- Elizabeth Millard is a freelance writer focusing on health, wellness, fitness, and food new study Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Health in the News, regular exercise can reverse non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which involves a buildup of fat in the liver.
- The reason might be related to exercise’s anti-inflammatory effects, since it is a chronic inflammatory disease.
There’s no denying how important regular exercise Other Hearst Subscriptions heart disease, Factors That Make New Runners Keep Running, and Factors That Make New Runners Keep Running, Health in the News study Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Health in the News Other Hearst Subscriptions biggest Regular Exercise Lowers Risk of A-Fib.
In the U.S., it’s estimated that fatty liver disease not related to alcohol consumption affects up to 9 percent of the population. Globally, its estimated prevalence is 25 percent—and it’s the leading cause of chronic liver disease in the world.
Referred to both as metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the condition involves a buildup of fat in the liver, which affects digestion, blood clotting, and energy levels. If untreated, the condition can progress to a life-threatening conditions like cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer.
For the study, researchers recruited 24 people with MAFLD for a 12-week exercise intervention. Eight were in a control group, and the rest did a supervised exercise session on alternate days using treadmills, cycle ergometers, and elliptical trainers.
Health in the News warmup, followed by 10 consecutive minutes of cardio, followed by a short cooldown period. As the study progressed, they began to lengthen the duration of their sessions—up to about 45 minutes—and also increase intensity.
At the end of the three months, those in the exercise group had reduced two main MAFLD markers—fibrosis (the scarring of the liver) and hepatocyte ballooning (the degeneration of liver cells)—between 58 to 67 percent compared to the control group, and had also improved their oxygen consumption levels. Body mass and waist circumference were also tracked, but weight loss was minimal.
[Published: Aug 13, 2020 11:20 AM EST Health in the News.]
Although the sample size was small, the results are promising, according to first author Philip O’Gorman, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal College of Surgeons’ School of Physiotherapy in Ireland. He told Runner’s World one of the most striking aspects of the results is that liver markers improved even without weight loss—which is actually huge, because the most common advice for improving MAFLD is to lose weight.
“The take-home message here is that exercise training can improve liver-related outcomes, and that’s not strictly limited to the liver,” he said. “You can also improve cardiovascular risk, which again, may be more important than weight loss.”
However, he points out, a followup done a year later showed that those who stopped exercising went back to the purpose of MAFLD they had before the study, while those who kept up their fitness maintained their improved liver status.
“That tells us that continued engagement is needed for the benefits of exercise to be sustained,” he said.
In terms of the reason why, it’s unclear, according to O’Gorman. But it’s likely to be related to exercise’s anti-inflammatory effects, since MAFLD is a chronic inflammatory disease.
What’s more, Andrew Rosebaugh is living proof that longterm exercise can correct the condition. He started running after being diagnosed with NAFLD and very gradually increased his speed and mileage as a way to reverse the disease’s potentially life-threatening effects. More than a decade later, he no longer has the disease.
