Allow me to introduce you to a part of your body that is normally not thought about until there is a major problem. This part, or more accurately this organ, is your liver. Your liver weighs about 3 pounds, is one of your largest internal organs, and is located in the right upper abdominal region; in an adult the liver is roughly the size of a football. The liver has more than 500 functions, that we currently know about. The liver is vitally important in everything from your immune system, your digestion, storing energy and other nutrients, detoxification, building proteins, and even hormone regulation. Thankfully the liver is so amazing that during a crisis, where part of your liver is damaged, we can count on the remaining parts of the liver to sustain life for us; up to a point. The stats show that 1 in 10 Americans will have some form of liver disease, while every year 19,500 people die from liver cancer and 49,500 die from liver cirrhosis; a study even showed that about 10% of teens in the US have non alcoholic fatty liver disease!
Here is a list of some of the known liver functions:
filters and processes blood, regulates composition of blood, metabolizes or breaks down nutrients, stores nutrients, removes toxins from the blood, makes blood clotting proteins, produces cholesterol, everything that goes into the mouth gets digested and will be immediately filtered by the liver, produces albumin, production of bile (which helps carry away waste and breaks down fats like omega 3 fish oil and fat soluble vitamins like Vitamins A D E and K), converts excess glucose into glycogen for storage (glycogen can later be converted back to glucose for energy), regulates blood levels of amino acids (which form the building blocks of proteins), stores iron, converts ammonia to urea (which is an end product of protein metabolism and is excreted in the urine), helps resist infections by making immune factors and removing bacteria from the bloodstream, clears bilirubin (from red blood cells, if there is an accumulation of bilirubin, the skin and eyes can yellow), and much more
Causes of liver disease:
viral infections, alcohol, inflammation, medications (especially acetaminophen), fatty deposits can lead to scar tissue which leads to liver cirrhosis, fast weight loss, malnutrition, obesity, gastric bypass surgery, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, hypothyroidism, hypopituitarism, and exposure to toxins
Common labels of liver disorders include:
Cirrhosis, Hepatitis (A, B, C, D, and E), Cancer, Alcoholic fatty liver disease, non alcoholic fatty liver disease, Autoimmune or inherited liver disease (appreciate that as an example of our continual learning about the body, what doctors initially called “autoimmune liver disease” later became HIV/AIDS as their knowledge changed), and fatty liver disease (Steatosis)
Signs to identify liver disease:
digestive bloating and gas, right shoulder pain, white of eyes turn yellow, skin issues like itching feet and palms, large bloated belly, weakness, fatigue, weight loss, vomiting, abdominal pain, swelling of the legs, jaundice (yellow discoloration of skin), feeling tired, loss of appetite, nausea, confusion, trouble concentrating, dark urine, bruising easily, excessive sweat, constipation, pale or dark tar-colored stool, dry and dark patches on neck and under arms, the buildup of fluid in the body, watery loose stools, and grey or white floating stools
What to do about it
Like many solutions there is not one thing to do, but more a combination of doing more of the good things and less of the bad things. Here is a list of the good things to help your liver: eat bitter foods, eat collard greens, eat radishes, eat kale, eat healthy fats, consume apple cider vinegar, control and stabilize blood sugar, eat cabbage, eat liver meat, eat cauliflower, eat broccoli, eat Brussels sprouts, eat asparagus, eat beets, eat celery, eat Spanish black radish, take milk thistle, exercise, eat turmeric, take berberine, get good restorative sleep, filter your air, filter your water, and reduce stress.
Here is a list of things to cut out to help your liver be healthy: alcohol, bad oils, trans fats, toxins (from the air, water, food and personal care products like cleaning products, shampoo, deodorants, tooth paste, cosmetics, and more, check out EWG.org for more resources), drugs (Acetaminophen is the leading cause of acute liver failure), high carbohydrate foods, sugary drinks, processed foods, high fructose corn syrup, foods stored in BPA plastic, MSG, understand that fructose sugar is only be metabolized by the liver and too much fructose can be a liver stressor (sources of fructose include high fructose corn syrup, fruit, fruit juice, agave, and honey).
Here is what you need to know. If currently you are enjoying the blessings of good health great, but don’t take it for granted. Many people have no complaints, or symptoms, of liver disease but sub clinically have liver damage; which is why it is important to live a healthy life like you don’t want liver problems and get yearly blood labs to check your liver. Understand that we are seeing dramatic increases in the number of Americans, both young and old, developing liver issues. Understand that commonly we see healthy liver, which under the right circumstances, turns into fatty liver (which is reversible), which can lead to scaring (which is permanent damage) of liver tissue which prevents the liver from functioning properly. This scaring leads further to liver cirrhosis. Quite commonly I see the following situation unfold in my practice: a patient comes in and informs me that they recently had blood lab work and we proceed to look through it, I often find people with elevated liver enzymes on this check up but their doctor suggested they just monitor them (or worse failed to mention it all together), I send the patient for a liver ultrasound and find either gal stones or fatty liver, their primary doctor again will suggest that monitoring their fatty liver as the best course of action. This is the equivalent of watching someone standing on the cliff of liver cirrhosis, which in my practice, I do not recommend just watching you stand there. We recommend action steps that can support the body’s natural healing ability to help patients take steps away from the cirrhosis cliff. The liver can heal, but it takes time, sometimes even up to 3 or more years. I want to leave you with a deep thought. If an animal population, say tuna fish, was having 1 out of 10 of its young having issues with an organ, say their liver, would we think the solution would be “what drug to give them” or “we should just monitor the problem”? Or, would we look at their environment to see what is going on that was the root cause of this issue. Exactly, we would look into the deeper root causes and have a prevention strategy. Unfortunately most of what we do as far as health care is reactive not proactive. So get proactive and live a healthy lifestyle.