
Understanding How High Cholesterol Affects Your Liver

October is National Liver Awareness Month across the country, and Nizar A Tejani, MD, PC of Stockbridge, Georgia, wants to assure you understand the relationship between cholesterol and liver health. Your liver serves as a regulator for cholesterol and the lipoproteins that bind with cholesterol and other lipids to move them through your body.
Fatty liver disease
While you may think of high cholesterol as a threat to your arteries and heart, it’s perhaps even more of a factor when it comes to liver health. Cholesterol from the foods you eat usually ends up in or passes through your liver.
As cholesterol deposits grow in the liver, you’re at risk of a condition called fatty liver disease (FLD). This may not be a symptomatic problem in its early stages, but over time, these deposits make your liver less efficient. They could put you at risk of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, a potentially deadly condition that’s more commonly called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH for short.
When MASH takes hold, you may be at risk of other liver conditions, including:
- Cirrhosis, or scarring of liver tissue
- Liver inflammation
- Liver failure
- Swollen belly
- Gynecomastia (enlarged male breasts)
- Enlarged blood vessels, visible through your skin
- Jaundice (a yellow appearance in the eyes and skin)
- Unexplained weight loss
- Nausea
- Loss of appetite
- Fatigue or tiredness
- Changes in mental acuity
MASH tends to produce abnormal results in liver function tests. High levels of cholesterol in your liver increase the chances you’ll develop liver cancer.
Lifestyle changes for improved liver health
You can help to improve liver function by making a few small changes to your lifestyle routines, and these changes provide health benefits across the board, as well as making your liver stronger.
There are four key focal points for better liver health:
- Increased aerobic activity: 30 minutes of moderate low-impact activity a day
- Achieving and maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI)
- Reducing the intake of processed foods: switch your choices to fresh foods, close to their original form
- Improving the quality of your regular diet: choose lean proteins and low-fat dairy, plenty of plant-based foods, whole grains, and healthy oils
To amplify these efforts, Dr. Tejani can prescribe cholesterol-reducing medications, particularly if you don’t see significant results.
The role of alcohol in liver disease
If you’re a moderate to heavy user of alcohol who also has high cholesterol, your risk of liver disease climbs. Alcohol directly causes damage to your liver, also contributing to fatty liver and, without care, to alcoholic hepatitis.
The combination of the two fatty liver diseases dramatically increases your risk of severe liver damage. Cirrhosis and fibrosis of the liver occur at accelerated rates, and you may be faced with complete abstinence from alcohol combined with major lifestyle changes and cholesterol-reducing drug therapy.
Regular monitoring of your serum cholesterol levels is the best way to limit the effects of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Remember, there are a few observable symptoms in the early stages of the condition.
Visit Nizar A Tejani, MD, PC, and the team at our Stockbridge office. Book your appointment by phone or online today.
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