It’s one thing to carry extra fat on your thighs but when obesity pushes fat onto a vital organ such as the liver, alarm bells should sound. As many as a quarter of the global population suffers with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Many of these will progress to a severe inflammation that can progress to cirrhosis and liver cancer.
There is a distinct relationship between gut microbiota and host metabolism in chronic liver diseases, most notably non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Gut dysbiosis may lead to NAFLD. As many studies have revealed, probiotics may restore normal gut flora thus strengthening gut walls and reducing inflammation.
For a closer look at how this plays out, read my latest contribution to WholeFoods magazine (an industry publication and not THAT Whole Foods) which was written at bequest of the International Probiotics Association. Probiotics Show Promise in Fatty Liver Disease appeared online in August 2019.
Read this excerpt
Our knowledge about the clinical significance of probiotics’ use in liver disease is starting to take shape. However, questions remain. Which probiotic and which strain will meet the targets? Another confounder is that many of the studies included prebiotics which can act independently on liver disease.
Collectively, these clinical studies reinforced by prior animal research suggest a role for probiotics in a public health problem that is only getting bigger.
