Research presented in May during Digestive Disease Week says that physical activity, including walking and strength training, are associated with reducing risk of cirrhosis-related death.
The incidence of chronic liver disease increasing, partly due to the obesity epidemic, and there are currently no guidelines for the optimal type of exercise for prevention of cirrhosis-related mortality but researchers presenting their findings at San Diego, Calif., said they hope their research will help provide specific exercise recommendations for patients at risk for cirrhosis and its complications.
“The benefit of exercise is not a new concept, but the impact of exercise on mortality from cirrhosis and from liver cancer has not yet been explored on this scale,” said Dr. Tracey Simon, lead researcher on the study.
“Our findings show that both walking, and strength training contribute to substantial reductions in risk of cirrhosis-related death, which is significant because we now very little about modifiable risk factors,” said Simon, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Simon and her team followed thousands of women and men from two separate studies, without known liver disease at baseline, using data on their physical activity, including type and intensity, every two years from 1986 through 2012, to allow researchers to prospectively examine the association between physical activity and cirrhosis-related death.
They observed that adults in the highest quintile of weekly walking activity had 73 percent lower risk for cirrhosis-related death than those in the lowest quintile. Further risk reduction was observed with combined walking and muscle-strengthening exercises, they said.
“In the U.S. mortality due to cirrhosis is increasing dramatically, with rates expected to triple by the year 2030,” Simon said. “In the face of this alarming trend, information on modifiable risk factors that might peent liver disease is needed. Our findings support further research to define the optimal type and intensity of physical activity to prevent adverse outcomes in patients at risk for cirrhosis.”
Digestive Disease Week is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers and academics in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. The research was reported by EurekAlert, an online publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
