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Dr. Eric Berg DC - 3 Weird Signs & Symptoms Of Fatty Liver – Dr.Berg
Fatty liver
So today we're going to talk about three weird symptoms of a fatty liver. Okay, let me first talk about the function of the liver and what it does. That's a lot of different functions. These are the main ones.
Liver functions
It helps you make bile. What's bile? Bile is like the detergent that helps break down fat to the point where you can start pulling out of fat the necessary fat-soluble vitamins, the necessary essential fatty acids, omega-3 fatty acids. And then it doesn't break it down a hundred percent, it just breaks it down to a certain degree, and then the pancreas releases lipase, which is the other enzyme that breaks it down even further. So we now have the basic unit, so we can start using these necessary elements from our food so they're more functional. So if there are liver problems and you can't make enough bile, you're going to have not just under-nested fat, but you're going to have unavailable those types of vitamins, leading to a whole cascade of issues.
Number two, it helps you make proteins, a lot of different types of protein: lipoproteins, which carry cholesterol as HDL and LDL, and also protein in your blood. The liver also makes cholesterol, quite a bit, like a thousand milligrams every single day. The liver can also make glucose, as in gluconeogenesis, making new glucose, and it can make it from fat or protein. It actually makes and helps you store glycogen. What's glycogen? It's the storage form of glucose. It can turn ammonia to urea, which is a less toxic substance. Ammonia is a byproduct of protein metabolism.
The liver helps you detoxify certain things: chemicals, poisons, drugs. There are certain enzymes called phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification, where you're turning these fat-soluble toxic poisons into water-soluble harmless particles so the body can get rid of them. It also helps you buffer excessive hormones. So if there's too much estrogen, for example, it can help regulate that. Too much cortisol, it can actually help degrade cortisol so you don't have excessive amounts. So it really does a lot. Very, very important.
Weird fatty liver symptoms
So what are the three weird symptoms of a fatty liver? When you have a fatty liver, you lose the capacity of the liver to function. Okay, so one of the weird symptoms would be heart pain. You wouldn't think heart pain is associated with the liver, but when you actually have fat in the liver, and even cirrhosis, the liver starts to enlarge to a certain degree and there's not a lot of space in there, so it can compress over to the heart, especially if you're lying on your left side, because the liver is on the right side and the heart is on the left. So if you lie down, it can compress on that heart. It's best if you have this problem to sleep on your right side; it'll be much better. So if you get heart symptoms but the heart is fine, have them check the liver.
All right, number two: gynecomastia. What is that? Man boobs. Why do you get that? Because you can't filter out excessive amounts of estrogen, and it's just too much estrogen in a male body. Another symptom of too much estrogen would be spider veins as well.
All right, number three: night blindness. Now, night blindness is a vitamin A deficiency. How would you become deficient in vitamin A? Well, you're actually not making enough bile, because the liver makes the bile and the gallbladder stores the bile. If you don't have enough, you can't absorb vitamin A, and vitamin A is not just involved in night blindness; it's involved in vision in general. So you're just going to find your vision is poor, and it's coming from a liver problem.
Other symptoms of a fatty liver
All right, here are some other symptoms of a fatty liver: high cholesterol and decreased bile. And what happens if you don't have bile? You can't break down the cholesterol. So it's really the bile production that is necessary to regulate cholesterol. Belly fat. And by the way, I have five patients whom I sent to the radiologist to get ultrasounds, and five out of five had a fatty liver. So if you have a gut, you might want to get a scan. The scan I would recommend is called FibroScan. FibroScan is something your doctor can do to assess not just a fatty liver but whether there's any scar tissue or fibrosis. Okay, it's an ultrasound test and it can pick that up at certain levels. I think it's a really good test, and ultrasound is not like radiation, so it's pretty safe.
All right, next one: diabetes. If the liver loses its capacity to help you with blood sugars, this can be one of the results. Fatigue is a very common symptom of a fatty liver. Right shoulder pain, and not just right shoulder pain, but pain in the right neck, the jaw, and the back of the trapezius up here, and the right rhomboid in the back part by your scapula, to the right of your midline of your spine. Okay. On the bottom of the feet and the palms of the hands, you can get redness in the palms as well. Confusion, irritability, why? Because you have blood sugar issues. Bad breath. Okay, so that's another symptom.
What causes a fatty liver?
All right, there are a couple of last things I want to bring up about a fatty liver. Number one: gastric bypass can increase your risk of getting a fatty liver, especially if you don't have enough bile, which I think is the reason, because they're altering the digestive system to a certain degree. Extreme low-protein diets can cause a fatty liver. Now you would think it would be just the opposite, but if you're very low on protein, the body could actually create fat in the liver, which is interesting. Certain drugs, steroids, tamoxifen: there's a whole series of drugs that can create a fatty liver. Viruses can create a fatty liver. But the most common cause of a fatty liver is high levels of insulin because the person is consuming too many carbohydrates.
How to fix a fatty liver
Okay, if you're new to my channel, I put a link down below of exactly what eating plan you should be on to reduce your carbs so you can get the fat out of the liver. And there's one vitamin that's very, very important for a fatty liver, and that is choline. Choline can actually help you take the fat off the liver. I'll put a link down below to a video where I talk about choline.
Thanks for watching. Hey guys, real quick, I have a new healthy keto eating plan for you. Just go to drberg.com, it's right on the front page. I put a link down below. Download it, it's free. Check it out.