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Weight loss programs important with patients with fatty liver

Weight loss programs important with patients with fatty liver

People with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD ) show improved biomarkers of liver disease after weight loss interventions, a new British study shows.


These findings appear to support the need to change the clinical guidelines and to recommend formal weight loss programs for people with NAFLD, Reuters reports.
These findings appear to support the need to change the clinical guidelines and to recommend formal weight loss programs for people with NAFLD.


Researchers examined data on 2,588 patients who were participating in 22 clinical trials of various interventions to help them lose weight. Fifteen studies tested behavioral weight loss programs; six tested medications; one tested weight loss surgery.

 

Data of the research were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.


Improvements in the control of blood glucose levels

It shows clearly that weight loss improves the health of the liver,” said Dimitrios Koutoukidis, a researcher at the University of Oxford in the U.K. and lead author of the study. We found some evidence that weight loss improved NAFLD through improvements in the control of blood glucose levels and reductions in insulin resistance, but we need more research to understand the exact mechanisms,” Koutoukidis said by email.


Different approaches to weight loss didn’t appear to impact whether fibrosis or scarring, in the liver, got better or worse.


We should try to lose 7% of the weight


Ideally, patients should try to lose 7% of their weight and maintain this weight loss in order to have long-term improvements in NAFLD, Brandman explained to Reuters by email.


Patients should know that this is an ultra-marathon rather than a sprint,” Brandman added.

 

Weight loss - and the behavior change needed to achieve it - can be really difficult for many patients for a variety of reasons.

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