Answered by Dr. Howard E. LeWine
M.D. Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing · 40 years of experience · USA
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is very common. It can be reversed or at least slowed with diet, exercise and weight loss if needed. About 10% of people with fatty liver will develop inflammation of the liver, called NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis). The presence of NASH increases the risk of progression to cirrhosis. Cirrhosis can lead to liver failure and higher chance of developing liver cancer.
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Answered by Dr. Ipsa Arora
MD (Internal Medicine) · 5 years of experience · USA
Fatty liver doesn’t necessarily cause any serious problems but can interfere with the normal functioning of the liver but in some cases the liver inflammation might get worse causing it to swell up and damage the surrounding tissues.
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Answered by Dr. Alex T. Thomas
MD · 40 years of experience · USA
Fatty liver disease is not very serious. However, the fatty liver disease gets worse for 7% to 30% of people.
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Answered by Dr. Piyush Puri
MBBS · 1 years of experience · India
In most cases, fatty liver does not cause any serious problem or prevent your liver from functioning normally. If not controlled, fatty liver disease gets worse over time. It progresses through three stages; your liver becomes inflamed (swollen) which damages its tissue and is called steatohepatitis. Scar tissue forms where your liver is damaged. This process is called fibrosis. Extensive scar tissue replaces healthy tissue. At this point, you have cirrhosis.
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