How to stay off the liver transplant list
It looks like a lot more than your liver is at risk from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD.
This condition has been described as one of the plagues of our time, an epidemic that’s causing transplant hospitals to be overrun with patients in need of new livers.
And, as the name implies, it has nothing whatsoever to do with drinking alcoholic beverages.
But now, we’re learning that having a fatty liver puts you in even greater danger than originally thought.
You could say this condition is an all-out assault on your body.
‘Organ crosstalk’
NAFLD happens when extra fat builds up in the cells of your liver — and if over 5 to 10 percent of your liver’s weight is from fat, then you have it.
But NAFLD can turn deadly when it causes your liver to swell and scar — what is then called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. And the only treatment for that condition is a liver transplant.
Now, a study out of Germany has told an even bleaker story — if that’s even possible — about NAFLD. And since this is a condition that hits around 1 out of every 3 Americans, it’s something doctors need to hear about ASAP.
Scientists from the University of Tubingen, Europe’s oldest public research university, have found something they’ve dubbed “organ crosstalk.” It appears that an unhealthy liver filled with fat can also secrete substances into the bloodstream that can damage other organs and cause changes in certain cells in the kidneys and the pancreas.
While they’re not sure yet of exactly what kind of damage those substances — especially proteins — are causing, they did find evidence of a lot of inflammation and an “attraction” of immune cells to pancreatic tissue.
Could those changes be a precursor to pancreatic cancer?
While experts are still on the fence about the exact cause of that lethal disease, chronic inflammation of the pancreas is one of the top contenders.
But there’s even more to this puzzle.
Back in the 1980s, Big Food quietly replaced sugar with a cheaper ingredient — one discovered in Japan some years before and made in a laboratory.
That ingredient was, of course, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
But this stealth sweetener swap — led by top names in the soft drink industry — appears to have triggered an epidemic of NAFLD, a disease that was so rare prior to the introduction of HFCS that most doctors had never even seen a case of it.
And guess what UCLA researchers discovered that HFCS is also shockingly linked to back in 2010?
That’s right — pancreatic cancer.
The scientists found that pancreatic tumor cells use fructose as a kind of rocket fuel that can speed cancer-cell division and production. At the time, lead author Dr. Anthony Heaney commented that his team’s findings “show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation.”
Dr. Heaney also added that he hoped the feds will put forth an effort to “step back on the amount of HFCS in our diets.”
Well, doctor, we appreciate all that you’re doing, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen!
None of this research is going to get the feds, namely the FDA, to do a darn thing. The one and only reason that some food companies are ditching HFCS is pressure from people like us.
And until the time comes when HFCS goes the way of the rotary phone, we still have to be on the lookout for it in all kinds of food and drinks — even ones that appear to be healthy, like yogurt.
That’s why you need to be alert for more than simply HFCS, but such ingredients as fructose, crystalline fructose, and fruit sugar as well. And not just in sodas, either, but in any and all kinds of foods and drinks.
Because by the time this entire fructose fiasco has been unraveled, it may be too late to make things right again.
“Organ crosstalk: Fatty liver can cause damage to other organs” German Center for Diabetes Research, August 18, 2017, ScienceDaily, sciencedaily.com
