If you would like to watch some very good videos about liver disease,
click here to take a video tour
Fatty liver and cirrhosis are a threat to your health
Fatty Liver & Liver Cirrhosis Are At Epidemic Levels!
- 100,000,000 Americans have a fatty liver. Most don't know it.
- 20,000,000 will develop liver fibrosis disease or NAFLD (nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) as a result.
- 5,000,000 million will progress to liver cirrhosis or NASH (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis) and possibly end stage liver failure.
- Some will be lucky enough to be listed for a transplant, the only cure for late stage liver disease, but 30% of those listed will die waiting. Death by liver failure is long and difficult.
- We want to help you avoid this kind of death by helping you understand how you may be killing yourself slowly. And, what you can do about it.
- If you are already ill, we will do our best to help you with that process.
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Our Mission
To improve the diagnosis, treatment & support of Americans with fatty liver, NAFLD or NASH through awareness, education, screening and patient advocacy.
Click here to learn more.
We Advocate Early Screening
Typically, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are silent diseases. They have no symptoms. Even if cirrhosis has developed, there are often no symptoms until the liver has become so damaged that the only option is a liver transplant.
There is currently a quick, easy and economical method to screen for fatty liver disease called a FibroScan. Unfortunately, the current medical standards policy is not to screen for liver disease. And, unless you are sick and have symptoms, insurance probably won't pay for the scan, even if you're lucky enough to have a testing system in your area.
The Fatty Liver Foundation is championing a nationwide program to provide liver screening services to make it possible for people who have a concern for their liver health to get an inexpensive scan. Since insurance doesn't normally cover screening for people who aren't sick yet, it will be on a private pay basis. However, as a nonprofit foundation, we believe we can deliver this service at an affordable price.
Click here to learn more.
If you would like to watch some very good videos about liver disease,
click here to take a video tour
FLF Webinars
Welcome to the Fatty Liver Foundation's Webinar Hub!
Here you can find all of the info about our upcoming webinars, as well as the details and links to recordings of previous webinars.
NEXT WEBINAR: Wednesday February 3, 2021
Wellness Webinar Part 1 (COVID-19 and Liver Disease) click here to register!
In 2020 we produced the LIVER (Live Interactive Virtual Education and Review) Webinar Series, consisting of four parts.
In 2021 we are producing the Wellness Webinar Series, consisting of six parts.
covid-resources
CDC Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Covid-19
Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to “flatten the curve” (Washington Post)
Coronavirus Live Updates (NYTimes)
Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now (Medium)
COVID Tech Handbook: Resources for Doctors (Crowdsourced)
COVID-19 Maps & visuals (CIDRAP)
COVID-19 Disease Resources (WHO)
COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment (JAMA)
How to get a COVID-19 Vaccine: a State by State Guide (WSJ)
Helping with Seniors' mental health
Tracking Every Coronavirus Case in the U.S.: Full Map (NYTimes)
A detailed guide to the coronavirus drugs and vaccines in development (STAT)
Identifying Communities at Risk of COVID-19 (XY.AI)
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
-CDC Interim Clinical Guidance for Management of Patients with Confirmed Covid-19
-UCSF COVID-19 Clinical Resources
-CDC Information for Healthcare Providers
-New England Journal Of Medicine, COVID Resources
-Lancet- COVID-19 Response Center
-JAMA Updates on COVID Diagnosis and Treatment
-Detailed Notes from an ICU Doctor in Seattle on COVID Experience
-Up to Date: COVID-19 Testing Capacity
-Dispatch #3: Dr. Shlain reporting from the front lines
-Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now (Politicians, Community Leaders and Business Leaders: What Should You Do and When?)
-More COVID-19 Resources here (including patient facing ChatBots and more).
CBD OIL a triumph of hope over reason? Does it affect the liver?
My poor inbox groans under the weight of CBD articles and pitches. I've hesitated to jump into this pit again but I get a steady stream of questions from patients about using it.
We need to be clear about this issue. CBD oil is biologically active. However, that doesn't mean it is good or bad for you. In reality we just don't know enough yet to have a valid opinion.
Let's be clear. I'm not part of the debate about this plant.
Read moreLiver damage and CBD oil
We support health writers who wish to spread their work to a wider audience. This article was submitted by Natalie Shae.
Note, the study cited in the article was very small with children under physician care but if you are a liver patient it is a cautionary note if you are considering CBD oil. We are not aware of any research that would suggest using it more broadly but consult your doctor.
Liver Damage and CBD Oil
June 4, 2019 by Natalie Shae
The FDA has approved a CBD-based drug named Epidiolex®. The drug was researched and made by Greenwich Biosciences, and the company’s vice-president of U.S. professional relations, Alice Mead, has stated to the FDA that CBD is “potentially” a liver toxin. She said this during the FDA’s first public hearing on CBD oil on May 31, 2019.
What is CBD oil?
