Stupid liver

I had some pain in the region of my gallbladder, so I went to the doctor. He sent me to get a sonogram and apparently my liver is fatty.

This pisses me off since I don't drink a lot of alcohol (about a beer a day average) and my diet isn't HORRIBLE (it isn't the best, but I only eat fast food like once a month). Oh, and I am 34. My doctor suspects that the pain I am experiencing is related to digestion and stress, but he wants to do more tests to rule out other causes.

This means no alcohol for at least a month. He didn't say no brewing though. :rockin:

On the bright side, I don't have any reason to have a prostate biopsy done. A friend of mine had one done and his description of the procedure was frightening.

Sorry to hear that man. Hope it all turns out okay.

You could always brew up a very low (1%) ABV beer.

If you're interested

Start taking some milk thistle & some vitamin C. It's good for the liver.

That is a shame, I'm sorry you fell ill. I wonder if you've just won the genetic fatty liver lottery? It doesn't sound like you've burnt it out by hard living or anything.

Hope you figure it out and get on the mend.

Jennifer

Petunia said:

I wonder if you've just won the genetic fatty liver lottery? It doesn't sound like you've burnt it out by hard living or anything.

Click to expand...

I have been wondering the same thing, Jennifer. I drank a lot and ate a lot of garbage back when I was in the military, but that was 10-15 years ago.

I live a much "older" lifestyle than a person in their mid-30's does.

Giving up drinking doesn't seem to be in my future. I get the feeling that with a modified (healthy) diet, some exercise, and perhaps a little help from modern pharmacology, I will be able to continue drinking in moderation. Of course, we don't have all the information yet.

Ed - I'll look into milk thistle. I assume it is taken in the form of a capsule? I am giving pomagranite juice a try...it was recommend and I read that it is beneficial to the liver.

I was told I had fatty liver about 6 months ago. I cut down on the fatty foods and ate rabbit food for 5 months and still had a few beers in the evening. All is good now. Until my friends party this weekend.

I have the same issue. I just eat well - I mean not too many fatty foods and try to exercise a few times a week. To me it seems just another way for the pharm companies to get us to buy into one of their new drugs. Oh, moderate drinking too - just a few a night on Thurs through Sunday (football of course).

I was told I had a liver problem about 30 years ago. Turned out the tests they used back then had about 10 times as many false positives as true positives. Went vegan for 18 months and almost died due to lack of iron.

Hard to argue with a sonogram, though.

My husband was asking about your cholesterol and triglycerides. That is a common cause of fatty livers. You might want to check that out too.

Good luck,

Jennifer

mrb said:

...Oh, moderate drinking too - just a few a night on Thurs through Sunday (football of course).

Click to expand...

Same here. Except it's...let me think...yeah. It's from Saturday around 11:00AM until Sunday at midnight, and then just like 4 or 5 each week night...except Friday...which is technically a week night, but not really...then it's a few more than 4 or 5.

Yep...right there between midnight Friday and Saturday at 11:00AM there is absolutely no drinking for me.

...unless you count Nyquil...

Petunia said:

My husband was asking about your cholesterol and triglycerides. That is a common cause of fatty livers. You might want to check that out too.

Click to expand...

I go back to the doctor in about 3 weeks for some additional bloodtesting. At that time we will get cholesterol and triglyceride levels. The new bloodtest results will be compared to previous results to see what effect 3 weeks without alcohol and a reduced fat diet has had.

Out of deperation, I bought a sixer of Kaliber, a non-alcoholic beer. It is like drinking watered down malt extract. Some additional hops might help cover-up/balance the malty sweetness.

Sorry to hear about what your going through.

I read a while ago about a study that was done on carbs. I read that people with a diet that consisted of complex carbs had a lot lower risk of developing fatty liver disease then those who had a diet full of simple carbs. Might be something to look into.

DraconianHand said:

Out of deperation, I bought a sixer of Kaliber, a non-alcoholic beer. It is like drinking watered down malt extract. Some additional hops might help cover-up/balance the malty sweetness.

Click to expand...

I tried another today, but this time I crushed two fresh Cascade hops and tossed them into the pint glass. It made an improvement, although perhaps next time I will try four.

The hops cut the maltiness in the flavor. The aroma was still malty sweet, but now it had a vegetal quality to it.