Exercise helps fatty liver
- Study shows that exercise can help reduce the risk of fatty liver. 
· Fatty liver is the disorder of an accumulation of fat cells in the liver and is a common condition affecting up to 30% of the United States adult population.
· Fatty liver can lead to cirrhosis and may increase the risk of developing liver cancer.
Exercise appears to help patients with fatty liver disease (nonalcoholic fatty liver).
· In a recent article published in the journal Hepatology, routine exercise was shown to improve the markers of liver damage from fatty liver.
· Study authors analyzed 141 patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver over a three months period.
The study showed that participants who maintained exercise more than 150 minutes per week had the greatest improvement in the markers of liver damage compared with the control group of patients who were not encouraged to exercise and were the least active.
· Exercising up to 60 minutes a week was not sufficient to show a benefit in liver function.
· Fatty liver is common and there is no standard protocol for treating fatty liver. This is an important study in that is shows that behavioral changes as easy as routine exercise can help treat fatty liver.
Cristopher Geiler, MD
Reference
Hepatology. 2009;50:68-76.
Posted on July 23, 2009
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