10. Silent Liver Threats. Fatty Liver Disease and Menopause. Uncovering and Overcoming NAFLD Risks

Unlock the secrets to protecting your liver within the quiet world of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)!

This episode is an essential listen for anyone concerned about the silent epidemic sweeping across not just adults but also our youth. We navigate the treacherous path from harmless fat accumulation to the life-threatening stages of cirrhosis, which can leave one grappling with the prospect of a liver transplant. For my fellow post-menopausal women, the risks are even more pronounced, and we tackle the intricate web of obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome that feeds this condition. But it's not just a tale of risks; I'm here to arm you with the knowledge to spot the subtle symptoms and take proactive measures to keep your liver in check, especially when certain lifestyle choices and medications could invite NAFLD into your life.

As we dissect the misconceptions fueling fatty liver disease, you'll learn why it's time to shift our focus from a mythical pharmaceutical cure to the transformative power of lifestyle changes. Refined sugars, especially the stealthy fructose in processed foods, emerge as a prominent villain in the NAFLD saga, but I'll show you how the natural sugars in fruits and veggies play a far more benign role, thanks to their fibrous entourage. The episode is packed with practical advice to navigate the misleading world of food labels and make choices that support your liver health. You'll leave equipped with the knowledge to sidestep the traps of hidden sugars and empowered with strategies to potentially reverse the impact of fatty liver disease—your liver will thank you.

Tune in as we Thrive Through Menopause together!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello, my friends, welcome to my channel. Today, I will be talking about the important topic fatty liver disease, specifically non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. So if you have been told that you have fatty liver disease or you know someone, I will be bringing you information about the things that you can do to help prevent this serious illness from progressing. This podcast is actually a live Instagram replay on the topic, so listen in.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Welcome to the Thriving Through Menopause podcast. Dr Inaka Yenbe, your host, is dedicated to helping you navigate the transformative journey of menopause and perimenopause, particularly focused on achieving menopausal weight loss and reducing belly fat. As a post-menopausal physician herself who has helped thousands of women experiencing the significant life stage, she understands the unique challenges you face. Listen in as we explore a wide range of topics aimed at supporting you in your health and wellness journey. Hopefully, the practical tips and strategies offered potentially help you adopt an empowering approach towards menopausal weight loss and belly fat reduction. And now here's your host, dr Inaka Yenbe.

Speaker 1: 1:22

First of all, let's talk about some definitions. What is fatty liver disease? And I have all my show notes here, so if you see me looking down, I am making sure that we don't miss anything. But first of all, what is fatty liver disease? And I'm talking about non-accoholic fatty liver disease. It's a buildup of fat in the liver, just that. And if you have greater than 5 to 10% of fat in your liver, then you have a diagnosis of fatty liver. So what that tells us right off the bat is that we may have this condition. However, we may not even know it. This is so important Now. The studies show or statistics do show that over 100 million people living in the United States have this disease. We are seeing fatty liver now in the young ones children as young as 10, 11,. They have fatty liver also.

Speaker 1: 2:21

This disease has different forms. So in the initial stages you just have fat deposited in your liver. Non-accoholic fatty liver disease. That can progress if you have too much fat deposited. Now you start to have inflammation from all these fatty deposits here and that condition is called NASH. Non-accoholic steatohepatitis just means that you've got some inflammation there. Things start to get dangerous. At this point. You may start having some symptoms, or you may go to your doctor and you have a blood test and they tell you your liver enzymes are abnormal. So if you've been to the doctor and they told you your liver enzymes are abnormal, this video will be for you. Listen very carefully. Anyway, you can have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. It progresses to stato hepatitis, so inflammation. If that inflammation progresses, if you don't do anything or don't get any help, it can progress to fibrosis the scar tissue starts forming in your liver, and then onto cirrhosis. So true, the end stage of liver damage.

Speaker 1: 3:37

And at that point, most of the time, the only treatment for you with liver cirrhosis will be transplant Studies now show, especially women who are older, those of us in menopause and who are obese, we are at higher risk of developing non-alcoholic stato hepatitis, which progresses to fibrosis and to cirrhosis. This is more common in older women. So please listen very carefully. There is something that you can do.

