- Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease cases are growing, and the disease is associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
- Up to 90% of people with obesity have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Obesity can also affect how vitamins are processed in the body.
- Recent research has shown that increased levels of niacin, or vitamin B3, could reduce overall death rates and death from cardiovascular disease in a cohort of people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The number of people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has been increasing in recent years and has an estimated prevalence of 32.4% worldwide and 47.8% in the United States.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a condition that starts out with an initially harmless buildup of fat in the liver. As the condition progresses, however, this buildup of fat can cause harm to the liver, which is responsible for filtering blood and carrying out a number of crucial metabolic processes.
It can cause fibrosis, which is the formation of scar tissue, itself a form of damage. There is also a risk of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which occurs when the liver becomes inflamed.
A group of researchers from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China recently published a large cohort-based study looking at the impact of niacin intake on cause of death in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The study’s results appear in the journal
Data on 4,315 adults aged 20 years or older with NAFLD were extracted from the
Information on the diet of these individuals was deduced from data collected during the survey using a dietary interview, called “What We Eat in America.“
Researchers asked the participants to recall the types and quantities of foods they consumed in the 24 hours prior to the interview, from…
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