Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

A healthy liver should contain little or no fat. It’s estimated that up to 1 in every 3 people in the UK has early stages of NAFLD where there are small amounts of fat in their liver.

Early-stage NAFLD doesn’t usually cause any harm, but it can lead to serious liver damage, including cirrhosis, if it gets worse. Having high levels of fat in your liver is also associated with an increased risk of problems such as diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.

If detected and managed at an early stage, it’s possible to stop NAFLD getting worse and reduce the amount of fat in your liver.


Early-stage NAFLD doesn’t usually cause any harm, but it can lead to serious liver damage, including cirrhosis, if it gets worse. Having high levels of fat in your liver is also associated with an increased risk of problems such as diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.

If detected and managed at an early stage, it’s possible to stop NAFLD getting worse and reduce the amount of fat in your liver.


If detected and managed at an early stage, it’s possible to stop NAFLD getting worse and reduce the amount of fat in your liver.

Symptoms

There aren’t usually any symptoms of NAFLD in the early stages. You probably won’t know you have it unless it’s diagnosed during tests carried out for another reason.

Occasionally, people with NASH or fibrosis (more advanced stages of the disease) may experience:

a dull or aching pain in the top right of the tummy (over the lower right side of the ribs) fatigue (extreme tiredness) unexplained weight loss weakness

If cirrhosis (the most advanced stage) develops, you can get more severe symptoms such as yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes (jaundice), itchy skin, and swelling in the legs, ankles, feet or tummy.

Read more about the symptoms of cirrhosis.