The Liver

Your liver is crucial to your survival. Without a functioning liver you will die. That's because the liver does many functions that are essential to life.

Your liver is about the size of a football, weighs about three pounds and is tucked in behind your lower ribs on the right side of your abdomen. It is the largest organ inside our bodies. It is one of the few organs that can actually regenerate itself. That means if a portion is cut off, it grows back. That doesn't mean however, we can treat our liver badly and we won't suffer.

What it does

The American Liver Foundation (ALF) calls the liver the body's refinery. By acting like a filter, the liver takes things and converts them into other things that the body can use or into substances that can be safely disposed of. In fact, blood from your stomach and your intestines goes through the liver before heading out to other parts of the body. ALF says the liver also makes some substances on its own, like bile, which is sent to the gall bladder and than into the intestine to help with digestion. (Read about "Gallstones")

Here's a list of some of the other things your liver does from ALF:

• makes much of our blood before we are born
• stores iron
• stores certain vitamins, minerals and sugars in case of shortages
• controls the movement of fat stores
• regulates blood clotting (Read about "Bleeding Disorders")
• metabolizes alcohol
• filters out and neutralizes poisons
• makes and helps regulate the amount of cholesterol in our bodies
• regulates the proper levels of many chemicals and drugs
• helps balance hormones
• produces certain immune factors (Read about "The Immune System")
• removes bacteria from the blood

Because of all that it does, a damaged liver can impact the rest of the body seriously. There are a number of diseases that can damage the liver. They include:

• hepatitis (Read about "Hepatitis A" "Hepatitis B" "Hepatitis C")
• cirrhosis (Read about "Cirrhosis")
• cancer (Read about "Liver Cancer")
• hemochromatosis (Read about "Hemochromatosis")

ALF also calls gallstones a liver disease. (Read about "Gallstones") Gallstones can block the bile ducts and cause a backup of bile into the body, resulting in jaundice.

Jaundice

Jaundice is a symptom of other problems. Jaundice is caused by the orange-yellow pigment called bilirubin. It is formed when red blood cells breakdown. The liver extracts it from the blood and then puts it into the bile. Most of the time bilirubin leaves the body in the stool. Problems with the liver can result in bilirubin not being filtered out of the blood resulting in jaundice. Likewise, a backup of bile can result in bilirubin not being flushed out of the body. Jaundice is quite common in newborns. The American Association of Pediatrics says most of the time it clears up on its own, but it can be a problem specifically for babies born before full-term. (Read about jaundice in babies in "Newborn Concerns")

Children and Liver Disease

There are also many liver diseases that children suffer from. Some of those are:

• Biliary atresia - When the bile ducts are too small or not there at all, bile backs up and damages the liver.
• Galactosemia: An inherited condition where the body is unable to digest a milk sugar. Newborns can be screened for this at birth. Unless discovered, it can be fatal. The child must be taken off formulas with milk sugars.
• Wilson's disease - Another inherited condition that leads to a build up of copper in the liver.
• Reye's syndrome - leads to a fat build up in the liver. It also impacts the brain and is often fatal. It is most often connected with a case of chicken pox or a flu type illness. Taking aspirin with a fever by children has also been linked to Reye's. (Read about Chicken Pox and Aspirin Warning in "Childhood Illnesses")

Treat it well

Taking care of your liver can help keep you healthy. Remember that just about everything that enters your body, food, medication, alcohol, even chemicals we absorb through our skin, passes through the liver. Send enough bad stuff there and you can expect problems. Megadoses of vitamins and herbal supplements (Read about "Herbal Precautions") can cause problems according to ALF so make sure you talk to your doctor before you start taking them.

Related Information:
    Digestive Diseases and Conditions
    Cholesterol
    Alcoholism

 

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Liver Resection - Health and Medical Information produced by ...

When a portion of a normal liver is removed, the remaining liver can grow back (regenerate) to the original size within one to two weeks. A cirrhotic liver ... www.medicinenet.com/liver_resection/article.htm - 43k -   Record Article "The liver grows back until it is 100 percent of its former size, and then the regenerative response stops. If it is injured again, it can grow back again, ... record.wustl.edu/archive/2001/08-31-01/articles/liver.html - 4k -   Anatomy, Liver Transplant and Hepatobiliary Diseases, The ... The liver's ability to grow back is what enables surgeons to remove tumor-containing sections of the organ or to take a healthy section of the liver from a ... www.theuniversityhospital.com/livertransplant/html/liverandliverdiseases/anatomyfunctions.htm - 32k -     The liver cut to half its size has the ability to grow back to nearly 85 per cent of its original capability in 2-3 weeks' time. ... www.hindu.com/seta/2004/06/24/stories/2004062400451400.htm  - 21k -     Which treatment for liver cancer? The liver is the only body organ that can grow back. Even if you have more than half your liver removed, it can grow back to normal size in a matter of ... www.cancerhelp.org.uk/help/default.asp?page=4908 - 25k -   Caring for Your Liver - Hepatitis Foundation International (Basic ... (Three quarters of the liver can be removed and it will grow back in the same shape and form within a few weeks!) However, overworking your liver by heavy ... www.hepfi.org/living/liv_caring.html - 25k -     Patient Testimonials: Liver recipients and donors It takes about six weeks for the liver to grow back to its normal size. The operation took place on July 23rd [2002] and my son was able to go back to Japan ... www.umm.edu/transplant/liver_res_don.html - 30k -   ================== (Below is Lee's experience from today. He is home now, tired and sore. When the shunt was pulled out today, it was immediately hidden from Lee's sight intentionally- and my guess is that it probably had his liver parts still attached to it! The liver is such an amazing organ, when it's in halfway decent shape. So I looked up it's ability to grow back, just for reassurance! --"Cheyenne Cin")   Re: Prayers for Lee Lee had appointment again at Denver VA hospital, so took the van and is still there, just called me. He has had the tube that goes through his liver and has.... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pretribonly/message/5775

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