In a study conducted at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, researchers found a direct correlation between obesity and an increased risk of liver damage in patients. It is a well established fact that liver damage is rampant in patients consuming more than recommended levels of alcohol, but this finding will add a new dimension to screening patients susceptible to liver disease.
Dr Bette Liu, of the University of Oxford, said obesity leads to a build-up of fat within liver cells resulting in fatty liver that can lead to subsequent inflammation and cirrhosis.
“Fatty liver is also found in people with a high alcohol intake and diabetes. From a public health perspective, reducing both excessive alcohol consumption and excessive body weight should lead to a reduction in the incidence of liver cirrhosis,” she said.
Obese men who drink are 19 times more likely to develop the disease than average weight teetotallers and overweight women double the risk just by drinking two glasses of wine a day.
Dr Liu’s team examined the link between BMI and liver cirrhosis in 1.2 million middle-aged women who were tracked for an average of 6.2 years, and risks were adjusted for factors such as age, alcohol consumption, smoking, socioeconomic status and physical activity.
Among women who reported drinking an average of two and a half drinks a day, 2.7 in 1,000 will be admitted to hospital with or will die from liver cirrhosis over five years if they are of healthy weight compared with five in 1,000 women who are obese.
Obese men, on the other hand, drinking 15 or more units a week – the equivalent of five pints of beer a week – had almost 19 times higher risk of dying of liver disease.
The study was published online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
Dr Carol Hart, who led a team of researchers at Glasgow University for a similar study, said: “When both these factors are combined there is a supra-additive effect, meaning the risk of developing liver disease is even higher than the sum of their separate effects.”
Written By Snigdha Taduri