The Hidden Cause of Nonalcoholic Liver Disease (Worse Than Obesity)

It’s a well-known fact that overeating and obesity can lead to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

But, according to a new study in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, there is another factor that is twice as likely as overeating to cause NAFLD.

Nobody ever talks about this one.

And it’s actually the people closest to you that are exposing you to this terrifying NAFLD factor.

A team led by researchers from the University of Tasmania noticed that very little research has been done on the relationship between passive smoking and NAFLD—a fact that they found unusual given that it is well established that active smoking carries an elevated NAFLD risk.

To cover this lack of research, they collected information from 1,315 people over a 31-year period.

First, they obtained information on passive or parental smoking in 1980 and 1983 when the participants were between three and 18 years old.

They then collected information on exposure to passive smoke during their participants’ adulthoods in 2001, 2007, and 2011.

To top it all off, they used ultrasound scans to diagnose NAFLD in 2011 when their participants were between 34 and 49 years old.

They found that 16.3% of their subjects had NAFLD by 2011.

After adjusting for well-known causes of NAFLD like physical activity, alcohol consumption, age, and socio-economic status, they reached the following conclusions:

1. Childhood exposure to passive smoking increased their subjects’ risk of NAFLD later in life by 41%.
2. Adulthood exposure to passive smoking increased their subjects’ risk of NAFLD later in life by 35%.
3. Childhood and adulthood exposure to passive smoking together raised their risk of NAFLD by 99%.

This is an incredible finding. It implies that you can halve your NAFLD risk if you avoid passive smoking during childhood and adulthood.

But if you have already developed NAFLD, avoiding smoke is not going to save you. For that you need to follow the simple lifestyle changes explained here…