Speaker 1: 4:12

Nash, or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, is also associated with other conditions. So if you are diabetic, the studies show that most diabetics and I'm talking about type 2 diabetics, the kind that you get when you are older If you have high blood pressure, chances are you may have some fatty deposit in your liver as well. Studies actually show that 2 third of diabetics even those who have not been diagnosed, 2 thirds of diabetics do have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. All right if you have metabolic syndrome, meaning you're overweight. Abdominal girth as a female is greater than 35 inches, your cholesterol is high, your blood pressure is high those are the characteristics of metabolic syndrome. Chances are that you may have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as well.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Now, if you live a sedentary lifestyle you're not moving around a lot or if you're taking certain medications, they may put you at risk of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. So those are the risk factors. There are some genetic risk factors which we are not going to get into for the purposes of this video, and also people who drink alcohol. Yes, yes, you have a higher risk of developing fatty liver disease also. So we're not talking about that, strangely enough. Especially those of you who are looking for quick, quick solutions, don't do it, because studies also show that those who lose weight rapidly drastic weight loss also puts you at risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. All right, so what are the symptoms? You may be asking yourself how will I know that I have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease? Now, the majority of people, especially in the initial stages, have no symptoms. However, when the disease starts to progress, you may experience some symptoms. The most common one is fatigue, tiredness. Of course, fatigue is a big, big symptom. So many causes. One of them could be from your liver. Another one is just abdominal pain, especially after eating. You eat, you have pain. Could be your gallbladder, could be your liver, could be ulcers. Could be several things, but one of them could be just fatty liver disease. Also, you may have this abdominal distention that could be caused by liver damage. Also, sometimes you may notice this spider veins, tiny little veins that start coming up on your legs, on your abdomen. You're not really sure where it's from. This is when you go and get checked. That could be from liver damage.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Late symptoms are things like significant swelling in your belly. It feels like a water wave. That's accumulation of fluid in your belly. You have leg swelling. If your eyes turn yellow, that is very advanced liver damage. Now this is when you really really need to get checked. Some people have itching on the skin, yellow eyes, yellow skin that's also a sign of liver damage. All right, let's talk about how is it diagnosed. You know somebody just put in the chat there that she was diagnosed with abnormal liver blood tests. That's true. Generally you go to your doctor. They do a blood test, or you went to the emergency room for something else and then you had a blood panel done and they tell you hey, your liver enzymes are abnormal. Please do not ignore that because, like I said, when you start having abnormal liver blood tests, chances are fatty liver deposit has progressed to some extent.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Most people initially have normal blood tests. So if you're told you have abnormal blood tests, this is when you take action. Why the good news is non-accoholic fatty liver disease is reversible by your lifestyle. We'll talk about that towards the end of this video. It is totally reversible. This is why you need to take action now.

Speaker 2: 8:28

Not tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Don't ignore it until it progresses too far. Other ways of diagnosing this condition by getting tests or imaging studies like ultrasounds or CAT scans. The doctor can see there's some damaging deliver. Some people have a fibro scan or CT scan. All those imaging studies may show some fatty liver disease. All right, so we've talked about diagnosis. Leave that up to your doctor, especially if you have those symptoms. Please do not ignore your body's symptoms. When your body is talking to you. This is when we get things checked.

Speaker 1: 9:05

How is fatty liver disease treated? Honestly, we don't have any magic pill like Tylenol you take for fever. We don't have anything like that that you can take to make your fatty liver disease go away. However, there are things that are proven in science to help you, and most of these things good news are under your control, especially if your non-accoholic fatty liver disease is in the early stages. So what really is the scientific cause of fatty liver disease?

