Breakthrough Medical Treatments for Obesity and Diabetes Advance Care for Children with NAFLD
As a pediatric gastroenterologist and director of Cincinnati Children's Steatohepatitis Center, Stavra Xanthakos, MD, MS, works with children and adolescents affected by nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), now the most common cause of chronic liver disease in children in the United States.
The number of young adults requiring liver transplants due to NAFLD is on the rise, likely due to rising obesity and earlier onset of NAFLD in children. To help the growing number of affected children, Xanthakos and her colleagues developed a dedicated multidisciplinary NAFLD program in 2008.
“Our primary goal is to identify NAFLD early, in particular the more severe form of the disease nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and to start interventions to stabilize and hopefully reverse the condition completely,” Xanthakos says.
Focusing on building healthy eating habits and increasing daily activity remains the foundation of treatment for all children with NAFLD.
However, “we aren’t always getting the results needed to improve health for many kids, especially for those with severe obesity,” Xanthakos says. “The combination of all the environmental factors driving the obesity epidemic and our bodies’ tendency to resist losing weight often make it hard to get to a healthy weight and reverse diseases associated with excess weight gain.”
