Lose It for Your Liver

Your beer belly might lead to cirrhosis. A new Scandinavian study found that simply being overweight could harm your liver even more than regular boozing.

Researchers have known about the connection between obesity and liver problems, but little was known about how much risk there actually is—especially in relation to alcohol.

In the present study, out of almost 900 subjects, 14 developed cirrhosis in a 40-year period. They all had one thing in common: a high BMI. Everyone with cirrhosis had a BMI greater than 25, which is considered overweight; Twenty-one percent of them were obese.

Alcohol abuse, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be a risk factor. Those who drank more did show a risk for cirrhosis but researchers say that it wasn’t statistically significant—unlike being overweight.

Of course, it’s not fair to say that the high BMI caused the liver damage—it could be merely a correlation. Not to mention, alcohol makes people fat in the first place. But researchers do believe that obesity contributes to liver problems. “Fat releases pro-inflammatory signals, which increase the amount of fat in the liver,” says Nancy Reau, M.D., and specialist in liver diseases at the University of Chicago Medical Center. This can cause fatty liver disease, which can ultimately lead to cirrhosis—or scarring of the liver.

Do you really need another reason to lose weight? (If so, here are 20.) One more: Exercise removes fat from the liver, as we reported in Clean Your Filters. (Get started with these 9 Weight-Loss Rules That Work.)

Advice for overweight guys (besides slimming down): “Drinking alcohol makes the damage worse, so people who are overweight should moderate their drinking,” says Dr. Reau.

As for drinking, moderation is the key. Moderate drinking—two drinks a day at most for men—can actually help you live longer!

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