One More Reason to Do It NOW

As Americans continue to gain weight (2/3 of Americans are now considered to be either overweight or obese), disease follows close behind.  We've all heard about the rise in diabetes and more Americans than ever are on medications for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, but there is another unexpected medical condition that is appearing on the scene, and it's frightening.

According to an article posted on CNN last week, one-third of Americans have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is directly linked to being overweight.  For some individuals, this disease will eventually lead to the need for a liver transplant.  As the liver disease progresses, it can cause brain changes called hepatic encephalopathy due to the liver having a hard time filtering out toxins, which can go to the brain and cause problems such as memory lapses, trouble sleeping at night and lack of coordination.  These symptoms can mimic symptoms seen in Alzheimer's patients.

The CNN article related the story of a man in his 60's whose liver disease was behind his memory lapses and erratic behavior.  This individual had cirrhosis, just like alcoholics get, but in his case, fat, not alcohol, was the culprit.  In case you're thinking that this man must have weighed 300 or 400 pounds to develop this disease, you will probably be as shocked as I was to learn that he was 5' 8" and 185 pounds - overweight, and too much fat in his liver eventually caused it to malfunction.

Because of the growing obesity in this country, Dr. Naim Alkhouri, a hepatologist at the Cleveland Clinic stated "It's overwhelming how many patients we're seeing with this problem."


Dr. William Carey, also a hepatologist at the Cleveland Clinic, added, "This is huge. We didn't even know this disease existed 30 years ago. Now it's the most common liver disease in America."

The article went on to quote Dr. Michael Curry, a hepatologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who said that "About a third of the U.S. population has non-alcoholic fatty liver disease."  Curry said most of those people -- about 80% -- will not develop significant liver disease. The other 20% will develop a disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Of those, about 20-30% will go on to develop cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease, where the only real treatment is a liver transplant.

"That's about 6 million people. We won't have the ability to treat all those patients," Curry says. "If we even have a fraction of that number of patients, it will overwhelm liver transplant programs."
The article went on to say that if a patient loses weight, eats better and exercises, he or she can often reverse the disease in its earlier stages. 


That's good news!  And that is exactly what my friend (I blogged about her last week) did in a matter of months.

By taking charge of our health NOW, by following the protocols of this program and getting to a healthy weight as quickly as possible, we can not only change our lives in the short-term, but we can change our long-term health.  This program is about so much more than being thin, feeling good about ourselves and wearing small sizes.  Those are all wonderful things, of course, and all of those things come when we reach goal.  But this program is about getting us healthy so that we can live as long as we possibly can, as healthy as we can possibly be.

That will happen one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

P.S.  If you'd like to read the entire article I referenced today, here's the link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/16/liver.disease.ep/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1