Fatty liver cases have been increasing exponentially with the ever increasing traits oflifestyle disorder. Switching to a healthier diet and curtailing the hazardouscomponents can bring in visible improvement. Here’s how.
A large number of people, including doctors, will not believe that it is
possible to reverse a medical condition called Fatty Liver Grade II to
a normal functional liver as it is said that there is no medicine
available anywhere for it. It will be more unbelievable when one says
that, it can be done within a short period of less than two years and that
too without any medicines. But these are facts.
Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I was diagnosed with Fatty Liver
Grade II in February, 2019 because it changed my perception of health,
nutrition and well-being. Before that I had no idea what fatty liver was,
how it affects your well-being and how it could be reversed, if at all. I had
no idea that it was a dangerous health condition which could deteriorate
to liver cirrhosis.
Also Read |
Till that time I had no knowledge of nutrition and how we can improve
our health by a healthy diet and how a bad diet or wrong intake of food
can be the reason for bad health and chronic health conditions like high
blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol. As a consequence of little
knowledge of nutrition, I had become a patient of high cholesterol way
back in 1998 and had been on medication ever since. Still more bad
food and gradually came high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, overweight
and Fatty Liver Grade I and Grade II.
When I was told that Fatty Liver Grade II, like in the case of alcoholics,
can progress to liver damage and liver cirrhosis I got really worried and
wanted a way out to check further deterioration and if possible, to
reverse the medical condition. I was disappointed to learn that there was
no medicine for reversing the fatty liver disease. Still there was a hope
that by changing the food and food intake I could reverse it without any
medicine.
The way out suggested appeared impossible and extremely difficult.
When told that the substitution of my diet by giving up substantially of
fructose in general and sugar in particular and other carbohydrates like
rice, wheat, potato and corn and increase of healthy fat in the form of
flaxseed oil, coconut oil, ghee and intermittent fasting can be helpful, I
had no idea what these meant. I had no knowledge what intermittent
fasting was and when told that this meant restricting food intake to 8
hours every day and fasting for 16 hours, day after day, I thought it was
not possible for me. For years I had been doing a weekly fast on
Tuesdays and keeping one fast and restricting food even one day a
week was extremely difficult and I thought good health was not for me
and it appeared to be a very distressing scenario. Constant hunger or
having a serious health condition seemed the two distinct possibilities
and both were extremely painful possibilities.
I mention that it was my wife who is a doctor who proved to be
of extreme help to me in this distressing scenario. She suggested that by
substitution of carbohydrate with healthy fat, restricting food intake to 8
hours a day is comfortably possible. Though her words were assuring
but the prospects looked grim. I still decided to give it a try, though I was
convinced that for me restricting food for 8 hours in a day was not
possible.
As it happens, sometimes things change dramatically. When I increased
my intake of healthy fat in the form of flaxseed oil, coconut oil, ghee,
paneer, milk and curd and reduced carbohydrate in the form of wheat,
rice, potato and sugar, it seemed that I was always full and had no
hunger. I distinctly remember as early as on the second day of change in
food intake I felt a dramatic difference and I considered giving up the
third meal of the day namely dinner and actually did it within three days
of the commencement of the new food regime. Surprisingly I had no
difficulty on the day when I did not have dinner for the first time. Maybe I
was missing dinner for the first time in years and still I was feeling
comfortable. Soon it became a habit with me and I can say that for the
last more than two years I hardly have had dinner on any day, except on
occasions when it was a social occasion or some other necessity. Dinner
has never been a requirement for me ever since then.
Within a month of switching to healthy fat and intermittent fasting, I
started getting wonderful health benefits. In February, 2019 I had three
2
of the five health conditions which make one be classified as having
metabolic syndrome, an all pervasive medical condition world over.
These five conditions are having waist more than 40 inches for men or
35 inches for women, having less than 40 mgdL good cholesterol called
HDL, having more than 100 mgdL fasting sugar, having more than 130
mmhg systolic or more than 85 mmHg diastolic blood pressure or having
more than 150 mgdL triglycerides. I was having three of these conditions
of less than 40 HDL, more than the required blood pressure and very
high triglycerides.
Regular health check ups showed consistent improvement in all
parameters of health. In April, 2019 itself my triglycerides had dropped
way lower than 150 to become normal for a person’s health. Within a few
months of the commencement of the new food regime, my Blood
pressure came down to normal and my good cholesterol HDL improved
to more than 40. I mercifully had never crossed fasting sugar to be over
100, though my HbA1C had some time back shown to be pre-diabetic.
Now with the new food regime, it was absolutely normal. I never had the
issue of abdominal obesity and soon I was normal on all five parameters
which, are considered for one being diagnosed as having metabolic
syndrome which data shows that over one fourth of the world population
suffers from.
As I had found a golden health formula, within a year of having been
diagnosed as having fatty liver Grade II, I successfully reversed to Fatty
Liver Grade I in January, 2020 when I underwent the annual health
check up. The doctor who conducted the ultrasound was pleasantly
surprised to see a successful partial reversal of fatty liver for which
doctors say there is no medicine.
Encouraged by good results and having recovered to a great extent my
health, I decided to continue being healthy. Let me mention that I had
been on medication ever since 1998 and now for more than a year I had
not taken any medicines for high cholesterol, high blood pressure or any
other thing.
3
By this time restricting food to 8 hours every day had become a habit
and having a good healthy fat diet is delicious as well a way for
happiness and health. When I underwent another health check up in
December, 2020 I was not surprised to know that my liver had become a
normal liver after years. Way back in 2005 I had been marked as Fatty
liver Grade I at the age of 43. Today at the age of 58 years I have normal
liver and I do not take any medicine for any health condition. Maybe it is
a bliss to live without any medicines which I had taken for more than 20
years.
As a bonus of having good health, my general well being has improved.
Today my weight at 63 Kilograms is less than when I joined service way
back in 1987 when it was 68 Kilograms. It is rare to see a healthy person
having less weight at 58 years of age than at 25 years of age.
I am convinced that a large number of people who are having chronic
health issues like fatty liver, diabetes, high blood pressure, high
cholesterol, overweight and obesity can improve their health without the
need to take any medicines by just increasing the intake of healthy fat,
eliminating sugar and sugar products, eliminating vegetable oils and
drastically reducing carbohydrates from one's diet.
(The author is an IPS officer)