Download the NAFLD and NASH: What you Need to Know infographic
International NASH Day
Thursday 8th June 2023 is International NASH Day. A day to raise awareness of non-alcohol related fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its more advanced form, non-alcohol related steatohepatitis (NASH), which affect more than 115 million people around the world. This is expected to increase to 357 million in the UK.
In the UK, up to 1 in 5 people have non-alcohol related fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and it is estimated that 12% of UK adults have NASH.
What is NAFLD and NASH?
NAFLD and NASH are caused by fat building up in your liver. This fat irritates and damages your liver, which can lead to scarring. The main treatment for NAFLD is eating healthily, being physically active, and staying at a healthy weight. These all reduce the amount of fat in your liver, which can slow down, stop and even reverse NAFLD and NASH.
Find out more
Below, you can watch and read firsthand experiences of individuals living with fatty liver disease and the profound impact it has had on their loved ones. You can also learn how you can actively contribute to raising awareness, both today and throughout the year.
PATIENT STORIES
Having lost her brother to liver cancer, Veronica was nervous about visiting the British Liver Trust’s Love Your Liver mobile unit. However, she bravely stepped on board, never imagining she could be at risk of liver disease herself. Yes, she’d put on a bit of weight, but she exercised and thought she ate healthily. At a British Liver Trust roadshow, Veronica had a liver scan and the results of shocked her into action, she immediately changed her eating habits – cutting out the cakes and butter that she had been so fond of and turning instead to a largely plant based diet and lots more exercise. She lost 10kg and loved her liver back to health. Veronica says: “If you’ve been given a NAFLD diagnosis you’ve been given another chance to look at your lifestyle and make a difference.
“Stuart’s death was preventable and if someone had said to him five years ago ‘You’ve got liver problems, you’ve got to watch what you’re eating, he would have watched what he was eating’.” Jamia and her husband of 35 years were inseparable and raised their two disabled children as a team, but she tragically lost her soulmate to non-alcohol related fatty liver disease. The couple had embarked on a healthy eating and exercise plan, unaware that Stuart already had advanced liver disease and it was too late to reverse the damage. He died in hospital just a months later. Jamia is now passionate about raising awareness of NAFLD to stop other families “going through the hell that we went through”.
Download our publications
We have lots of information to help you understand NAFLD and NASH. From questions to ask your doctor to tips for getting more active, we’re here for you. You can download our free publications:
- Your guide to NAFLD, NASH and fatty liver disease
- Treating NAFLD with a healthy diet and physical activity
- Bitesize guide to NAFLD
- Eating healthily and NAFLD – getting started
- Being more active and NAFLD – getting started
- Questions to ask your doctor if you have NAFLD
Or access our information online here.
Write to your MP
Three quarters of people with liver disease are diagnosed at a stage when it is often too late for treatment or intervention. Finding liver disease earlier will need GPs and primary care nurses to proactively look for it in their patients.
To do this, they need clear guidelines and an easy to implement pathway to refer people for the right tests and treatment. We’re now calling on MPs to help us make sure that pathways are put in place where they are lacking, and are properly implemented where they are in place.