New diagnosis method for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

While it is obvious that liver disease affects our health greatly, but did you know that liver disease has a particularly huge negative impact on our blood?

A recent research discovers that a type of toxic fats present in blood can offer insights on how fatty liver disease progresses. Not only does this study offer a more precise diagnosis method for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), most importantly, it highlights the close connection between liver disease and blood health.

Accumulation of toxic fats in blood

This research was conducted by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, University of California and University of Sydney.

By measuring the accumulation of toxic fats in blood, researchers reported that fatty liver progression can be predicted without using the traditional invasive biopsy or liver scans, suggesting that liver disease development is correlated with blood quality.

In healthy individuals, toxic fats should be absent from blood, as it is the liver’s job to process the excess sugar and fats and distribute them around the body through blood. 

However, when the liver is not functioning well, instead of getting rid of the fats or delivering them to other parts of the body, the fats stay in the blood, and at the same time, the liver accumulates fats in itself, contributing to the condition known as NAFLD.

It is obvious that blood quality can reflect our liver health. Since blood travels throughout our body, its quality plays a huge role in determining our health status.

Poor blood quality affects our overall wellbeing

Many indicators of blood health such as iron level, cholesterol level, blood sugar content, and blood pressure degree are in fact regulated by the liver.

Recent research even indicates that, poor blood quality caused by a malfunctioning liver may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease. Although the exact reason is unknown, scientists suspect this might be caused by the blood not being able to carry the necessary nutrients for the brain to use and not being able to clear toxic waste within the brain.

When the liver is not performing well, blood quality is the first to suffer. And this often creates an ideal environment for many lifestyle diseases to develop, such as diabetes, kidney problems, cardiovascular issues, anemia, and neurodegeneration.

Protect the liver to improve overall health level

It’s the liver’s job to maintain a healthy level of iron and cholesterol, regulate blood pressure level, and manage blood sugar degree. If the liver is falling ill, all these healthy levels will be affected, and in turn, they will further worsen the already damaged liver. Most importantly, our overall health will be affected because of the poor blood quality and circulation.

Given the huge effect the liver has on our blood quality, it is important to pay attention to our liver function, in order to prevent many lifestyle diseases and to strengthen our overall health.