It extremely important to create awareness of NAFLD which may be considered to be a “silent killer” as it often remains asymptomatic in the early stages. It is clear that the creation of public awareness about NAFLD, its risk factors and the importance of lifestyle management is crucial to tackle this emerging pandemic.
PGIMER, Chandigarh has recently taken an initiative called ‘Janta ke Saath, PGI ka Haath’ where various public awareness programs on common diseases and medical problems are being organised in PGI. In the same series, the Department of Hepatology, PGIMER, Chandigarh is organising a public forum on “Fatty liver disease: a silent epidemic”, on Saturday, 6th April, 2024 from 10 AM to 12.30 PM in the Advanced Paediatric Centre (APC) auditorium of PGIMER, Chandigarh.
Eminent faculty of the Department of Hepatology will educate the public about the burden, risk factors, prevention and management of NAFLD. In this interactive session., the experts will also answer questions posed by the general public. The program will be inaugurated by the Director, PGI, at 10 am on 6th April, 2024, in the Advanced Paediatric Centre (APC) auditorium.
NAFLD is primarily a lifestyle disease with insulin resistance being the central driver. At the most basic level NAFLD may be considered a state of energy excess where the dietary calorie intake exceeds the calories that are burnt out during physical exertion resulting in fat accumulation in the liver. Given the central role of insulin resistance, it is not surprising that NAFLD is closely associated with other chronic metabolic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dyslipidemia. On the one hand, patients with obesity and diabetes are more likely to have NAFLD, while on the other hand patients with NAFLD are more likely to be diabetic or obese. More importantly, NAFLD in patients with metabolic co-morbidities like obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus or hypertension have a higher risk of developing severe liver disease. Due to this intrinsic relationship with these metabolic co-morbidities, the name of NAFLD has recently been changed to metabolic-dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease or MASLD.
Given the fact that NAFLD/MASLD is primarily a lifestyle disease, lifestyle interventions are the mainstay for both the prevention and management of NAFLD/MASLD. This entails both dietary calorie restriction and exercise which should go hand in hand. Indeed, drugs or pharmacotherapy for NAFLD/MASLD has a limited role in only a selected group of patients. It is also important to emphasize that the management of NAFLD/MASLD should be holistic and other metabolic disorders including diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia should be adequately controlled. Indeed, a healthy lifestyle will help prevent and manage not just NAFLD/MASLD but also these chronic disorders thereby targeting “multiple birds with a single stone”.
The Public Forum being organised by the department of Hepatology on the eve of World Health Day 2024 will answer all the queries of the audience regarding the risk factors, prevention and treatment of fatty liver which can seriously damage the liver in some patients. The program is a walk-in program without any registration fee and the department of Hepatology and PGI would encourage everyone to join us for this public awareness program.