3 days ago
‘Fatty liver disease affecting many kids'
Mumbai: Fatty liver is a disease not only of adults but is common among today's children as well. "Around 50% of obese children and nearly 20% of children with normal weight have a fatty liver," said Hepatologist Dr Aabha Nagral.
Fatty liver disease is a condition in which excess fat builds up in the liver, affecting its normal function; inflammation over time leads to scarring (cirrhosis), and potentially liver failure or cancer.
"Like viruses, fatty liver too causes hepatitis or inflammation of the liver," she said. It's estimated that nearly 30% of the population has a fatty liver, which could soon emerge as a leading cause for transplant.
It's to check this growing epidemic that Dr Nagral's Children's Liver Foundation and Jaslok Hospital organised a fest for schoolchildren at Nehru Centre in Worli on Saturday.
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"Children don't go for annual health check-ups like adults do. However, if there is a family history or one of the parents has metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes), then fatty liver should be considered if the child is overweight," said Dr Nagral.
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Students, including those from Bombay International School, Anjuman Islam, Green Lawns School, and J B Vachha School, were told about the need to identify fatty liver and treat it.
"There is a need to check food labels, understand saturated and unsaturated fats," said one of the organisers.
Fatty liver was traditionally associated with alcoholics, but, in the 1980s, doctors noticed "liver beaded with extra fat" even in the absence of alcoholism. This led to the birth of the term non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, which, in June 2023, was renamed metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease or MASLD. At the fest, kids were blindfolded before tasting food. Ragi brownie, the healthier option, was identified as tasty.
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