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People who regularly snack late in the evening could put their liver at risk, according to a study published Friday.
An analysis of nearly 200,000 American adults found that those who ate after their evening meal had a 20 to 30 percent increased risk of two types of life-threatening liver diseases.
These were cirrhosis and fatty liver disease, some of the most common forms of liver disease. These conditions can also lead to cancer.
More research is needed to understand the link, but researchers suggest it may be related to the body’s internal clock or circadian rhythm.
“We keep finding that the timing of behaviors, whether it’s sleep, eating or exercise, is really important,” study author Andrew McHill, an associate professor and sleep and circadian physiologist at Oregon Health & Science University, said in a statement.
People who work night shifts often have dysregulated internal clocks, and separate research published last month shows this can even lead to genetic changes. These workers also have higher rates of obesity and heart disease, which Harvard researchers have attributed to a misalignment between their internal clocks and their regular eating and sleeping cycles.
Eating in the evening decreases the body’s ability to efficiently metabolize food, McHill pointed out. And the liver is “very much in tune with the body’s circadian rhythms,” added lead author Dr. Robert Wilechansky, a hepatologist at Oregon Health.
“So we want to change meal timing in a way that could impact health without changing the composition of what people eat,” he said.
Drinking soda and eating ultra-processed snacks like sugary cookies and chips have also been linked to liver disease in previous studies. Fortunately, only a small fraction of people who develop these forms of liver disease experience severe forms of the disease.
Oregon researchers will continue to study eating behaviors to determine whether eating improves their risk of disease. There are more than 52,000 deaths each year from chronic liver disease in the United States, according to federal data.
There are many types of liver disease and some have no symptoms. But symptoms of cirrhosis include fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of libido, jaundice, itchy skin, and feeling or being sick.
With additional thread ratios
Gn Health
