Modest alcohol consumption may REDUCE mortality in patients with NAFLD

Posted on by David Frank

A new study from New York Presbyterian Hospital has some eyebrow-raising findings.  We already know that drinking coffee is good for the liver, but you would expect to find less evidence of a positive relationship with alcohol.  Yes, there have been plenty of studies that show a glass of wine can be good for you, but never one that highlighted an actual positive link.

This study goes even further and finds that moderate drinking can actually lead to a reduced mortality risk in patients with NAFLD.  Wut??? Continue reading “Modest alcohol consumption may REDUCE mortality in patients with NAFLD” →

A Star in the Sky: Coping with the sudden loss of a loved one

Posted on by David Frank

My mother passed away suddenly four years ago this month after a short battle with late-stage NASH.  Which is impossible, but somehow true.  Just a few days before being diagnosed with NASH she was celebrating with my wife and I at a housewarming party at the Shore.  A picture of her from that party occupies a prominent place on our fridge; the last picture of her before our lives were all changed forever.

mom pic
Mom just a few days before she fell into a coma as a result of liver failure.

Continue reading “A Star in the Sky: Coping with the sudden loss of a loved one” →

Viking Therapeutics delivers promising results in NALFD trial

Posted on by David Frank

It’s another promising result from one of the dozens of bio-pharmaceutical companies trying to find treatments for fatty liver disease.  Viking Therapeutics announced results from an early study of NAFLD patients that exceeded expectations yesterday, sending the stock soaring 122%.

trial Continue reading “Viking Therapeutics delivers promising results in NALFD trial” →

The Thyroid’s link to NASH

Posted on by David Frank

I lost my mother suddenly to late-stage NASH when she was only 62 years old.  The search for answers and meaning has led me to working with the American Liver Foundation and starting this blog.  One thing that has become increasingly clear to me was that my mom’s decades of hypothyroidism could have been a major cause of her progression to NASH.  Now, a new meta-study examining 18 years of data has concluded that those patients with primary hypothyroidism are at a 42% increased risk for developing NAFLD, the precursor to NASH. Continue reading “The Thyroid’s link to NASH” →

New treatment restarts liver regeneration

Posted on by David Frank

One of the coolest things about the liver is that it is the only major organ capable of regenerating itself.  In fact, during a living donor liver transplant, as little as 1/3 of the living donor’s liver is transplanted and grows back to full size in the recipient within only a few weeks time.  When you think about it, this makes perfect sense.  The liver’s job is to detoxify our bodies, which means that they are constantly processing toxins that would otherwise kill us.  Whether it is alcohol, drugs, or simple byproducts of food that we ingest, the liver has to be able to handle removing them from our bloodstream to keep us healthy.   Continue reading “New treatment restarts liver regeneration” →

The devastating effect of NASH on young kids

Posted on by David Frank

Earlier this year I wrote about the sobering fact that up to 10% of children in the USA are estimated to be living with NAFLD, with nearly a quarter of them having progressed to NASH.  It’s bad enough that millions of children are having to face this disease so early in life but the evidence is actually getting worse for pre-teen children, as research has shown that fatty liver disease progression through NASH to fibrosis and eventual liver failure is significantly accelerated versus the teen or adult population.

nafld-affects-children Continue reading “The devastating effect of NASH on young kids” →

The most effective treatment for serious NASH – Surgery

Posted on by David Frank

Ever since my Mom passed away suddenly after being diagnosed with late-stage NASH, I’ve been following the efforts of the medical community and many bio-pharma companies to develop effective treatments for the disease.  Mostly, I’ve followed the efforts to develop medicine that can slow or reverse the effects of NASH, as there is a lot of attention being paid to this and some recent successful trials.

I recently attended an event with a distinguished panel of liver experts and one of the discussion points that surprised me was how effective weight-loss surgery is at treating NASH.  I shouldn’t have been surprised, I suppose, because I already knew that losing a small amount of weight can lead to big improvements in NASH patients.  Surgery just seemed “extreme” to me, but in fact it is by far the most effective way to achieve sustained weight loss, and has even been called one of the most effective interventions in all of health care. Continue reading “The most effective treatment for serious NASH – Surgery” →

Deaths from Liver Cancer rise 43% since 2000 amidst decline in all other cancer rates

Posted on by David Frank

The impact of NASH is only starting to be realized.  One sobering figure just released by the CDC highlights yet another trend going in the wrong direction.  From 2000 to 2016, the mortality rate for liver cancer rose 43%, even while the rates for all other cancers declined.

liver-cancer-min

Continue reading “Deaths from Liver Cancer rise 43% since 2000 amidst decline in all other cancer rates” →

The missed opportunities of the “Body Positivity” movement

Posted on by David Frank

Let’s get something out of the way up front.  Dealing with weight issues is an incredibly emotional and sensitive subject, and as a society we should not focus on shaming, shunning, or victimizing the nearly half of the country that is overweight or obese.  By creating a societal image of beauty and attractiveness that ostracizes over a hundred million people in the USA alone, we have done ourselves a terrible disservice.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the medical realities that are strongly correlated to being overweight.  The amount of diseases and medical conditions with direct causal relationships to weight are staggering, and the evidence is strong and tested.  NASH is emerging as perhaps the single largest affliction in terms of both prevalence and incidence, with estimates of over 30 million people currently living in the US with the disease, and the vast majority of them unaware that they have it until it is too late. Continue reading “The missed opportunities of the “Body Positivity” movement” →