Seven months ago my overweight husband was diagnosed with a fatty liver disease.
According to an article published on Cleveland clinic “Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease. Studies suggest that although simple fatty liver is a benign condition, NASH can progress to fibrosis and lead to end-stage liver disease. The disease is mostly silent and is often discovered through incidentally elevated liver enzyme levels. From the available data, NAFLD is estimated to be present in one third of the general population in the United States.”[1] This means that if you are overweight, then chances are you have the same condition without even knowing so. My husband’s disease was confirmed with both blood test and ultrasound scan. His liver enzymes were abnormally high in the blood and he had many of the fatty liver symptoms. Such as being overweight- specially belly fat, fatigue, high blood pressure plus depression and irritability. The first confirmed indication of liver issues came one year earlier but really I think this has been ongoing for years, just gradually getting worse. We were then on holiday in Cyprus in 2008.
One wonderful sunny day we spent 2 hours on the beach. It was not very hot but just enough for Icelanders to try to get some suntan. My husband got severely sunburned which again resulted in a heat stroke. We rushed to the hospital where his body was cooled down and his blood tested. It was a scary event. My husband thought he was going to die. His blood pressure went to 220/110 and his heart was racing, He had difficulties breathing and fear set in. But his blood test came back with elevated liver enzymes. The doctors wanted to keep him overnight because they were concerned about this. Since I am a biomedical scientist I knew his liver would not get better over night and promised the doctors to take good care of him at home and have a check up every few months in Iceland where we live. That is what we did. In August 2009 his liver enzymes were still elevated and again even more so in May 2010 and his doctor had become concerned and diagnosed him with fatty liver dis-ease. What a shock! Fear set in. Something had to be done and we both wanted to find a drug free solution not least since his doctor only suggested drugs for diabetes even though he did not have diabetes. Now you might wonder that since we are both therapists then our overall lifestyle should keep this kind of issues far away. True so, we had changed our diet years earlier and we were both attending the gym 3x a week but nothing really happened to get rid of the extra weight or help with the other symptoms. But now there was an opportunity to make further adjustments and more focused approach then earlier. We at least had a diagnosis. Being a metamedicine health coach I started to think about where all this started and what had been happening in my husbands and our life at that time. I know how important it is to work not only on the food and nutrition but also the emotional, social, environmental and mental issues and conflicts that may have started all of this accumulation of fat in the liver. We could easily identify traumatic events in his past that could have started the biological response in his liver. (See how stressful events are linked to diseases ). To work on that root issue he went to an acupuncturist and a META medicine integrative health coach that used NES infoceuticals on her needles to aid the body and mind. Now this was not just minor self-worth issue which the body responds to with extra fat tissue. It was also related to a conflict that set him off thinking all too often he was not good enough for me. That he was not worthy of me and he was ugly, fat etc. It’s like going down the drain and not finding the way back. So it had to be worked on instead of it all being pent up inside with anger and frustration adding to the stuck stuff in the digestive system, hence the belly being hard as rock, full of stools. I also went on the internet and found a website about fatty liver solution and downloaded that for dietary advice. We both started on the program immedately. It was not always easy but the fact that fatty liver can progress into a much more serious disease made us stick to it. This was very important part as having support to make changes and the family doing it together makes a whole lot of a difference. Only 4 months later my husband was 15 kg (ca 30 pounds) down in weight. His energy level has gone fast upwards.
He is more confident in him self and feels much better over all.
Now besides following the fatty liver solution regime about nutrition and supplement to some extent we also followed an advice of not combining starch and proteins in the same meal. He also went to a homeopath and got homeopathic remedies which aided not least in helping him through the healing crisis that came up such as urticaria with non stop itching. The urticaria and eczema that started after the conflict shock was resolved could also have been related to one of the supplements he was taking at the same time. 4 months after he started on the program he had a new blood test done. It showed that his Cholesterol had gone down from 6,09 to 4,12 mmol/l (normal <5mmol/l) His Triglycerides went from 2,4 mmol/l to 1,65 mmol/l (normal is 0,4-2.0) S-ASAT was 121 U/L and is now 45U/L (normal 15-45) S-ALAT was 190 U/L and is now 58 U/L (normal 10-70) S-Gamma Gt was 66 is now 26 U/L (normal 15-115) S-Glucose was 6,4 mmol/l is now 5,7 (normal 3,0-6,0) His doctor was very pleased with this and has now no intention of giving him any medication. There are still more kg to release and issues to clear so this is not the end of the line but the fatigue is gone, the depression is gone and our life together is more loving and joyful then ever before and every day is a gift.
[1] http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/hepatology/nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease/ 01022011