Liver diseases in the XXI century: the silent pandemic – Rotary Club of Jurong Town

Speaker: Mr Matias Caldez

The liver is a central organ in body because it helps to clear the many toxins from the blood; it also produces many elements important in nutrition, and it has many other functions too.
However, during the recent decades liver diseases such as liver cirrhosis have become an important clinical problem around the world which is accompanied with a substantial raise in liver cancer in many countries. Liver cirrhosis is a consequence of a lot of damage inflicted to the liver and sustained in the long term, which hardens the organ and reduces the optimal functions. In the past, liver cirrhosis was linked to causes such as hepatitis B or C viral infections, or to an uncontrolled uptake of alcohol. But in the recent years, there has been a remarkable surge in number of liver cirrhosis related to a disease called fatty liver disease, that in the clinics is known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD. The underlying cause of fatty liver disease is the unusual accumulation of fat in the liver associated usually with diabetes and obesity. It is also related to a sedentary lifestyle, which has been further intensified with the current COVID pandemics with many people working from home.

In this seminar we will talk about the causes and consequences of many liver diseases related to a sedentary lifestyle and imbalanced dieting. Mr Matias Caldez will also introduce some of the current research that they are doing to understand the diseases and how to develop better cures.