If your Liver stops working, so do you...
The Liver is a resilient organ that’s easy to ignore – until something goes wrong. Because of its wide-ranging responsibilities, your healthy Liver can come under attack by viruses, toxic substances, contaminants and diseases. However, even when under siege, the Liver is very slow to complain. People who have problems with their Liver are frequently unaware because they may have few, if any, symptoms. Your Liver is such a determined organ that it will continue working even when two-thirds of it has been damaged.
About the Liver:
Weighing in at a little over one kilogram, your Liver is a complex chemical factory that works 24 hours a day. It processes virtually everything you eat, drink, breathe in or rub on your skin; in fact, the Liver performs over 500 functions that are vital to life.
Every day, your Liver helps your body by providing it with energy, fighting off infections and toxins, helping clot the blood, regulating hormones and much, much more.
Functions of a Healthy Liver:
- Cleanses the blood: Metabolizing alcohol and other drugs and chemicals, neutralizing and destroying poisonous substances.
- Regulates the supply of body fuel: Producing, storing and supplying quick energy (glucose) to keep your mind alert and your body active. It produces, stores and exports fat.
- Manufactures many of the essential body proteins involved in: Transporting substances in your blood, clotting of your blood, and providing resistance to infections.
- Regulates the balance of hormones: Including sex hormones, thyroid hormones, cortisone and other adrenal hormones.
- Regulates body’s cholesterol: Producing cholesterol, excreting it and converting it to other essential substances.
- Regulates the supply of essential vitamins and minerals: Including iron and copper.
- Produces bile: Eliminating toxic substances from your body and aiding with your digestion.
The Liver is Our Power Source:
It helps digest your food and turns it into energy. By converting proteins, carbohydrates, fat and vitamins into energy, the Liver ensures that your body has what it needs to keep going.
The Liver is Our Engine:
It drives many of your body’s critical systems and when it breaks down, your body will too.
The Liver is Our Pharmacist:
It must process all medications, vitamins or herbal remedies you take before they can take effect. Mixing or overdosing medications can damage this vital organ.
Medications:
Many chemicals that are intentionally or accidentally inhaled or consumed can have toxic effects on the Liver. Among these chemicals are drugs (both prescription and over-the-counter), industrial solvents and pollutants. As the body’s clearinghouse for most drugs, herbal remedies, vitamins, and diet supplements, the Liver is vulnerable to the toxic consequences of self-medication.
Over-the-Counter Pain Killers:
All drugs, even over-the-counter ones, have potentially harmful side effects. Since many drugs medications, including acetaminophen, have to be processed by the Liver, people with Liver disease have to be especially careful about what and how much medication they take. Accidental acetaminophen overdoses are responsible for many hospital admissions, and overdose can lead to death both in children and adults. It is therefore vital that you take whatever steps possible to reduce this risk.
Alcohol Consumption
When you have a glass of wine, beer, or other liquor, your Liver is responsible for processing this alcohol and detoxifying your blood. Breaking down alcohol is only one of more than 500 vital functions performed by your Liver. This means it can only handle so much alcohol at once. If you drink excessively, either through binge drinking or by having multiple drinks on a daily basis, you’re making your Liver work overtime. The consequences of this abuse may be the destruction of Liver cells, a build-up of fat deposits in your Liver (fatty Liver), or more seriously, Liver inflammation (alcoholic hepatitis), permanent scarring (cirrhosis) and even Liver cancer.
Body Beautification
Body art, piercings, painted nails and toes are all forms of self-expression. They may serve as a memento to mark a special occasion, a way of symbolizing what you value or just a spontaneous self-indulgent splurge. Whatever the motivation behind them, these body beautification rituals all carry a degree of risk if not done correctly. Inadequately sterilized tools, reused needles or contaminated inks could expose you to hepatitis B or C – two blood-borne viruses that can cause severe and potentially fatal Liver disease.
Sex
Before you get involved in any kind of sexual activity, it is important to know the risks and how to protect both you and your partner. Hepatitis is a Liver disease that can be transmitted sexually. The most common forms are hepatitis A, B and C.
Chemicals in the Home
Not only does your Liver metabolize what goes in your body, but it also metabolizes what goes on your body. This includes inhaling, ingesting, or simply coming into physical contact with chemical cleaning agents.
Food and Drink
The Liver is the world’s most efficient factory. It helps power your body by storing and releasing energy when you need it. Your Liver plays a key role in converting food into the chemicals essential for life and it is therefore important to make food choices that optimize Liver health.
Your Liver cares about everything you eat and drink, every single day. Too much sugar and saturated fat in your diet can have a similar effect as too much alcohol – fat build-up in the Liver. When it is full of fat, the Liver cannot perform all of its 500 functions, and it can become progressively more damaged to the point of developing cirrhosis and even cancer. If you want a healthy Liver, the best strategy is to make healthier choices on a daily basis.
Find out more about Liver Diseases @ Vardhan Ayurveda Hospital, we’re here to answer all your questions and give Natural Healing & Cure to your ailing Liver through Agneya Chikitsa - Ancient Ayurveda Liver & Gastro Care. We have been successful in treating all the Common & the Uncommon Liver Diseases with high Success rates.