I contracted viral hepatitis while I was in school, even though I had never done any of the things — sharing needles, getting tattoos, or having multiple sex partners — that are common risk factors for the disease. My biology teacher took one look at my sickly, jaundiced face and wisely told me that “life lies in the liver.”
All I knew at the time was that life with a dysfunctional liver was pretty miserable. Unfortunately, this may be the fate of an increasing number of people around the world. Liver disease is on the rise overall, but one disease in particular is getting the attention of doctors and researchers—and it’s one you’ve probably never heard of. More than one-third of adults and about 13% of children and adolescents are thought to have conditions such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which if left undiagnosed and untreated, can lead to serious problems. A trajectory leading to liver failure and many other diseases.
It’s definitely not me, right? Don’t be complacent. Most people with NAFLD are unaware they have the disease because the condition is largely asymptomatic and screening programs are almost non-existent. But to avert a crisis, people are working together to raise awareness. The bad news is that, on current trajectories, more than half of the world’s adults will develop NAFLD in their lifetime. The good news is that many of these people won’t develop severe disease, and the rest may be able to reverse the problem—but only if it’s caught early…
