Your liver and its health directly impact the rest of your body. The healthy liver may be hidden from your view in the abdomen, but knowing what the liver does for you and how you can protect it could pay off in terms of increased and ongoing wellness.
Healthy Liver Functions
A healthy liver is crucial to your physical well being. Its many functions include cleaning toxins and waste from your bloodstream and processing hemoglobin from your red blood cells to make use of iron. The liver also protects your health by producing bacteria-removing components and proteins that cause your blood to clot. Storing vitamins and carbohydrates for later use is another role of your liver.
The Unhealthy Liver
If your liver is diseased or otherwise malfunctioning, the result can cause serious illness and in some cases be deadly. At the less serious end of the liver disease spectrum, Gilbert's syndrome is a genetic condition in which the liver doesn't process bilirubin -- the result of broken down red blood cells -- as well as it should. This syndrome generally goes undetected because the symptoms -- including slight jaundice, or skin yellowing, abdominal pain and weakness -- are occasional. Without the liver's immunity-building functions, your body may be unable to fight off infection. So at the other end of the liver disease scale -- acute liver failure -- complications, including excessive bleeding and pressure in the brain, can be so severe that the only cure may be the transplant of a new, healthy liver.
Metabolism
All the functions of your body that convert or use energy can be referred to as metabolism. The liver's functions in terms of metabolism are related to processing carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. The liver helps your body maintain normal blood glucose levels by collecting glycogen, processing it and then releasing the resulting glucose when your body needs it. The liver produces bile, which aids in the digestion and absorption of fats. Your liver helps make fats -- in the form of triglycerides, cholesterol and phospholipids -- usable by your body, then stores or excretes what is unused. Synthesis of amino acids, albumin and clotting factors are ways in which the liver helps metabolize protein. The liver removes toxic ammonia from the circulatory system by synthesizing urea.
The Impact of Nutrition
What you eat can affect the health of your liver and how well it functions to keep your body going strong. This is especially true of your organs that are directly involved with metabolism. In fact, the University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality and Healing goes so far as to recommend you consider food "as medicine, to maintain, prevent, and treat disease." The connection between nutrition and liver health is so close that malnutrition is a common result from liver disease.
A Liver-Healthy Diet
Protein is one key component to liver health. If your liver is already functioning less than optimally, breaking down proteins could be a challenge. So plant-based proteins -- such as those from beans -- may be recommended as more usable than meat. Also, adding less fat to your liver's workload will allow the organ to focus on its immunity-building and processing functions. MayoClinic.com states that obesity is one cause of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which is said to be present yet undetected in up to 25 percent of American adults. In one Swedish study published in the gastrointestinal journal "Gut," liver function tests demonstrated significantly high levels of alanine aminotransferase -- which can indicate organ injury or inflammation -- after research participants had eaten at least two fast-food meals daily for a month.
Certain nutrients may have specific positive impact on liver health. The Bastyr Center for Natural Health reports on studies that recommend vitamins E and C for non-alcohol related liver disease. However, overdosing on supplements can work against you, since one of your liver's primary jobs is to clean the bloodstream of toxins, which includes excess nutrients. A healthy diet, especially high in fruits, vegetables and whole grains, is the best source of liver-loving nutrition.
References
- California Pacific Medical Center: How the Liver Works
- Mayo Clinic: Liver Problems
- MedlinePlus: Metabolism
- Colorado State University: Pathophysiology of the Digestive System: Metabolic Functions of the Liver
- University of Michigan Health System: New pathway found for fatty liver disease
- University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality and Healing: How Does Food Impact Health?
