Dr Michael Mosley says serious liver health condition can be cured with diet change

Healthy eating expert Dr Michael Mosley has explained how a kind of diet can stop a potentially lethal condition. Dr Mosley was speaking out about non-alcohol related fatty liver disease.

He explained that livers clear the toxins from our blood, as well as producing bile, a fluid that helps people digest and absorb fats. However he said that rates of the disease were soaring - leading to many more fatal cases.

But he said there was a way of changing how you eat which would have a major impact on the condition - by reducing chronic inflammation and preventing the liver from developing cancer. He said liver disease had been on the rise - quadrupling in the last four years, in his Mail Online column https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13429961/michael-mosley-gut-health-parasite-swallow-tapeworm.html.

He said: “A lot of that is due to rising rates of obesity, which has led to a surge in non-alcohol related fatty liver disease (NAFLD). A normal, healthy liver should contain little or no fat, but when you put on more weight than your body can comfortably handle, some of that fat gets stored in your liver.

“Up to one in three people in the UK now has early-stage NAFLD which, if left untreated, can lead to serious liver damage, including cirrhosis and liver failure. Signs of advanced NAFLD include tiredness, confusion, dark urine and itchy skin. If you do have any of these symptoms, see your doctor.”

Dr Mosley said medical treatment was unable to cure the disease but said a fasting diet had proved to have a big impact on mice. He said: “Studies have shown intermittent fasting, particularly the 5:2 diet (cutting your calories two days a week), is an effective way to get rid of it.

“Is it just the loss in weight? Not according to research published last week in the journal Cell Metabolism. When researchers put mice on a 5:2 diet their livers produced two proteins that reduced chronic inflammation, but also helped protect the liver from going on to develop cancer. These proteins seem to work by preventing a build-up of fat in the liver. So, if you do develop signs of fatty liver disease, you know what to do.”