Even if you have never touched alcohol, you can still get liver cirrhosis. A new study in the UK has found that a large number of teenagers and young adults have Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver (NAFL).
A Bengaluru-based gastroenterologist sees five patients in the 16-20 age group with NAFL in a month, underscoring the prevalence of the condition closer home. "Eating junk food, cheese, drinking carbonated drinks and not exercising much cause NAFL in the long run," said Dr M S Sandeep, a gastroenterologist at Apollo Hospitals.
According to him, the profile of people with fatty liver has changed from alcoholics to consumers of processed food in the last five years. The liver bears lots of abuse and allows the patient to lead a normal life until it is 70% damaged.
"It takes decades for someone to develop the liver disease," Dr Sandeep said. "When it's diagnosed, a lot of time is lost. Though there are medication and lifestyle changes, you can't actually cure fatty liver."
Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) is the result of fat build-up in the liver and is more serious among fatty liver diseases. If you have NASH, you have inflammation and liver cell damage, along with fat in your liver.
Surprisingly, women in their late teens and early 20s are developing liver cirrhosis. Autoimmune hepatitis, for instance, is more common among women than men and can begin at a very young age. It may cause abdominal pain, jaundice, fatigue, weight loss and disabling joint pain. If left untreated or undiagnosed, autoimmune hepatitis can develop into cirrhosis.