A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE IS ASSOCIATED WITH A LOWER RISK of developing fatty liver disease. Today we explore the connection between inadequate sleep and fatty liver disease.

First, did you catch the error in my post illustration? The striking image at the top of this piece has a bull’s eye on the stomach, not the liver. Don’t worry: I did not skip the Yale School of Medicine anatomy class.

Let’s get back to one of the dangers of insufficient sleep. Fatty liver disease is the leading chronic liver disease worldwide, striking one in four of the population.

Fatty liver disease

Fatty liver disease is a common condition resulting from too much-stored fat in the liver. Most individuals have no symptoms, but the fatty liver disease can occasionally lead to liver damage.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can often prevent (or even reverse) fatty liver disease with positive lifestyle interventions.

Fatty liver disease is common.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) happens in those who aren’t heavy consumers of alcohol. The condition affects about one in three adults (and one in ten childer) in the United States. Worldwide, the disease affects one in four adults, according to the Cleveland Clinic (USA).

Scientists do not know the exact cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. However, we know several factors, including diabetes and obesity, can increase your risk. Moreover, fatty liver disease may progress to end-stage liver disease.

Fatty liver disease hits certain groups more.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can affect anyone, regardless of age or race. By race, it appears more common among individuals of Hispanic descent, and Black people are less likely to get NAFLD (with whites in the middle).

Of those with non-alcoholic fatty disease, up to 75 percent have obesity or diabetes. Looking the other direction, up to 90 percent of those with advanced or class III obesity have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Fatty liver disease causes

Before we get to the sleep and fatty liver relationship, let’s look at some suspected factors:

• Diet. A high fructose diet may increase your risk of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Think common table sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Alas, the latter is a common added sweetener in many American foods. I have become a label reader. I want to avoid metabolic syndrome, a disease cluster that increases our risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. The risk-raising conditions include high blood sugar, too much body fat around the waist, abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels, and high blood pressure.
• Genetics. Inherited genetics may explain why individuals of certain races appear to get fatty liver disease more often.

Fatty liver disease causes

Researchers suspect several factors contribute to non-alcoholic fatty liver risk, including:

• Metabolic syndrome. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease seems linked to a group of related metabolic disorders involving high body mass index, elevated blood lipid levels, diabetes, and high blood pressure. These factors influence one another and affect how your body stores fats and metabolizes nutrients.
• Diet and nutritional causes. A fructose-rich diet can increase your risk of developing NAFLD. Fructose is one of the ingredients in common table sugar and is the dominant ingredient in high fructose corn syrup, a common sweetener. It’s highly linked to metabolic syndrome.
• Genetics. Inherited genes may make you more likely to develop NAFLD. It may also help explain why individuals of certain races seem to get it more often.
• Gallbladder removal (cholecystectomy).

You may wonder if you should have screening for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, particularly if you have a risk factor such as obesity or diabetes.

The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases guidelines does not call for screening given uncertainties around which test to use (since liver enzyme levels may be normal in patients with NAFLD), how to treat NAFLD if discovered, and whether screening is cost-effective.

Fatty liver disease — possible complications

Here are the two major complications of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease:

• Pregnancy complications. NAFLD in pregnancy is associated with a higher risk of complications for the mother and fetus. For example, high blood pressure problems (such as preeclampsia) are more likely to affect the mother. Other associated problems include bleeding after delivery and preterm birth. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in pregnancy has tripled over the past ten years in the United States.
• Steatohepatitis. Up to 20 percent of individuals with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease may develop non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or chronic liver inflammation. This inflammatory state can progressively damage the liver, culminating in scarring (cirrhosis).

Non-alcoholic fatty disease risk and short sleep

Do you have a sedentary lifestyle? Are you getting insufficient sleep? A new study points to a higher risk of developing fatty liver disease.

According to Dr. Yan Liu of Guangdong (China), the takeaway message is:

“Those with poor nighttime sleep and prolonged daytime napping have the highest risk for developing fatty liver disease. A moderate improvement in sleep quality appeared associated with a nearly one-third (29 percent) drop in fatty liver disease risk (even for those with unhealthy lifestyles).

The scientists arrived at their conclusions by analyzing self-reported sleep behaviors from just over 5,000 Chinese adults. Late bedtime, daytime napping for more than 30 minutes, and snoring appeared to be linked to an increased risk of fatty liver disease.

Sedentary individuals and those with central obesity had especially noticeable adverse effects from poor sleep quality.

Summary: Sleep and fatty liver disease

In summary, even a moderate improvement in sleep quality can reduce the risk for fatty liver disease, especially in those with unhealthy lifestyles. Thank you for joining me today.

The post One More Peril of Short Sleep appeared first on Medika Life.

During the day, the young man carefully monitored his meals, counted his calories, looked at how he could make substitutions for items, read menus with a vengeance, and prepared himself to hit the scale the following day.

