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Overweight woman
Photo: iStockphoto / Getty Images
This text is one of the most read articles in 2019.
The liver grows with its tasks, doctors scoff.
Not only the consumption of beer, wine or schnapps, but also overeating and lack of exercise can make the organ fat and fatter.
In the meantime, around every fourth inhabitant of Germany suffers from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease - and as more and more people are very overweight, the number of fatty liver diseases is likely to rise too.
Without appropriate measures, it can lead to life-threatening shrink liver disease, cirrhosis.
But many people have no idea of the danger.
A fat liver does not usually hurt.
The first symptoms may be slight pressure in the right upper abdomen and a feeling of fullness after meals, but many of those affected do not even feel this.
Often it is a routine examination by the doctor that shows abnormal blood tests or suspicious ultrasound images.
"Too many people have their liver checked too rarely or they belittle elevated liver values," says Uta Merle, gastroenterologist at Heidelberg University Hospital.
These carefree people evidently trust that the liver will never fail.
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