In a new and disturbing twist on the obesity epidemic, some overweight teenagers have severe liver damage caused by too much body fat, and a handful have needed liver transplants.
The scope of the disease has only been realized in recent years. Just a handful of cases were reported in medical journals in the 1980s, and in the past, many adult patients were thought to be lying when they denied drinking alcohol.
Only three liver transplants on American children with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease were recorded from 1990 through 2002; two were done last year.
"It really has been only in the last two or three years that this has become more commonplace," said Dr. Ann Scheimann, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center. "It is scary."
Scary indeed.
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