Green tea plus exercise may reduce fatty liver disease

The obesity epidemic has spurred public health awareness and is associated with fatty liver and type-2 diabetes. Fatty liver is also known as hepatic steatosis. Having little amounts of fat in liver is fine but too much causes health problems.

The damage caused by fatty liver can be halted or reversed through simple lifestyle changes. The researchers found that a combination of green tea extract and exercise reduced the severity of obesity-related fatty liver disease by 75 per cent.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a significant global health problem that is expected to worsen, Joshua Lambert, Associate Professor of Food Science at The Pennsylvania State University in the US said.

Photo has been used for illustrative purpose.

People suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease may benefit from regular exercise and replacing high-calorie beverages with decaffeinated green tea.

"Combining the two might have health benefits for people, but we don't have the clinical data yet," Lambert said.

Because of the high prevalence of risk factors such as obesity and Type-2 diabetes, fatty liver disease is forecast to afflict more than 100 million people by 2030. And there are currently no validated therapies for the disease.

In the study, mice fed a high-fat diet for 16 weeks that consumed green tea extract and exercised regularly by running on a wheel were found to have just a quarter of the lipid deposits in their livers compared to those seen in the livers of a control group of mice.