Do You Have This Liver Condition?

Up To One In Three People Have Something Called Nafld. But Many Of Them Have No Idea

- Lisa Bendall

By the summer of 2019, Jackson Griffiths, then 42 years old, had been feeling tired and lethargic, off and on, for about five years. Yet nothing had been flagged as abnormal in medical checkups.

But then the British holiday company executive, based in North London, suddenly developed swelling and a rash on his legs. This time, after running tests, Griffiths’ doctor informed him he had type 2 diabetes.

Over the next several months, as Griffiths adjusted to the diagnosis by learning to test his blood sugar and keep it steady by eating more regularly, his doctor sent him for more tests. They were looking for conditions that often crop up in people with diabetes, such as heart disease and liver or kidney problems.

In early 2021, after an ultrasound of his liver to check for fat and scarring, followed by a liver biopsy, Griffiths got some alarming news: He had something called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

With this condition, the organ damage looks similar to that caused by heavy drinking, but the actual cause is steatosis—a buildup of excess fat in the liver so that it accounts for more than five to 10 per cent of the organ’s weight.

NAFLD progresses in stages. A fat build-up (stage one) triggers inflammation (stage two), which, over many years, can cause scarring (stage three), also known as fibrosis. The scarring interferes with normal liver function. If a high amount of scar tissue and nodules form, making the liver harder, it’s classified as cirrhosis, or stage four. Cirrhosis carries a high risk of liver cancer and can eventually lead to liver failure, which necessitates an organ transplant.