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More than 101 million people in India were living with diabetes in ,and another 136 million had prediabetes. A new study has revealed that six out of ten people with type 2 diabetes have liver disease, and a small percentage of them developed serious illness.

A new study from Linköping University found that people who have type 2 diabetes along with obesity are at great risk of developing various types of liver diseases. The study is published in the  .

What is type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes and occurs when blood glucose (blood sugar) levels are too high. Glucose is the main source of energy for the body and primarily comes from the food we eat. Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, helps glucose enter your cells to be used for energy. However, in people with type 2 diabetes, the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or doesn’t use it effectively. As a result, much of the glucose remains in the bloodstream instead of reaching the cells.

What did the study find

The recent study found that more than half of the people with type 2 diabetes had fatty liver. In a smaller percentage, this progressed to severe liver disease. Researchers explained that when metabolism is disrupted, as seen in metabolic syndrome, it can impact the organs, including the liver.

“Metabolic syndrome is a combination of factors leading to the body accumulating fat and not managing blood sugar levels in a good way. This entails an increased risk of developing secondary diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases,” Wile Balkhed, PhD student at Linköping University and resident physician at Linköping University Hospital, said in a statement.

Type 2 diabetes and liver disease

In the case of the liver, these disruptions result in increased accumulation of fat, a condition called metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (formerly called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease). The researchers noted thta around one in five adults in Sweden have metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MASLD). It affects one in three adults worldwide.

Fatty liver can further progress to severe liver disease, such as cirrhosis, which is the formation of scar tissue in the liver. Though it is relatively rare, in people who develop severe liver disease, it is linked to a high risk of liver cancer and high mortality.
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“It’s of great importance to find the few individuals who are at high risk of serious liver disease, because we can do a lot of good for those patients. But it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Hopefully, our data will help to find the high-risk individuals among all patients,” Mattias Ekstedt, senior associate professor at Linköping University and consultant in gastroenterology and hepatology at Linköping University Hospital added.

What’s new

Though previous studies have found that type 2 diabetes increases the risk of developing fatty liver, it was unclear how common this is. The researchers of this study investigated the presence of MASLD and liver cirrhosis in people with type 2 diabetes who attend diabetes checks in primary health care.

Over 300 people with type 2 diabetes participated in the study, and close to six in ten, which is 59 percent, had metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease, according to MRI scans.

They also used the ultrasound method that measures liver stiffness, and found that about 7 per cent of the participants had changes suggesting early-stage cirrhosis of the liver.

“The finding is important for determining whether patients with type 2 diabetes should be screened for liver disease. Several international organisations recommend it in their guidelines, but such screening has not been introduced in Sweden,” Wile Balkhed said.