I drank so much fizzy drink I needed a liver transplant - don't repeat my mistakes By Lynne Wallis For The Daily Mail Published: 01:55, 17 September 2024 | Updated: 02:02, 17 September 2024 e-mail View comments Paul Cherry was in his mid-40s when he first felt unwell enough to see his GP. ‘I was so tired, I was sleeping all the time and feeling unusually snappy,’ recalls the father of two. ‘It hurt to pee as well.
’ Paul was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and initially put on metformin to lower his blood sugar levels, then later he began taking insulin daily. At the same time, he was also diagnosed with NAFLD – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a build-up of fat in the liver that is a common precursor to cirrhosis (liver scarring). As the name suggests, NAFLD is not related to alcohol intake: risk factors include a family history of fatty liver and having type 2 diabetes.
It usually affects those who are overweight, although liver specialists say people of normal weight can also develop it – known as ‘lean’ NAFLD. Although around a stone overweight at the time, Paul wasn’t obese. Instead, his doctors believe he developed type 2 diabetes due to a diet laden with junk food and sugar – NAFLD followed as his blood sugar levels became chronically high, damaging his liver.
Paul Cherry was previously drinking up to three big bottles of fizzy drink a day Yet in the nine years following his diagnosis, Paul didn’t make the lifestyle changes doctors .