“Creating awareness regarding common liver diseases requires reaching the public at the community level,” Prof Lal
The department of Hepatology, PGIMER, Chandigarh organised a public forum on “Fatty liver disease: a silent epidemic”, on Saturday, 6th April, 2024 from 10 AM to 12.30 PM in the Advanced Paediatric Centre (APC) auditorium of PGIMER, Chandigarh. The forum was organised under the initiative of ‘Janta ke Saath, PGI ka Haath’ started by PGIMER, Chandigarh few months ago.Department of Hepatology organises Public Forum Under ‘Janta ke Saath, PGI ka Haath’ Initiative
The Public Forum was inaugurated by *Prof Vivek Lal, the Director, PGI, at 10 am on 6th April, 2024. Speaking on the occasion, the director praised the department for this initiative and for the nobel cause of teaching the public. He emphasised that more such programs are required to have a connect with the public. Prof Lal also stressed the need to reach the public at the community level for creating awareness regarding common liver diseases. He elaborated that the department of Hepatology, PGI, Chandigarh was the first to create the concept of community hepatology many years back and should continue to take it forward.
Focus of the public forum was on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or metabolic-dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and not on other causes of fatty liver. Dr Arka De, Assistant Professor (Hepatology) educated the audience about the burden, risk factors, and spectrum of fatty liver and Dr Ajay Duseja, Professor and Head (Hepatology) spoke in detail about the prevention and management of fatty liver. It was stressed upon by both the speakers that all fatty liver (MASLD) are not same and rather than ignoring it, full attention should be given for proper evaluation in defining the exact stage of liver disease in these patients which could vary from just fat in the liver to associated inflammation (swelling) or fibrosis (scarring).Department of Hepatology organises Public Forum Under ‘Janta ke Saath, PGI ka Haath’ Initiative
There were close to 125 attendees for the public forum and full one-hour open house interactive session was held after the lectures where audience asked various questions and doubts regarding fatty liver. The panelists for the panel discussion included Dr Sunil Taneja, Dr Madhumita Premkumar, Dr Nipun Verma, Dr Sahaj Rathi from the department of Hepatology and Dr Nancy Sahni from the department of Dietetics, PGIMER, Chandigarh. The panel discussed the kind of diet, exercise and other factors which should be given attention in the prevention and treatment of fatty liver.
Experts stressed that NAFLD/MASLD is primarily a lifestyle disease and lifestyle interventions are the mainstay for both the prevention and management of NAFLD/MASLD. This entails both dietary calorie restriction and exercise which should go hand in hand. Indeed, drugs or pharmacotherapy for NAFLD/MASLD has a limited role in only a selected group of patients. It was emphasized that the management of NAFLD/MASLD should be holistic and other metabolic disorders including diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia should be adequately controlled. Indeed, a healthy lifestyle will help prevent and manage not just NAFLD/MASLD but also these chronic disorders.
On the eve of World Health Day 2024 which falls on 7th April, 2024, the Public Forum on fatty liver stressed the need for a healthy liver and healthy life.
