A domestic study found that patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which can develop even if they do not drink alcohol, have a 1.5 times higher risk of developing dementia than those who do not drink alcohol.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a disease in which fat accumulates in the liver due to metabolic diseases such as obesity, hyperlipidemia, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Like alcoholic fatty liver disease, it can lead to hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer.

The research team of Professors Jeong-il Lee and Hyun-woong Lee of the Department of Gastroenterology at Gangnam Severance Hospital announced on the 1st that they confirmed this correlation by analyzing 17,064 people aged 60 or older who underwent national health examination in 2009. The results of this study were published in the latest issue of the international journal Annals Academy of Medicine Singapore.

The research team noted that both dementia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are metabolic diseases and studied the relationship between the two. Among the total survey subjects, 2,844 dementia patients were designated as the experimental group, and 14,220 people with the same age, gender, blood pressure, blood sugar, and smoking status were compared as the control group. As a result, the proportion of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was 6.8% (192 people) in dementia patients and 5.5% (784 people) in the control group without dementia.

The research team excluded factors that could affect the development of dementia other than non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and weighed the risk. As a result, it was confirmed that if you suffer from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the risk of developing dementia is 1.49 times higher.

In addition, we looked at the impact of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease on the development of dementia according to diabetes, which has been reported as a risk factor for dementia. The probability of developing dementia was found to be much higher in the group with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease regardless of the presence or absence of diabetes.

Regarding this study, the research team explained, “We have proven that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease alone increases the probability of developing dementia in people over 60 years of age.”

Professor Lee Jeong-il, who led the research team, said, “Just as diabetes, a metabolic disease, has an impact on the development of dementia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is also cautiously predicted to increase the probability of dementia.”

Professor Lee said, “The first step in treating diabetes or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is losing weight and preventing muscle mass loss through exercise,” adding, “Efforts to actively correct lifestyle habits are needed to lower the probability of developing dementia.”