Exercise helps break down fatty liver
Luise Heine has been an editor at since 2012. The qualified biologist studied in Regensburg and Brisbane (Australia) and gained experience as a journalist in television, in the Ratgeber-Verlag and in a print magazine. In addition to her work at , she also writes for children, for example for the Stuttgarter Kinderzeitung, and has her own breakfast blog, “Kuchen zum Frühstück”.
More posts by Luise Heine All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichEating healthy, losing weight and doing sport - these are the well-known ways in which fatty liver that is not caused by alcohol consumption can be treated. Australian researchers have now taken a closer look at the role that movement plays.
Lose weight, at least three percent of your body weight - this is the specialist recommendation for reducing fatty liver. "Most people find it difficult to achieve this and to persevere in the long term," explains Dr. Nathan Johnson from the University of Sydney, Australia. For people with fatty liver, there is another screw that they can turn: their sporting activity.
Different sport intensity
To determine how much and what type of exercise is needed, Dr. Johnson with some colleagues 48 volunteers. They suffered from overweight and a fatty liver that was not caused by alcohol consumption, and they were not active in sports. For the study, they were divided into four groups of 12 people each with different training programs:
1st group: completed exercises that were not very intensive, but were done often
2nd group: received exercises that were intense but not repeated often
3rd group: trained exercises that were not very intense and were not repeated often
4th group: completed exercises that were only used for stretching or massage (placebo group)
Changes in the liver were made visible using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Before the start of the study and after eight weeks in which the test subjects had completed their exercises.
The main thing is movement
"Our results show that exercise - regardless of the intensity or repetition - always helps to reduce fatty liver disease," explains Dr. Johnson. The active subjects were able to reduce the liver fat content by 18 to 29 percent. Groups 1 and 2 did a little better. The positive effect of the sport was independent of whether the pounds were tumbled or not. In contrast, the fat percentage in the liver actually increased in the placebo group, by an average of 14 percent.
So if you move, you are also doing something for your liver. The scientists conclude from their study which type of movement is used, however, can be made dependent on individual preferences. The bottom line is that this can help motivate people to exercise more in the long term.
Most common chronic liver disease
Fatty liver is the most common chronic liver disease in Germany. It occurs when too many fats are stored in the liver. If this remains the case for a long time, the structure of the liver can change and, for example, liver inflammation can develop. Fatty liver is a typical problem in industrialized countries and in most cases it is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle: too much fatty food and too little exercise. Sometimes, however, it is also a side effect of other diseases, such as diabetes. A sub-form of fatty liver is the alcohol-related fatty liver. Regular alcohol consumption is the trigger here.
Source: Keating S. et al. Effect of aerobic exercise training dose on liver fat and visceral adiposity; Journal of Hepatology; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2015.02.022.
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