Can You Die from a Fatty Liver? The Actual Truth
When being diagnosed with a chronic disease like fatty liver, questions like “can you die from a fatty liver?” are only natural. When first reading about it, the perspectives are quite gloomy. Your liver is overloaded with toxins and fats, does not correctly process the toxins and fats that keep on coming and the disease has a scary way of creating a vicious circle that makes it very hard to battle. There have been people who have battled with the condition for years without managing to actually cure the illness, and there are no few cases in which fatty liver evolved into fatal conditions, like cirrhosis and cancer.
So, can you die from a fatty liver? Yes, you can, in the same way you can die from something as simple as a cold that was left untreated. Fatty liver is, obviously, much more difficult to reverse than a cold, but the way things work is pretty much the same: if you don’t take care of yourself any condition can turn fatal – and that is the truth.
However, the difference between a cold and a fatty liver is that fatty liver has many more cases in which it developed into a fatal condition. Can you die from a fatty liver? Yes, and unfortunately, it’s not a rare case – even if the condition that actually ends up killing the patient is not actually fatty liver but something that developed from it.
How does that happen? Fatty liver is a condition where the main toxin filter in your body – the liver – is no longer functioning properly. It is a condition that feeds itself – the more toxins are deposited in the liver, the worse it works, and the worse the liver works, the more toxins are deposited. The really bad news is that, usually, by the time you realize you have fatty liver (when symptoms actually show), the condition is pretty developed – your liver is already not working properly. Most doctors will recommend dieting, so that you can restrict the toxins that end up in your liver.
Can you die from a fatty liver if you don’t respect the diet?
It’s a natural question, especially when confronting with the actual fatty liver diet. It is very restrictive and the food that society throws at you nowadays is not really helping – there’s a fast food restaurant at every corner, we have a lot of work to do, so we require coffee to function properly, and alcohol is being advertised as fun as opposed to toxic. Can we really not slip up? Can you die from a fatty liver just because you ate a hamburger once?
In truth, one slip up will not kill you – but it will not help. It is unfair, but if you slip up once, you can ruin weeks of good work. You will not die from it, but there will be two things happening: once you lost your control, it will be harder to get it back and the fat that you ingested will take maybe weeks to remove.
On the other hand, if you’re asking “can you die from a fatty liver if you continuously disregard the diet?”, the answer is a clear yes. Everything that is recommended to you in the diet is good for the liver – everything that is not recommended is hurting your liver. Even worse, it’s a source of substances that are bad for your body in general – and since the liver no longer eliminates them, they spread throughout. This means that, by constantly and systematically ignoring the diet, you choose to pretty much poison your body. Can you die from a fatty liver if you do that? Unfortunately yes.
But can’t fatty liver be cured in any other way?
The traditional view on fatty liver is that it is caused by large alcohol consumption or by a diet that is filled with saturated fats and unhealthy food (which, considering the types of foods that are popular nowadays, is a pretty common diet). However, recent discoveries have shown that there can be other underlying causes and that some people are more inclined to develop fatty liver than others. Obviously, that means that other methods of treatment – other than diets – have been developed. Can you die from a fatty liver if you don’t keep a diet but you apply other methods of treatment?
It is definitely not a recommended course of action. Even if a faulty diet is not the underlying cause of your fatty liver disease, it is definitely not going to help you with your condition. A good diet will not fix you, but a bad diet can slow down your treatment. Can you die from a fatty liver in this manner? Probably not, but it is still not recommended.
What is the best way to treat fatty liver?
It is strongly recommended that you understand exactly what fatty liver is all about – because if you do, you will understand the logic behind any treatment you will apply. There are various underlying causes that can lead to fatty liver – and it is very good to know which one exactly applies to you – that is a great way to understand what would work to counteract it. Like with many conditions, there are general approaches that work with every type of fatty liver, but it is good to know what exactly made the difference for you – in health, like in life, the best defense is an attack.
Do not be discouraged by the diet that you will be required to respect – it may look scary, but, in truth, there is plenty of good food that can still be eaten. The diet you are meant to follow is what our forefathers were eating back when fast foods didn’t exist – and mankind developed quite well with it. Stop wondering “Can you die from a fatty liver?” – simply decide that you will not.

Debra Elkin is a health consultant and "former" liver disease sufferer
Debra Elkin has helped thousands of fatty liver sufferers worldwide with her amazing methods, her remedies can be found in the Fatty Liver Bible program.