Causes of fatty liver disease

With the improvement of modern people's living conditions, fatty liver can be said to have become a common disease of modern people. Fatty liver is very harmful to the human body. If it is not treated in time, it may cause liver fire, cirrhosis, and even liver cancer. It can be said that the harm of fatty liver is very great. So what are the factors that cause this high incidence of fatty liver?

In fact, the factors that cause fatty liver can be said to be multifaceted. The onset of fatty liver is inseparable from many factors, such as genetic factors, nutritional factors, and disease factors. So what are the other factors that cause fatty liver in life?

1. Causes

The etiology of fatty liver includes two aspects: the conditions for the occurrence of fatty liver (inducements) and the causes of fatty liver (pathogenic factors). In the occurrence and development of fatty liver, the body's immune status, nutritional factors, genetic factors, lifestyle, age and gender all play a very important role, which are the conditional factors for the onset of fatty liver.

The pathogenic factors of fatty liver include chemical factors, nutritional factors, endocrine metabolic factors, biological pathogenic factors, genetic factors, etc.

1. Chemical pathogenic factors include chemical poisons (yellow phosphorus, arsenic, lead, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, etc.), drugs (methotrexate, tetracycline, amiodarone, glucocorticoids, etc.), alcohol, etc. Alcoholism has always been the most common cause of fatty liver and cirrhosis in Europe and the United States;

2. Nutritional factors: Obesity caused by overeating and being overweight is one of the most common factors causing fatty liver in recent years. Protein and calorie deficiency is another important cause of fatty liver.

Malnutrition is a chronic nutritional deficiency disease, mainly caused by long-term lack of energy and protein in the human body. Depending on the cause, it can be divided into two categories: primary and secondary.

(1) Primary malnutrition: It is mainly caused by insufficient supply or intake of food protein and energy, which cannot meet the physiological needs of the human body for a long time. It often occurs in developing countries or economically backward areas.

(2) Secondary malnutrition: mostly induced by other diseases. Most malnutrition in developed countries such as Europe and the United States, as well as among older children and adults, is secondary. It is common in chronic wasting diseases such as malabsorption syndrome, chronic infections and inflammatory diseases, and malignant tumors. Lack of protein in the diet can cause fatty liver even if the calories are sufficient. Fatty liver caused by malnutrition is mainly seen in children. Many endocrine and metabolic diseases such as hypercortisolism, hyperthyroidism, hyperuricemia, hyperlipoproteinemia and diabetic hyperlipidemia can cause fatty degeneration of hepatocytes. Among them, non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is most closely related to fatty liver.

3. Biological factors include pathogenic microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria, as well as parasites. These pathogenic factors mainly cause hepatocyte degeneration and necrosis and inflammatory cell infiltration. Recent studies have found that some hepatitis C virus and hepatitis D virus infections can cause macrovesicular and microvesicular hepatocyte fatty degeneration, respectively. Some chronic bacterial infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and sepsis can also lead to fatty degeneration of hepatocytes due to factors such as malnutrition, hypoxia and cytotoxic damage. In addition, the recovery period of various types of viral hepatitis and chronic viral infection can induce obese fatty liver.

4. Genetic factors mainly cause disease directly through mutations in genetic genes or abnormalities in chromosomes. In the liver, they mainly cause congenital metabolic liver diseases, among which hereditary diseases such as hepatolenticular degeneration, galactosemia, glycogen storage disease, and fructose intolerance can cause macrovesicular fatty liver, while congenital defects of urea cycle enzymes and genetic defects of mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation can cause microvesicular fatty liver. In addition, people in some families have the predisposition to certain diseases, such as obesity, type 1 diabetes, primary hyperlipidemia, etc. This phenomenon is called genetic susceptibility.

In general, there are many factors that cause fatty liver, and fatty liver is so harmful to the human body. Therefore, for those who are prone to fatty liver in life, they must do a good job of preventing fatty liver. This will reduce the harm of fatty liver to patients and make them healthier.