Fatty liver disease is a condition that can occur in the body where the percentage of fat that is normally in the liver is elevated. There are no direct physical symptoms of a fatty liver so patients often live unaware of the condition until it evolves into a more severe liver problem. Certain forms of fatty liver are actually not harmful and do not require any medical attention. The most common ways to diagnose a fatty live is through a blood test, medical imaging to determine inflammation or through a liver biopsy to confirm the fat content of the organ. One of the ways that an individual can develop fatty liver disease is through alcohol or substance abuse. Chronic Alcoholism can actually start to destroy parts of the liver. This can combine with some genetic factors that affect the way the liver metabolizes alcohol. The result is a liver that is not functioning correctly and that begins to store fat. Some of the common health problems that affect chronic alcoholics can also contribute to the severity of the disease. These factors can include malnutrition, obesity and lack of exercise. Many people who develop fatty liver disease do not abuse alcohol. This condition is known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or non-alcoholic steatohepatisis (NASH). Individuals with these diseases have fat deposits in the liver that kill the cells in the organ. Scar tissue forms where a large number of cells have been killed. This hardening stops the liver from functioning and can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and potentially death. There is really no treatment for fatty liver disease because it is medically difficult or impossible to physically remove fat from the liver. Patients who have fatty liver disease often have some other contributing issues. Treating problems like Diabetes, obesity, poor eating habits and substance abuse can give the liver the chance to heal itself over time. Continuing an unhealthy lifestyle, however, nearly always results in advancement of the disease to the point where liver damage becomes unavoidable and irreversible.