Speaker 1: 9:37

Anytime we hear about fatty liver, the most common thing for patients to tell me is I don't eat a whole lot of fat. Now we know that fatty liver disease is caused by excessive refined sugar consumption, not excessive fat consumption. Yes, that may potentially cause some problems. The most common cause of fatty liver disease is excessive sugar consumption. So what is sugar, or where do we find sugar? Now I want you to listen carefully, because this is how you can reverse your fatty liver disease and this is how you can help if it has not really gone too far, because we know that the disease is caused by consumption of fructose. The things that we can do. Where do we find fructose? It's found in fruits, in starchy vegetables and also in manufactured foods. The truth is, fructose in vegetables in natural foods is not as much. That's one thing. And secondly, it is combined with fiber. So if I consume an apple, for example, I am eating fructose from the fruit together with fiber. That slows down the absorption of sugar into my system.

Speaker 1: 11:00

And it doesn't spike my insulin and it doesn't trigger that cascade of formation of fat that's deposited in my liver, the problems come. So just imagine our ancestors back then believed on fruits, foods and natural foods and fruits and things like that. They had no problems. Well, now we are so advanced we are going to manufacture our own sugar. So that's where the problem is. It's in the manufactured sugar. What happens with that? It gives a big load of sugar all at once. It doesn't have any buffer. Like you consume the sugars without added fibers, without any added vitamin C, like in fruits that slow down the absorption of sugar and then all of a sudden, that sugar quickly enters your bloodstream, spikes your insulin and that's what causes the production of lipids, of fat that's deposited in your liver. So right there that we know the main reason, the main cause of fatty liver. We all of a sudden have this delusion.

Speaker 1: 12:07

Now, when I talk about refined sugars, it always seems like I'm a broken record, saying the same thing over and over and over, but repetition really, really helps us. Also, you need to know that the refined sugars or the manufactured fructose it does a big thing. It reduces your leptin response. Leptin is a hormone that your brain produces when you are eating that tells you you are full. So when you consume manufactured sugars, it dampens that leptin response so you can just eat, eat, eat, overeat, without really feeling like you're overeat, until you are this stuffed before you stop eating. You don't get that with fruits and you don't get that with vegetables. So, number one, we're not talking about difficult things here. All of us know when we say decrease refined sugars yes, I know that I may need to cut down on my sodas. I know that, yes, I need to cut down on the baked foods. I know I need to cut down on the chips. So let's move away from the things that we also know.

Speaker 1: 13:15

The manufacturers are so sneaky they are putting sugars in places that we don't need to be there. That's one thing. And they have these labels. I call it the food label confusion. Number one thing that you need to avoid is fruit juice. I have seen so many bottles of fruit juice that are labeled no added sugars, when these manufacturers know that the people drinking it are slammed with big doses of fruit toast that get into our systems and our children's systems and make these little babies have fatty liver from a very young age age 10, 12, 13. They are now having gavala disease and fatty liver. Why? Because we are feeding them fruit juice, thinking that we are doing the right thing. So please do not look at that label. That says no added sugar on fruit juice. It is still a concentrated amount of fruit toast that your body is not able to handle and process it and dump it in the liver and you start having problems.

Speaker 1: 14:22

Other sneaky places are dried fruit. So many women in my clinic. They walk around with dried fruits thinking that. So in principle it makes sense that I should have some dried fruit. It's easy to carry, it wouldn't get damaged as I'm walking around. However, dried fruit is the same thing. It's a big load of sugar in a small amount of fruit. You tend to overeat, so you are loading yourself at that point with a high dose of fruit toast Again, your body takes that, produces lipids which are packaged and stored or dumped in the liver and next thing you know you have fatty liver disease.

Speaker 1: 15:03

Just a few other places where added sugars are hidden In our processed meats. I have looked through the grocery store so many times and I'm just tired of looking for bacon, sausage that doesn't have sugar. I've looked for just very few, unless you have the new ones now. But most of the traditional salad dressings, mayonnaise, barbecue sauces these are loaded with sugars. Run away from them. Breakfast cereal granola run away from those things. Yogurt with fruit, yogurt with flavoring Run away from those. The last group sports drinks. Our children are out there. They're playing sports. I want the child to be hydrated. I get it. I get it. However, just so you know, some of these sports drinks have way too much sugar. You better have just feeding the child some water and let the baby have some natural fruit like oranges, grapes, bananas and things like that, as opposed to just loading them with refined sugars.

