Want to know about the Liver organ? Indeed you should, as it is not only the heaviest but also the most important organ of our body. It is vital that we do everything to keep it healthy, as a man with diseased liver can never live a healthy life.
Liver Organ Anatomy
Liver happens to be the second largest organ of our body (skin being the largest). It is located in upper right abdomen, resting right below the diaphragm. The color of a healthy liver is reddish brown and it weighs around 1.3 kg. Liver organ is crucial to allow our bodies to work properly and keep us in shape. The liver is connected to two blood vessels called portal vein and hepatic artery. While the hepatic artery carries blood from aorta, portal vein carries blood that contains digested nutrients from the gastrointestinal tract.
Liver Organ: The Major Functions
The liver performs many functions in the body, over 200 to be specific; and some of the most important responsibilities of this organ include:
- Metabolizing the carbohydrates, protein and fats from your diet.
- Acting as the body’s detoxifying machine by filtering the blood of impurities like harmful bacteria, viruses, foreign substances, yeasts and other toxins.
- Storing nutrients like Vitamins K, A, E, B12 and minerals like copper and iron.
- Keeping the blood sugar levels balanced in the body by releasing glycogen if the blood sugar gets low.
- Creating proteins required for immune system and blood cells.
- Aiding in healthy functioning of the thyroid.
- Heating the body.
- Producing one quart of bile each day, thus enabling the body to digest fat, detox toxins and absorb the fat soluble vitamins. But for it, the cholesterol levels would shoot up and a lot of digestive disorders can also result.
The Liver organ as detoxifying machine
The liver is our primary detoxification organ. It is our liver organ that works hard to keep our blood and system clean. It acts as a powerful detoxifying machine. All the blood in the body passes through liver. The reason is that it is the liver organ that filters out all the bad compounds and toxins from the blood and removes them from the body. It cleans alcohol, drugs, poisons, various waste products, old hormones and worn out red blood cells from the body. Without it, our body would be full of toxins and poisons.
An Unhealthy Liver Organ
Due to breadth of functions that this organ performs, a diseased liver can affect every single organ of our body. Some of the symptoms of an unhealthy liver include:
- Hypertension and High Cholesterol
- Problems in maintain an ideal weight
- IBS
- Allergies
- Constipation
- Mood swings
- Depression
- Cancer
The culprits can be many including excessive alcohol, eating processed foods, a passive lifestyle, medications, unhealthy fats etc. However, it is never too late. We can start making changes today.
Tips to Maintain a Healthy Liver
Good news is that by making simple changes to your life and diet, you can help your liver to stay healthy forever.
- Eat more vegetables and fruits, preferably organic.
- Start taking green smoothies, at least once a day.
- Limit your alcohol intake; better still give it up completely.
- Drink warm water with a lemon squeezed it in as the first thing in the morning.
- Exercise regularly.
- Bitter foods like bitter melon, mustard greens and dandelion greens are very healthy for liver; so include them in your diet.
Besides the above, you may also want to go for herbal liver cleansing once in a while. It can rejuvenate the health of your liver organ.
Some simple changes are all that are required to protect our liver as well as our overall health; so start making the desired changes today and live to be 100 plus.
