Despite major gains in fighting hepatitis C and other chronic liver conditions, public health officials in the US are now faced with a growing epidemic of liver disease that is tightly linked to the obesity crisis. [s]The New York Times[/s] reports that in the past two decades, the prevalence of the disease, known as non-alcoholic fatty liver, has more than doubled in teenagers and adolescents, and climbed at a similar rate in adults. The disease, which causes the liver to swell with fat, is particularly striking because it is nearly identical to the liver damage that is seen in heavy drinkers. But in this case the damage from this more progressive form of the disease, known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, is done not by alcohol, but by poor diet and excess weight. At the [b]University of California, Los Angeles[/b], home to one of the largest liver transplant centres in the world, nearly 25% of all transplants are performed because of NASH, up from 3% in 2002.
Meanwhile, Britain’s obesity crisis is so serious that hospitals are buying spec ialist equipment to keep bodies cool because they are too large to fit into mortuary fridges, reports [s]The Daily Telegraph[/s]. Hospitals are also having to widen corridors, buy reinforced beds and lifting equipment in order to cope with the growing numbers of obese patients. The cost of treating overweight and obese patients could rise to at least £10m a year as the nation's waistlines continue expanding.
[link url=http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/threat-grows-from-liver-illness-tied-to-obesity/?_php=true&_type=blogs&emc=edit_th_20140614&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=42505380&_r=0]Full report in The New York Times[/link]
[link url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23703888]American Journal of Epidemiology abstract[/link]
[link url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10901487/Hospitals-buy-special-fridges-to-store-overweight-bodies-as-obesity-crisis-escalates.html]Full report in The Daily Telegraph[/link]