While millions of people are thought to suffer from the early stages of fatty liver disease, most of them unfortunately have no idea due to the fact that there are no symptoms to alert them of this health issue.
There is more and more proof that not managing this condition early on can really lead to significant future complications, however.
These are the findings of a brand new study from King’s College London.
The research suggests that eating too much fat and sugar is what causes fatty liver disease and can even lead to severe types of brain dysfunction.
To find this out, scientists from the University of Poitiers fed lab mice two different diets.
One group of mice received a diet that did not exceed 10 percent fat per day, while the other group’s diet consisted of 55 percent fat per day.
16 weeks later, the research team conducted a series of tests in order to learn the effects of these two different diets on the mice’s brains as well as their livers.
As it turns out, the mice that ate more fat were not only considered obese but they also ended up developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), insulin resistance and even brain dysfunction.
And that is not all. Another important conclusion of this research was that the mice in the group diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease registered lower levels of oxygen as well.
The research team noted that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease affects the thickness and the number of blood vessels as well.
What this means is that less oxygen gets delivered to the tissue as some cells begin to consume more oxygen while the brain experiences inflammation.
All of this is really unfortunate news, the study’s lead author Doctor Anna Hadjihambi describing the results of the study as “very concerning.”
