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People who regularly indulge in late-night snacking may be putting their liver at risk, according to a study published Friday.
An analysis of nearly 200,000 U.S. adults found those who ate after their evening meal had a 20-30 percent increased risk for two types of potentially fatal liver disease.
These were cirrhosis and fatty liver disease, some of the most common forms of liver disease. The conditions can also lead to cancer.
More research is needed to understand the connection but the researchers suggest it may have to do with the body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm.
“We are seeing over and over again that the timing of behaviors, whether it’s sleep, eating or exercise, really matters,” study author Andrew McHill, an associate professor and sleep and circadian physiologist at Oregon Health & Science University, said in a statement.
People who work at night often have a dysregulated internal clock and separate research published last month shows it can even lead to changes in genes. These workers also have higher rates of obesity and heart disease that Harvard researchers have tied to misalignment between their internal clock and regular eating and sleeping cycles.
Eating at night lessens the body’s ability to metabolize foods efficiently, McHill pointed out. And the liver is “very much in tune with the body’s circadian rhythms, lead author Dr. Robert Wilechansky, a hepatologist at Oregon Health, added.
“So we’re interested in changing the timing of eating in a way that could make a difference in health without changing the composition of what people eat,” he said.
Drinking soda and eating ultra-processed snack foods like sugary cookies and chips have also been linked to liver disease in past studies. Fortunately, only a small fraction of people who develop these forms of liver disease see serious forms of the condition.
The Oregon researchers will continue to research eating behaviors to find out whether when they eat improves their risk of disease. There are more than 52,000 deaths from chronic liver disease each year in the U.S., according to federal data.
There are many different types of liver disease and some have no symptoms. But symptoms of cirrhosis include fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of sex drive, jaundice, itchy skin and feeling or being sick.
With additional wire reporting