Cannabidiol oil is extracted from the hemp plant, which is in the same family as marijuana. Unlike THC in marijuana, CBD does not cause a “high” or chemical dependence. CBD that is extracted from the hemp plant is legal, but individual states have laws to regulate it.
Because CBD oil is not considered a drug, it can be a common additive in many products. This includes e-cigarettes (vape oil), lotions and various herbal supplements. It has also been shown to relieve symptoms of different disorders like epilepsy, anxiety and multiple sclerosis.
Read more
Meagan post 6
I was diagnosed with cirrhosis in May of 2016. It had been a rough year leading up to diagnosis – almost 9 months of repeated hospital stays, filled with countless tests and procedures, before the confused doctors here in my city transferred me in an ambulance over to Seattle. They put me under the care of an awesome hepatologist, who was finally able to figure out what was wrong with me. I will forever be grateful to the team there, for caring about me while caring for me, during the scariest time of my life.
During those months before diagnosis, I’d lost over 70 pounds off of my average-sized frame. It started slow, then sped up faster and faster, until muscles had wasted away. My pants literally fell off of my body, and I was so skin-and-bones emaciated that it hurt to take a bath. I could feel every rib and hip bone and every point of my spine, as they creaked against the hard sides of the tub without any fat left to cushion them. It really hit me how much weight I’d lost when I went to an appointment at the hospital. They had to find a child-sized blood pressure cuff, because the adult one was too big to get a reading off of my skinny arm.
Eventually, after being diagnosed and having a good team of doctors to guide me, I slowly started to feel alive again. My head began to clear a bit of the fog, I started to gain a little bit of strength, and was anxious to create a “new normal” in my life. But as I reflected on what I’d been through to get to that point, and wondered what life would be like now, I realized that I barely recognized the girl looking back at me in the mirror.
I had lost almost a year of my life, spending too many nights in lonely hospital rooms, and barely getting out of bed in between those stays. But when I looked at my reflection, it appeared that I’d lost so much more than that. My face was hollow, and there were so many new lines and wrinkles. The dark circles under my eyes were matched by the dark bruises that mysteriously popped up every day.
For me, the very worst was my hair. I’d always loved my hair – I kept it very long, it was full and bouncy and thick. I was known for my long wild “mermaid” hair. But after the severe malnutrition I suffered during my fight with liver disease, my hair was unrecognizable. It started before diagnosis – for months, as I got sicker and sicker, I started neglecting self-care more and more. I was so exhausted that I could barely get out of bed, and showering was near impossible. I stopped even brushing my hair, and it became a huge tangled mess. During my hospital stay, a doctor realized how bad I looked, and requested that the nurse clean me up before the ambulance came in the morning to take me to Seattle. She grew impatient, trying to comb it out, and asked me if it was alright to just cut it off? I wasn’t very coherent at the time, but I’m forever a people-pleaser, so I agreed.
A couple of days later, showering at the new hospital in Seattle, I realized that she’d cut 5 inches off of my hair. Let me tell you, losing 5 inches to a nurse with office scissors is nothing like losing 5 inches in a salon. Weeks later I was able to go home again, and made a new discovery – the rough patches that I’d been feeling on my scalp? That was stubble, where hair had fallen out in patches, and was starting to grow back. Needless to say, my old hair, a defining feature, was gone. I spent over a year wearing it in a ponytail to cover some of the damage and loss. Every time I would cry over the loss of my wild waves, I felt so silly and superficial, worrying over such a small thing, in the midst of so many other life-threatening syndromes and symptoms. I think sometimes it’s easier to push aside the reality of what has changed on the inside of your body, than the changes that happen on the outside. Those outer changes are, quite literally, staring you in the face.
It wasn’t just the changes to my face that I had to face. The physical changes went from my head to my toes. I’d lost so much weight that I was all bony hips and elbows. At the same time, I’d regularly balloon up in the middle as my belly filled with ascites fluid. My primary care once callously remarked that I resembled a beach ball, with sticks-arms and legs poking out. Strangers stopped me every time I went out, to rub my belly and ask when I was due. It was devastatingly embarrassing. Other times it was a different type of swelling, with extreme edema in my legs and feet, so that sometimes I couldn’t leave the house because none of my shoes would fit my swollen feet.
Self-love is a hard thing during even the best of times. Trying to adjust to the changes that chronic illness brings is far harder, and it’s complicated by the fact that it’s an ever-changing battle. You gain and lose weight, as your muscles waste away or your body retains water, and the proportions of your body fluctuate wildly, sometimes daily. When you are battling a deadly disease you are always remembering that you’re lucky to be alive. Focusing on trivial matters like new wrinkles or swollen feet or thinning hair or all three on the same day – those are the least important of your worries. Yet, those things DO matter.
I’m learning to love my body again, in all of its shapes and sizes, not in spite of my disease – but because of it. Cirrhosis is one heck of a beast to fight, yet somehow, this battle-scarred body of mine is still fighting and winning.
