Asked & Answered Podcast
The Texas Heart Institute Center for Cardiovascular Care's general and interventional cardiologist, Dr. Alexander Postalian, answers patients' questions about cardiovascular health.
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Asked & Answered Podcast
Elaborating on the Connection between Fatty Liver Disease and Cardiovascular Disease
On this episode of Asked and Answered, Dr. Stephanie Coulter sits down with Dr. Briana Costello to discuss Fatty Liver Disease (FLD) and how it relates to cardiovascular disease.
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Oh, this is a very interesting question, actually. can you elaborate on the association between fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease? Fatty liver is on the rise. Fatty liver is related to the obesity and diabetes epidemic in people that have excess fat. Put it in weird spots. The liver being one of them. The sac around the heart is another one. Yeah. And then, you know, live fat. That's not in a normal fatty location. Acts differently. It acts aggressively. It makes chemicals that are inflammatory, that are inflammatory, and it increases your risk of heart disease and increases your risk of heart attacks, of strokes and of cirrhosis of the liver, particularly if you're Hispanic and if you drink. So all the medicines that we use to treat lipids and that treat diabetes and diets that are all cardiovascular beneficial are good for liver disease, for fatty liver disease. Yeah. And I think that, you know, the obesity epidemic, like Doctor Colter said, is really something that us as a cardiology community, we're combating now and in the future will continue to do so as diabetes is on the rise, obesity is on the rise. so I think that, if you've been told you have a fatty liver, back in the day, I think people used to just say, oh, you have a little bit of a fatty liver, but now we we're much more ambitious about it. Yeah. And we know that there are things, you know, in, daily routines that we can change to improve it. And medicines, of course, that we used to help, too. In this article, there's a big chart of what medicines, in fact, it was shocking because when I was reading the, you know, evidence based medicine for the treatment of fatty liver disease, it was like reading the diagram of how I prevent heart disease. It was basically the exact same thing. So, we're going to leave you with some tips for the future. Lead a heart healthy lifestyle. Encourage your friends and family members to do the same. Monitor your blood pressure and see your doctor for routine screening. You know, really, certainly after the age of 50 or sooner, if you have a strong family history.
