Liver is more than just a food that we love to hate, or something to do with alcohol, the liver in reality, is an amazing organ.
It is a super chemist, converting nutrients into more usable forms, recycling waste products for reuse, and prepping toxins for elimination. It regulates iron, sugars, fats, amino acids (building blocks of protein). It recycles bilirubin (old blood cells) to produce bile which is essential for good digestion, the absorption of fats, and the physical elimination of wastes. It also makes certain proteins for blood plasma, converts and stores glucose for later use, stores iron (also from bilirubin), regulates blood clotting, makes immune factors, and cleans bacteria from the blood.
You really would die without a liver, but if 90% of it were cut out, it is possible to fully regrow it. When you take medicine or are exposed to toxins, the liver steps in to handle it. But there is a limit to what the liver can do.
Liver symptoms
How do you know if your liver is unhealthy? Working with patients I have seen the liver handle a lot of abuse, but when the liver hits its limit, the symptoms can be diverse. You have heard of liver spots on the skin. They are not only from the liver, but could also be from sun exposure. Other skin rashes and markings can also be related to poor digestion which the liver is involved in.
What happens when the liver can’t convert food, chemicals, toxins, etc anymore? The imbalance of chemicals or the food/toxic load either stays in the blood, decreasing healthy body functions or causing damage (or both). Or the body attempts to use a secondary route to eliminate them. The sinuses and lungs are the most common route but it could also be through the skin. If the body doesn’t eliminate them they can accumulate and begin causing problems such as gout. So for skin issues look to the digestion for the overall answer and the liver is often a part of it. Dry skin or discolored patches are the most common pointing to liver troubles. Sinuses can become
handles excess carbs and sugars that you eat, turning them into fats and sending them off for storage. But did you know that the liver does over 500 different functions? Here are some of them:
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