Healing can begin as early as a few days to weeks after you stop drinking, but if the damage is severe, healing can take several months. In some cases, “if the damage to the liver has been long-term, it may not be reversible,” warns Dr.
It takes around 4 weeks to 2 months for a person to recover from the condition and the best way to reduce fatty liver would be a well balanced diet, giving up alcohol, exercising regularly and losing weight.
Is fatty liver disease reversible? Here's the good news. Fatty liver disease is treated with a combination of diet and exercise. With this regimen, the liver can heal itself and actually reverse the damage that has occurred over the years.
According to the American Liver Foundation, there are no medical treatments – yet – for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. So that means that eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly are the best ways to both prevent liver damage from starting or reverse liver disease once it's in the early stages.
While there is no cure for NAFLD, it can be reversed. The longer it goes undiagnosed, however, the greater the chances of progressing to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a more severe form of NAFLD, which can be more difficult to reverse.
Undoing Early Damage
You have to lose about 7% of your body weight to resolve NASH. You'll need to lose at least 10% to reduce fibrosis, or scarring. Losing weight can also help reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
NAFLD treatment includes diet and exercise with a target 7–10% weight reduction. Treatment goals include improvements in liver fat content, liver inflammation, and fibrosis.
Daily walk. Go for a 45-minute walk either in the morning or evening. Walking can help keep at bay many lifestyle diseases from diabetes, blood pressure, heart diseases to fatty liver.
If you have fatty liver disease, the damage may be reversed if you abstain from alcohol for at least 2 weeks. After this point, it's usually safe to start drinking again if you stick to the NHS guidelines on alcohol consumption.
Avoiding Alcohol
Moderate or heavy alcohol use can cause additional damage and fat accumulation in the liver in people with NAFLD. Therefore, patients with NAFLD should avoid alcohol entirely if possible.
Fatty liver disease is reversible. If you stop drinking alcohol for some time (months or years), your liver should return to normal.
Bottom Line: Nutrition plays a major role in improving fatty liver disease. Additionally, many foods are good for fatty liver, such as bran, salmon, coffee, berries, sunflower seeds, eggs and garlic. Be sure to include these nutrient-dense options regularly and always consider your overall diet and lifestyle habits.
Advocates claim that conducting a cleanse with apple cider vinegar helps to flush toxins from the body, regulate blood sugar levels, and encourage healthy weight loss, all of which can improve liver health. However, there's little scientific support for these claims.
Fatty liver disease is a build-up of fats in the liver that can damage the organ and lead to serious complications. Risk factors include obesity, a high-fat diet, high alcohol intake and diabetes mellitus.
Choose a healthy plant-based diet that's rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats. Maintain a healthy weight. If you are overweight or obese, reduce the number of calories you eat each day and get more exercise.
Depending on your circumstance, your bariatric surgeon may require that you participate in a low-calorie preoperative liver shrink diet, lasting anywhere from five days to two weeks, several weeks prior to surgery.