Type 2 Diabetes – New Study Suggests: Blame Your Liver For Your Diabetes!
It doesn’t take an endocrinologist to know that obesity and Type 2 diabetes are found together more often than Charlie Sheen and a Hollywood rehab clinic. While the obesity and diabetes link is still as valid as ever, scientists have found a new risk factor for Type 2 diabetes that may be more accurate – the fat in your liver.
Stanford University scientists looked at the livers of 11 thousand adults using ultrasound. Those with fatty livers were much more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes over the course of a 5 year follow-up period compared to those that boasted lean livers. Incredibly, the levels of insulin – and therefore insulin resistance – the subjects had at the beginning of the study, were less accurate than liver fat at predicting diabetes.
Scientists think that fatty liver indicates high levels of fat like cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. These fats don’t just clog your arteries – they get in the way of insulin’s job of clearing sugar from your blood.
Fortunately, even if you have fatty liver, Type 2 diabetes isn’t a sure thing. Like Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver is reversible with the right approach.
Here’s how to prevent, treat and reverse fatty liver:
Normal BMI: 75 percent of obese people have fatty livers, the Annals of Internal Medicine states. Every pound or kilogram you gain, further ups your fatty liver risk.
To keep fatty liver from striking you, get your weight down to a normal less than 25 BMI and have it stay there. As a great bonus, this will also reduce your risk of hypertension and high cholesterol.
Tame Triglycerides: Too many triglycerides floating around in your blood can cause some of them to find refuge in your liver. Overtime, these little triglyceride cells add up, resulting in fatty liver.
Taking fish oil or eating fatty fish like mackerel and salmon is a proven way to lower levels of triglycerides. Also, getting off the couch and working out regularly will also drop your triglyceride levels significantly. Another natural way to drop triglycerides is to prevent blood sugar “spikes” by avoiding high glycemic index carbs like white bread, candy and soda.
Don’t Drink: Drinking too much alcohol is one of the leading causes of fatty liver. Plus, the calories in alcohol do count and can cause your waistline to grow. If you do drink, keep tabs on it and take in only one drink per day.
