Show Your Liver Some LOVE!

The largest solid organ in our bodies, our livers play an equally large role in maintaining our health. They perform over 500 functions that are vital to our well-being, such as removing waste products and foreign toxins from the bloodstream, helping to regulate blood sugar, and creating nutrients.

A few of our livers’ essential jobs include:

Blood Filtering: As blood passes through the liver, it’s cleansed of harmful materials.

Infection Protection: Some of the harmful substances that are filtered out include dangerous bacteria. The liver also makes substances that play a role in immune recognition and response.

Blood Clotting: The liver creates coagulants that allow our blood to clot if we get cut.

Blood Sugar Regulation: When we have excess blood sugar, the liver can remove some of it and store it away. Then, later, if blood sugar levels fall, the liver can provide a little boost of fuel!

Vitamin and Mineral Storage: The liver stores vitamins A, D, E, K, B12, iron, and copper.

Cholesterol Creation: Cholesterol is used to make hormones, Vitamin D, and substances that help your body to digest food.

As if this wasn’t amazing enough, the liver is the only internal organ that can regenerate itself. Because of this regenerative capacity, it’s possible for someone to donate part of their healthy liver to another person whose liver is diseased. In only a couple of months, both people end up with whole, healthy, livers!

While livers are resilient and their functions multifaceted, these vital organs aren’t indestructible. They’re still vulnerable to:

Hepatitis: This is any general liver infection and can be caused by viruses, autoimmune responses, or toxins. It can also lead to liver cancer.

Cirrhosis: When the liver is damaged (by toxins such as alcohol or disease), it tries to repair itself. As it does, scar tissue is formed. This can lead to liver failure, because eventually a point is reached that there is just too much scar tissue and not enough healthy liver cells.

Fatty Liver Disease: This is the build-up of fat globules inside the liver cells. It can be caused by genetics or medication, but is most commonly found occurring with obesity or alcohol abuse. When it’s not caused by alcohol misuse, it’s called Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD).

NAFLD & NASH

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is the name of a range of liver conditions that affect people that drink little to no alcohol. A “silent” disease, it can develop without causing any symptoms. In the US, it’s become the most common type of chronic liver disease, affecting about 1 in 3 Americans. The number of children experiencing NAFLD has more than doubled in the last 20 years – today 1 in 10 children are affected.

If left untreated, NAFLD can develop into non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Like a liver with NAFLD, a liver with NASH also has fat deposits, plus it has inflammation and cell damage. It can take years for symptoms to show up, and by the time they do, permanent scarring has occurred. NASH can develop into cirrhosis, and eventually, people with cirrhosis can develop liver failure and need a liver transplant.

Who’s At Risk of NAFLD?
•Underactive thyroid
•Underactive pituitary
•Metabolic syndrome
•Obesity, particularly if fat is around in the abdomen
•Rapid weight loss or poor eating habits can also contribute to NAFLD.
People with the following conditions are at greater
risk:
•High cholesterol
•High triglycerides
•Polycystic ovary syndrome
•Sleep apnea

•Type 2 diabetes

Is There Any Good News?

Yes! Because of the liver’s amazing regenerative capabilities, there’s a lot we can do to keep our livers healthy, help them repair themselves if they’ve developed NAFLD or NASH, or at least stop the damage from progressing. Show your liver some love!

Avoid illicit drugs. Take only the medications that you need, follow the recommended dosages, and be cautious about mixing substances. Drugs and medicines must be filtered out by the liver.

Eliminate or minimize alcohol intake. Alcohol is a drug, and the liver can only effectively break down a limited amount. Too much alcohol, consumed too often, can overload and damage the liver.

Stay current on your vaccinations, especially when traveling. Hepatitis A and B, malaria, and yellow fever can damage the liver.

Keep sex safe, and tattoos and piercings sterile. These activities can transmit diseases that injure the liver.

Avoid exposure to other people’s blood and germs. For instance, don’t share toothbrushes or needles.

Avoid breathing airborne chemicals, like paint, cleaning products, etc. The liver has to filter out these toxins too.

Tweak your diet. Maximize healthy whole foods, and minimize highly processed foods, especially sweets. The fructose in soda pop damages the liver just like alcohol does.

Get moving! Physical activity improves the health of every organ in your body – including your liver.

Skip the supplements or diets that promise to “detox” or “cleanse” your liver. Just don’t overload your liver with gunk that it has to filter out, and it will handle the detoxing itself!

Want to learn more? Visit Sawtooth Mountain Clinic’s website ( www.sawtoothmountainclinic.org) to check out the on-line version of this issue of the “Topic of the Month” newsletter. It contains links to all the resources cited.