Know your Liver: The engine that
drives your body
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Liver is one of the largest and most important organs in the body. It is located in the upper right abdomen. For an average person, liver weighs around 1.5 kg and is size of a football. It processes everything that you eat, drink. If your body were an automobile, it is engine. And as engine health is key to having a smooth-running automobile, so is liver health to your overall wellbeing.
Know Your Liver Functions of Liver
Our liver performs hundreds of functions in our body every day. Its functions are wide ranging from providing energy to the body, fighting off infections, cleaning toxins, helping clot the blood, regulating hormones etc. Here is a list of its common functions:
1. It is the loyal housekeeper that breaks down the food and produces bile to convert food to energy and store excess food.2. It is the careful pharmacist that cleanses your blood of various toxins, neutralizing and destroying poisonous substances that enter the blood stream.
3. It is careful accountant that regulates your 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.
4. This organ is the diligent factory worker that manufactures many of our essential body proteins involved in transporting substances in your blood, clotting of your blood, and providing resistance to infections.
5. It is the trendy mood setter that regulates the balance of hormones in our body including sex hormones, thyroid hormones, cortisone and other adrenal hormones.
Some interesting facts about Liver
1. It is the second largest organ but is also a gland as it produces hormone.
2. It stores essential vitamins like vitamin A, D, E and K, as well as vitamin B12. This is perhaps the reason why it is prized as a healthy meat in some cultures.
3. It is the primary organ to process drugs and medicine. As the it grows weaker, so does the impact of medicines in your body
4. It is the only organ which can regenerate. However, some diseases like cancer and hepatitis disrupt the ability of liver cells to regenerate.
5. It can continue to functions even if a third of it is damaged. This is good news for all the people with damaged livers or for people considering organ donation.
6. Liver cancer is the sixth most common form of cancer globally, but has the third highest number of cancer related deaths.
7. In India the western sea coast belt (Gujrat, Maharashtra, Goa and Kerala) are the hotspots of Liver cancer.
8. Liver cancer happens much more to men than women. This is on account of higher consumption of alcohol and exposure to toxins. However, the rate of growth of Liver cancer among women is much higher.
Five ways to care for your Liver
1. Avoid Alcohol. It’s a common myth that only over consumption of alcohol causes liver damage. Even moderate consumption of alcohol is bad for your organ.
2. Watch your weight: Obesity and fatty liver are linked. Eat in moderation, exercise well and keep your weight in check.
3. Avoid toxins: Wash your hands before eating and wash your vegetables and fruits and to eliminate pesticides, and wear a mask. No matter how dorky and unfashionable you might look please wear a mask if you live in a place with high levels of pollution.
4. Don’t take supplements without guidance. While its good to be careful about health but taking supplements for vitamins, proteins etc. without proper medical guidance is dangerous. About 20% of It issues in The United States are traced to unsupervised supplement use.
5. Get Vaccinated: Hepatitis A & B can be prevented by vaccinations. There is no vaccine yet for Hepatitis C.
