Early onset of metabolic disease in Iran raises alarm over childhood fatty liver as future health threat

Iranian doctors warn that metabolic diseases are increasingly appearing in children, with childhood fatty liver now recognised as a warning sign of future heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, amid rising obesity and changing lifestyles.

Doctors in Iran say metabolic disease is now appearing earlier in life, with childhood fatty liver emerging as a warning sign of later heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

At a news briefing in Tehran on Tuesday, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani, a former health minister and gastroenterologist, said rising cancer rates were being driven not only by population ageing but also by obesity, smoking and diet. He said about 60% of adults in Iran now live with excess weight or obesity, a level he described as a growing public health concern. He also pointed to processed foods, including canned products, sausages and fizzy drinks, as part of the broader risk environment.

Lankarani said the pattern of gastrointestinal cancers is changing. He noted that Helicobacter pylori, long the main risk factor for stomach cancer, has become less common in Iran, but that cancers unrelated to the infection are increasing. He also said colorectal cancer has become a major global and national problem, with cases rising over the past decade partly because of wider access to colonoscopy and partly because of a real increase in disease. He added that liver cancer is also climbing, with a greater share now linked to undiagnosed fatty liver disease rather than hepatitis B alone.

Seyed Moayyed Alavian, head of the Iranian Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, said food safety and food handling matter as much as what people eat. He argued that storage, processing, distribution and cooking methods can all affect long-term health. Alavian also said a study of roughly 1,000 schoolchildren carried out in 2006 and 2007 found fatty liver in 7.2% of them, suggesting metabolic problems were already taking hold in childhood. He said that a child with fatty liver at age 10 or 12 faces a higher risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes later in life.

The doctors also linked lifestyle factors to digestive and liver disease more broadly. Lankarani said anxiety and depression can worsen conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and dyspepsia, while Alavian said poor sleep, shift work and irregular routines can aggravate metabolic illness. Lankarani added that inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, are being seen more often in Iran, and that highly processed foods may be part of the reason. He and Alavian both argued that the response cannot rely on treatment alone: prevention, better habits and sustained public health policy will be needed if Iran is to slow the rise in fatty liver, diabetes and related cancers.