A SUDDENLY GROWING LIVER DISEASE:

“This is huge. We didn’t even know this disease existed 30 years ago. Now it’s the most common liver disease in America.”

‘We won’t have the ability to treat all these patients’

About a third of the U.S. population has nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to Dr. Michael Curry, a hepatologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Curry said most of those people — about 80% — will not develop significant liver disease. The other 20% will develop a disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Of those, about 20-30% will go on to develop cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease, where the only real treatment is a liver transplant.

My advice is to drink heavily. At least then you’ll know why your liver has gone bad. . . .

Or you could try this: “If a patient loses weight, eats better and exercises, he or she can often reverse the disease in its earlier stages.”