‘How’s your liver today?’ is a common greeting in Russia and there’s good reason for it. Our liver is absolutely vital to our health and wellbeing, and this is why the Chinese refer to the liver as the ‘father of all organs’.
The liver, our largest internal organ, is truly the workhorse of the human body fulfilling a wide variety of roles, and yet it is also one of our most under-appreciated organs. We find the liver ‘wedged’ beneath the lower right rib cage, and, with a width of approximately 20 cms and weighing approximately 1.5 kgs (somewhat smaller in women), it occupies much of the upper right side of the abdomen.
Some of our liver’s many functions include: conversion of excess glucose into glycogen (which is then stored ready to be used for energy), production of cholesterol and the storage of iron, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and vitamin K. The liver also regulates blood clotting, and it produces immune factors that help us resist infections.
While our liver might just look like a spongy piece of reddish/brown ‘meat’, it’s a very complex organ with some big jobs to do in order to keep us healthy. There are three major functions that our liver has to perform: metabolism, filtration of blood and secretion. Metabolic functions involve the breakdown of nutrients, drugs and chemicals, which arrive in the liver via the blood coming from the intestinal tract.
With our hard-working liver functioning as a vascular filter, it has to cope with nearly 1.5 litres of blood circulating through it every minute. During that time, the liver not only extracts wastes and toxic matter from the blood, it also regulates overall blood volume. While all this is going on each day, our liver secretes a litre of bile (which is stored in the gallbladder) which facilitates the digestion of fats.
When we see someone who is jaundiced (yellowing of the eyes and skin), this is a sign of over-production of bile or a blockage of bile movement through the liver’s duct system. It can also be caused by a leakage of Bilirubin into the bloodstream. Bilirubin is a product formed by the breakdown of old red blood cells, and it’s what gives bile its colour. Bilirubin is also the pigment that gives faeces its brown colour.
There are many ways we can harm our liver, and right up there with drugs is alcohol consumption. 90-98% of the alcohol we consume has to be broken down in the liver, and it’s a by-product of this process, known as acetaldehyde, that does the damage.
With so many people combining drugs and alcohol, it’s amazing that our liver can retain its ability to function at all. Acetaminophen, the active ingredient found in seemingly innocuous, over-the-counter pain relief products, can be very harmful to the liver if dose recommendations are not strictly adhered to. In 2017, a 20 year-old Dunedin student suffered acute liver failure and died after significantly exceeding the recommended dose of paracetamol.
The reason that our liver is so forgiving is that it’s the only internal organ capable of regenerating itself, being able to fully regenerate up to 75% of its tissue. This should, however, not be a reason for going out of our way to harm this very important organ.
Loving our liver is really important if we want to maintain good health. Cut back on alcohol and drink plenty of fresh pure water, preferably tepid. Try to limit your consumption of very fatty foods. Your liver will love you if you eat lots of vegetables and especially consume fresh vegetable juices. (John Appleton)
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