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We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: Global Fatty Liver Day, an annual public education and awareness campaign, is observed June 11, 2026. A plethora of new and emerging treatments may change the trajectory of care for fatty liver disease. When Jerry Rosenberg boarded a cruise to Bermuda in April 2017, he was not expecting to return to the U.S. in an air ambulance a few days later. He spent the rest of the month in an induced coma before receiving a liver transplant.
Unaware he had metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, an acute episode of hepatitis A \u2014 brought about by eating contaminated food \u2014 left Rosenberg in critical condition. Jerry Rosenberg \u201cWhen I was very young, I\u2019d had the [HAV] vaccine, but it was an old vaccine that should have been redone,\u201d Rosenberg told Healio. Rosenberg is not alone. An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide live with MASLD, according to a global health study in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. The road to recovery was not easy. Rosenberg went through transplant rejection twice within 2 years and was prescribed heavy doses of steroids. During this period, Rosenberg became concerned with his weight gain and increased appetite. He reached out to Andrew P. Keaveny, MD, his transplant hepatologist at Mayo Clinic. \u201cWeight gain is very common posttransplant,\u201d Keaveny said. \u201cPatients can experience recurrent fatty liver or develop fatty liver in their new liver.\u201d Initially, Keaveny recommended Rosenberg start taking Mounjaro (tirzepatide, Eli Lilly & Co.), a dual glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide\/GLP-1 receptor agonist prescribed off-label for weight loss, but it was not covered by Rosenberg\u2019s insurance. Instead, he began Ozempic (semaglutide, Novo Nordisk), which was. \u201cWhen I had my once-a-year major checkup on the 9th anniversary of my liver transplant, I was given the news that after 3 years on Ozempic and trying to eat better, I have 0% fat on my liver,\u201d Rosenberg said. Keaveny told Healio that while the dangers of fatty liver disease were appreciated from a hepatology perspective, there were not many treatment options available until recently. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s important to get the message out to [clinicians] to assess patients for fatty liver disease,\u201d Keaveny said. \u201cPreviously the pushback was, what can you do about it? Everybody tries to lose weight and they\u2019re not successful. But I think we\u2019ve had a sea change in our approach to identifying and managing MASLD.\u201d Rosenberg is now an advocate for organ donation and patients with fatty liver disease. Healio spoke with Rosenberg and Keaveny in recognition of Global Fatty Liver Day, an awareness campaign recognized annually on the second Thursday of June. Future of care There is an increasing burden of fatty liver disease among younger patients, especially younger males, Keaveny said, citing recent research. It will be important to determine the predominant factors contributing to the condition in this population and others, according to Keaveny. \u201cWe need to do more studies to better understand what the dominant player is from an epidemiologic point of view,\u201d Keaveny said. \u201cWhat are the interactions between disordered metabolism and alcohol.\u201d Emerging therapies, like fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF-21) analogues, may help alleviate the burden of fatty liver disease by regulating key metabolic pathways to reverse liver fibrosis. Several FGF-21 analogues are now in phase 3 study, including efimosfermin (GSK). \u201cThese are very promising as antifibrotic medications, even in patients who have very advanced disease,\u201d Keaveny said. “Currently the treatments that are approved, both resmetirom (Rezdiffra, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals) and Wegovy (semaglutide, Novo Nordisk), are approved for patients who have moderate to severe disease, but not established cirrhosis.” \u201cIn the future, there will be multiple medications available, so figuring out sequential therapy and combination therapy is going to be very important, but I think we’re going to have compounds able to address the underlying fibrotic process,\u201d he added. Keaveny also highlighted the significance of preventative medicine in tackling fatty liver disease, especially in light of Rosenberg\u2019s case. \u201cI recommend vaccination against HAV and hepatitis B to all my patients with any form of fatty liver disease, but HAV especially, because that\u2019s one you can just pick up from contaminated food,\u201d Keaveny said. Keaveny is optimistic that these new treatments will reduce the need for liver transplant. \u201cSuccess in hepatology is reducing the number of patients who need liver transplantations, because if you look at the status of the epidemiology, we\u2019re not going to be able to meet the demand for organs for patients with complications from this condition,\u201d he said. A message for clinicians Screening patients for fatty liver disease \u2014 particularly those with type 2 diabetes or a family history of liver disease \u2014 is crucial, according to Keaveny. When a patient is diagnosed with fatty liver disease, it is also important to address comorbidities that may be present, he emphasized. \u201cMild fatty liver disease is a marker of metabolic stress, so it\u2019s very important that individuals with the condition be counseled about their blood pressure, blood sugar and weight as well, to address cardiovascular risk factors,\u201d Keaveny said. Clinicians can connect patients with internet resources to learn more about lifestyle interventions to address fatty liver disease. Keaveny recommends online patient education materials from the American Diabetic Association, American Liver Foundation and Mayo Clinic. He also recommends that clinicians connect patients with dietitians. \u201cBehaviors change gradually, and ongoing support, encouragement and feedback are critical,\u201d Keaveny said. Rosenberg highlighted the \u201cbeauty\u201d of support groups for patients. After his transplant, Rosenberg became a member of Mayo Clinic\u2019s Second Chance support group for individuals who have had liver, kidney or pancreas transplantation. \u201cThose of us that have had successful<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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