Mind Your Liver® Episode Two: Dr. Jennifer Flemming on the Silent Epidemic of Liver Disease

May 30, 2026

Liver Awareness Foundation has released Episode Two of Mind Your Liver®, featuring hepatologist and clinician scientist Dr. Jennifer Flemming in conversation with Founder and President Vanessa Wojtala.

The episode, “The Silent Epidemic,” brings clinical expertise and lived experience together for an in-depth conversation about liver disease in young adults, why it can remain undetected for years, and why earlier conversations about liver health matter.

A Conversation About What We Are Missing

Liver disease is often associated with later life, but serious liver disease can affect younger adults too.

In Episode Two, Dr. Flemming and Wojtala examine some of the misconceptions that can prevent people from recognizing their own risk and seeking appropriate care earlier.

Their conversation explores alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) and its different stages, Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), cirrhosis, early warning signs, and the role stigma can play in delaying conversations about liver health.

They also discuss an important reality: liver disease does not always announce itself through obvious symptoms or abnormal routine bloodwork.

The conversation expands beyond alcohol to address broader questions young adults increasingly have about their liver health, including metabolic liver disease, medications, supplements, smoking, and other potential risk factors.

Clinical Expertise Meets Lived Experience

Dr. Jennifer Flemming is a hepatologist and clinician scientist at Queen’s University whose work focuses on liver disease and improving outcomes for people living with advanced liver conditions.

Her clinical perspective is paired with Wojtala’s lived experience of severe liver disease and the questions that often emerge only after a diagnosis becomes serious.

That combination is central to Mind Your Liver®: making complex liver-health conversations understandable, relevant, and accessible to a younger generation.

Because awareness should not begin when someone is already critically ill.

The Silent Epidemic

Episode Two asks a larger question:

What happens when an entire generation rarely thinks about its liver?

Earlier awareness can help people understand their risks, recognize changes in their health, ask better questions, and have informed conversations with healthcare professionals.

This is not just a conversation about liver disease.

It is a conversation about what happens when we fail to talk about it, and what can change when young adults finally do.

Watch Episode Two Here

Mind Your Liver® Episode Two: “The Silent Epidemic,” featuring Dr. Jennifer Flemming, is available now on YouTube and Spotify.

Mind Your Liver® is an educational production of the Liver Awareness Foundation, created to bring lived experience, clinical expertise, and evidence-based liver health information to a new generation.

Mind Your Liver. It Needs You.®