Speaker 1: 16:16

All right, the second thing we can do to help ourselves not to develop fatty liver disease is to eat a high protein breakfast. Again, that sounds like a broken record when I say this. High proteins when you consume those, especially for breakfast, studies now show that they will decrease your cravings later on during the day. So consume a savory breakfast, not a sweet one. Savory breakfast, things like eggs, things like ground turkey that's what I consume. You know, here in America we have this. Breakfast foods makes no sense For me. I can eat my leftover dinner for breakfast. I'm okay with that, so long as it has 25 to 30 grams of protein. Eat a high protein breakfast. It will reduce your cravings towards the end of the day and it will reduce also cravings for sugary foods. All right. The next thing that's most important is reducing your overall body weight. Studies show that if you can reduce your weight by 5%, then you have a chance of reducing non-acoholic fatty liver disease If you reduce your body weight by 7%, you can totally reverse it. Get this under your control. Under your control, all right.

Speaker 1: 17:43

The next thing that you can do to help this fatty liver disease is consume healthy fats. We've already determined that fatty liver disease is not caused by consuming fats. It is caused by consuming an excess amount of sugar, of added sugar, over time. All right, you do want to build in some healthy fats into your nutrition. Things like olive oil, salmon, tuna and the fatty fish, avocado. Those kinds of things help you with weight loss. Help. They don't get deposited in your body as fat and they will help you with overall well-being. So consume healthy fats. The fats that are unhealthy, of course, you can already think about those. Those are the ones that we get from the drive-thru in our french fries, in the hamburgers. Those ones are just bad for you. Those ones do get deposited in your body as fat, so stay away from those. Now, next thing I'll talk to you about is my favorite thing is exercise.

Speaker 1: 18:55

The recommendation here is to exercise for 150 minutes a week, so that really translates to 30 minutes five times a week. So exercise really helps. Cardiovascular and resistance exercises also help you reduce your overall body fat when you combine that with a healthy nutrition, all right, I do have a boot camp online weight loss program. If you're struggling alone, please join my online weight loss program. We are working out at least five six times a week. I have nutrition guides on there, plus a live meal prep once a week.

Speaker 1: 19:37

I bring into my kitchen and I show you what I'm going to eat and I show you how to make one thing. That's really the thing of the season, it just depends, all right. So very important is your nutrition. The very last thing that we'll talk about, though, it's just some supplements, and I will end here my next video. I'll bring you more on nutrition and more on supplements.

Speaker 1: 20:05

Anyway, one of the supplements that has been shown to help is vitamin E. I don't want you to start consuming any supplements based on this video. I want you to speak to your doctor and let your doctor help you figure out what supplements may be good for you. Anyway, vitamin E at 800, mike's a day has been shown to help, but it's a high dose because the usual dose is 400. So if you're consuming 800, generally that's recommended for people who are close to end stage. Another supplement that helps is calling. However, natural calling is found in eggs, so if you consume just egg yolk, one or two eggs per day, you get natural calling.

Speaker 1: 20:54

Like I said, I'm going to end this video here. I will be back next week and we'll talk about more foods that you can add into your daily nutrition to help you get rid of fatty liver disease and the main ones we've talked about reduce refined sugars, now that we know that fatty liver disease is really caused by high sugar consumption over a long period of time. All right, my friends, thank you, thank you, thank you. This video will be uploaded to my YouTube channel. Go there and follow me. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook. I share lots and lots of information on what you need to do to lose weight, get healthy and stay healthy. Thank you, and I will see you at the next video. Bye.

Speaker 2: 21:47

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Thriving Through Menopause. We hope you found valuable insights and practical advice to support your journey. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe to the podcast, share it and review. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Remember, menopause doesn't have to be a challenge. It can be an opportunity for growth, renewal and self-care. Connect with us on social media, where we share additional resources, tips and advice to help you along your path. Once again, thanks for listening in and we hope you'll join us again on the next episode of Thriving Through Menopause. Until then,