Love Your Liver

Liver is the largest organ and the only one that can regenerate itself. But if it is damaged severely enough, scarred through cirrhosis, for example or become infected with a virus such as hepatitis, your days may be numbered.

The liver’s many functions

The brain thinks. The heart beats. The stomach digests. But there’s no single verb to describe what the liver does. This is because the liver has so many different jobs to perform. It is important to know that 2 basic functions of the liver.

First, virtually everything that enters the digestive tract – foods, drinks, medicine and everything that is breathed in the air and absorbed through the skin must pass through the liver to be purified and detoxified.

Second, the liver ensures that the other organs in the body are supplied with sufficient amounts of the various fuels, such as carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins.

Other than that, more than 500 vital functions have been identified with the liver. Some of the more well-known functions include the following:

• Conversion of excess glucose into glycogen for storage.

• Produce cholesterol and special proteins to help carry fast through the body

• Produce bile which carry away waste and break down fats in the small intestine during digestion.

• Neutralize poisons. Everything from aspirin to herbs to chemical solvents to recreational drugs is considered potentially dangerous.

• A warehouse for the storage of many vitamins and minerals including vitamins A, B12, D, E and K, copper and iron. For example a normal liver contains approximately a two years’ requirement of vitamin A.

• Regulate blood clotting