The battle of the bulge for him had been going on since his early 20s, and he had seen experts in weight control who had put him in group therapy and provided individual therapy to explore why he didn’t seem able to lose weight. The bottom line for him was that no one believed him.

No matter what he said or how carefully he monitored his food intake and maintained an exercise regimen, they all looked at him as though he were secretly sneaking high-calorie foods. If anyone looked at the calorie counters he kept during the day and perused the meals he claimed he had eaten that day and any soft drink he had had, they all concluded that he wasn’t telling the truth.

The grilling went on as they believed he was resistant to revealing what he was secretly doing and which they knew he had to be doing because he never seemed to lose weight. It appeared that he was gaining weight each month.

One behavioral therapist had a moment of incredible insight. When he got up in the morning, she asked if he noticed anything odd in his bedroom, his kitchen, or his living room. What a strange question, he thought.

Now she thinks I don’t know how to keep my apartment neat and clean, in addition to being someone who can’t control their appetite?

When he inspected his home as she had suggested, he went into the kitchen the following day. He discovered a high-calorie dessert half-eaten on the table, and a half-eaten sandwich near the refrigerator. Sure, he’d seen some of this before, but he thought nothing of it and cleaned the mess up.

Of course, he knew he shouldn’t have these things in the house or any other high-calorie drinks or food around, but he kept them to test his resolve to maintain his diet. He went back to the therapist and told her what he had discovered. He brought photographs he had taken so that she could share the information that he had.

A Strange Diagnosis

The diagnosis was clear, and to whom did she refer him? Writing on a notepad, she gave him the name of a sleep medicine physician because it appeared that he had what is known as a sleep-related eating disorder (SRED).

The man wasn’t alone in this unusual sleep disorder because the therapist had heard of other men and women who found themselves, after they had gone to sleep, in extraordinary situations where they were eating entire loaves of bread and stuffing their mouths full.

One man awakened to find himself sitting in his bed with a large bowl of cereal and ice cream, which he was gorging on even though he was asleep. Fortunately, it awakened him, and he began to wonder why he, too, was having a problem maintaining a healthy weight.

Some individuals with this unusual sleep disorder can find themselves in hazardous situations where they begin trying to prepare foods on the stove or in the microwave and may go back to bed after eating and leave the stove on.

All of these people experienced what is known as a parasomnia, in which they have no recollection of what they did while they were asleep. Typically, we might hear about people sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, another highly dangerous activity. Still, not enough people or enough individuals in the healthcare field know about sleep-related eating disorders.

The literature points to the disorder being more prevalent in women, and 66 to 75% of those with SRED are females who develop the condition in their 20s.

The Evidence Is There

One of the problems with diagnosing sleep and eating disorder (ED) is the lack of literature available to professionals. The paucity of research publications on sleep-related eating disorder (SRED) is curious since researchers know two main drives in our lives are eating and sleeping. Wouldn’t that seem to indicate that these two areas should receive more attention, especially when they are combined in a disorder such as sleep-related eating disorder, but that’s not the case.

Research points to the fact that persons with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, also have additional problems. Up to 57% of those with eating disorders also show disorganized sleep patterns and an inability to maintain or initiate sleep.

And the combination of disrupted eating and sleeping can have serious consequences. EDs are associated with significantly higher mortality rates than other DSM-5 diagnoses ranging from 5 to 6%.

Another related condition, known as nocturnal eating syndrome (NES), is the disorder where the person wakes up during the night and needs to eat something to get back to sleep. The difference between this disorder and SRED is that the person is wide awake and knows they are eating while the SRED person eats and has no memory of it.

One question currently needing additional attention when there is problematic weight gain with accompanying futility related to dieting may be the consideration of a sleep-eating-related situation. How often have persons manifesting obesity been referred for a sleep study?

We know there is a strong association between sleep disorders and individuals having an accompanying problem maintaining weight. Once we note the relationship between these two exists in the individual, would it seem reasonable to continue psychotherapy for unconscious conflict or some other psychological disorder? Wouldn’t it seem appropriate for a referral?

Possible Causes of SRED

Even though there is a relationship between sleep disorders and eating while sleeping, there doesn’t appear to be one specific cause for this disorder. There is evidence that specific sleep-related medications for insomnia may cause this type of behavior, as can medications for various other problems, including restless legs syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and periodic limb movement disorder. Stress may also have a role in this disorder, and that, too, must be investigated.

The patient’s symptoms include waking up with little or no memory of eating, weight gain, not feeling hungry in the morning, or feeling fatigued during the day.

Once the person has been assessed at a sleep laboratory, a treatment plan can be prescribed, and the appropriate healthcare personnel will become involved.

Patients need to be honest with themselves regarding any weight difficulties they are experiencing and are advised not to jump to the conclusion that it must be a sleep disorder. It might be a sleep disturbance that adds to daytime issues, but not necessarily SRED.

The post Asleep and Stuffing Food Into Your Mouth with No Memory of It appeared first on Medika Life.