severe form of disease, added the doctor, who has specified that 6% of the adult population has significant liver fibrosis, caused mainly by metabolic fatty liver, “and they don’t know it”.
According to the doctor, when the patient presents significant fibrosis, the risk of progression to liver cirrhosis is greater.
According to Martínez, about 7% of people with cirrhosis due to fatty liver will develop liver cancer, “although the main cause of mortality in patients with metabolic fatty liver is cardiovascular disease.”
The doctor recalled that there is a set of risk factors that predispose to the development of metabolic fatty liver, such as the components of metabolic syndrome: diabetes, obesity, dyslipidemia and hypertension.
In fact, in patients with diabetes, liver disease affects more than 60% of cases, while in patients with obesity, more than 80%, a prevalence that is higher than the general population, according to Martínez.
The family doctor has admitted that there are also other factors that are related to this disease, such as age, sex, sedentary lifestyle, diet, some genetic or epigenetic factors, hormone levels, intestinal microbiota, among others, which still are being studied.
“More sedentary lifestyles and eating habits with greater consumption of processed products, industrial pastries, sugary drinks, among others, favor that the number of people suffering from the disease has increased notably in recent decades, in such a way that fatty liver metabolic disease, has become the most frequent chronic liver disease in the world and a major public health problem,” according to Martínez.
