World Liver Day: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Cases On Rise, Doctors Blame Lifestyle

SRINAGAR: While expressing concern over the rising fatty liver cases in Kashmir, doctors said that the sedentary lifestyle and consumption of junk food is the key reason behind surge in fatty liver cases in Kashmiri population.

A leading oncologist at SKIMS Soura Dr Zahoor said that fatty liver or Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) has emerged as a major lifestyle disease in the modern world.

“It is mainly associated with intake of high calorie, processed food with poor physical activity and these people usually tend to have high BMI, hypertension and diabetes mellitus,” he said.

Fatty liver can lead to fibrosis of liver and subsequent Chronic Liver Disease (CLD), he said, adding that it is emerging as one of the major causes of liver cancer worldwide overtaking viral hepatitis in causing so.

Dr Mohammad Salim Khan, head of Department of Community Medicine at GMC Srinagar said that the sedentary lifestyle, consumption of junk food, change in dietary pattern with consumption of food rich in fat, salt and sugar, very limited physical activities, stress, indulgence in alcoholism, all are contributing to increasing liver diseases especially fatty liver.

Furthermore, injecting drug use (abuse, addiction) with sharing of needles and syringes has caused an epidemic of viral Hepatitis, especially Hepatitis-C and Hepatitis-B, he said.

In order to prevent this disease, change in lifevstyle is the need of the hour. People should bring a change in their dietary habbits and avoid junk food at earliest, he added.