Liver Week- NAFLD/NASH

Did you know NAFLD* is the most prevalent disease in human history? It is estimated to affect nearly 2 billion people worldwide and about 100 million individuals in the United States.

It can be hard to truly appreciate large numbers, like 100 million and 2 billion. Can you recall the last time you saw a billion of anything? Let’s think, for a moment, about those numbers in terms of time:

• 1 million seconds is about 11.5 days
  • 100 million seconds is a little more than 3 years
• 1 billion seconds is just shy of 32 years
  • 2 billion seconds is about 63.5 years

Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD), is the most common form of liver disease in children and has more than doubled over the past 20 years. *NAFLD, and the more aggressive advanced form of the disease, Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH), has reached epidemic proportions in our country.

The American Liver Foundation is working diligently to raise awareness of this disease, associated illness like type 2 diabetes and obesity, and modifiable risk factors like diet and exercise.

*NAFLD has been newly renamed to MASLD.

*Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) has been newly renamed to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).

Last updated on January 18th, 2024 at 01:59 pm