A new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenburg clearly shows that obesity and high cholesterol increases the risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver in middle-aged men.
- Inline with the growing problem of obesity in Sweden, we can therefore suspect that more people will become ill with cirrhosis of the liver, says Jerzy Kaczynski, an associate professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy in a press release.
The research team at the Sahlgrenska Academy studied the relationship between obesity and the risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver. From the beginning the study included 855 men aged 50 years. The men were studied over a 40-year period.
During the follow up periods two percent of the men developed cirrhosis of the liver. All of them were obese and their average body mass index (BMI) was 28. The average BMI for the other participants was less than 25.
- A liver that becomes sick and weakened due to obesity can "tolerate" less stress. Therefore you can speculate that obese individuals that over-consume alcohol develop cirrhosis of the liver quicker than a person of normal weight. We have no evidence of this in our study, but it can be speculated with good reason, says Jerzy Kaczynski.
A relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of cirrhosis of the liver was not statistically proven during the study.
The findings will be published in the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology.
