Greetings my esteemed Steemians,
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Introduction
Do you know that liver is the largest internal organ and also the heaviest with an average weight of 1.6kg?
Before we know how to get a healthy liver, it is important to know what makes it unhealthy.
Before you know what makes liver unhealthy, you need to know what is the function of our liver.
What are the functions of your liver?
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The liver is the first organ of everything that we eat or drinks pass through before it goes to the rest of your body. So it acts as a filter.
Your liver is also an important source of an essential enzyme to help you digest your food.
Your liver makes important proteins that help your blood to clot normally.
Just to name a few.
Can you imagine, if your liver is not healthy, everything that you ate may not be properly processed?
Can you imagine, an essential enzyme that needed for normal digestion process may not be made available?
Can you imagine, bleeding to death because your liver could not produce the important protein for blood to clot normally.
What could potentially damage your liver?
The most important and talked about is alcohol of any forms.
Alcohol
Before alcohol enters into our bloodstreams, it must pass through the liver. The alcohol will then be broken down or metabolised by an enzyme called Acetaldehyde.
This enzyme is toxic to the body and the toxicity is directly proportional to the volume of enzymes.
The more alcohol you drink, the more toxic enzyme will be produced to damage the liver cells.
If consumed repeatedly for a longer period, may cause a permanent scarring to the liver.
A scarred liver cannot function well. Therefore unhealthy liver.
About half the men who drink more than 8 ounces of alcohol a day for 20 years develop cirrhosis. Generally, the more and the longer people drink, the greater their risk of alcoholic liver disease. However, liver disease does not develop in every person who drinks heavily for a long time.
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Hepatitis virus.
There are Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E
These viruses cause scarring of the liver cells. Similar to what happens with consuming alcohol excessively, scarred liver cells are useless which render it unhealthy. Most will eventually develop into cancer.
Poor diet
The liver needs essential vitamins to function normally.
Poor diet may lead to poor essential vitamins supply such as Vitamin A, D, E, B12 and Iron.
Do you know that exercise is good for the liver?
Toxin.
This is very straightforward.
But there is a common potential toxin that can make the liver unhealthy. That is acetaminophen, an active ingredient in paracetamol.
If taken correctly, it may not cause any problem. If abused, it may lead to liver failure.
How do we get a healthy liver?
For alcohol. One should not drink more than 14 units of alcohol in a week.
How much is 14 units of alcohol?
One unit is 10ml of pure alcohol. Because alcoholic drinks come in different strengths and sizes units are a good way of telling how strong your drink is. It’s not as simple as one drink, one unit.
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I remember my medical student day. We were lectured about the safe amount of alcohol that can be consumed. 14 units per week were the answer. They were a smart kid in the class asking if he can save all the 14 units for the weekend.
Don't binge-drink alcohol on regular basis. You cannot keep the 14 units alcohol for your weekend occasion. It must be equally divided into 2 units every day. If you want to drink your 2 units alcohol allocation, drink on that particular day, because you cannot carry it forward for the weekend party.
Consult your family GP and request for Hepatitis screening. If you neither have the virus nor antibody, your GP will schedule a vaccination for you.
Currently, they are only two vaccines available are for hepatitis. A and B.
Good diet.
Any foods that provide the essential vitamins for the liver are considered as good.
| Vitamins | Source |
|---|---|
| A | sweet potatoes, carrots, dark leafy greens, winter squashes, lettuce, dried apricots, cantaloupe, bell peppers, fish, liver, and tropical fruits. |
| B12 | Formed in the gut by good bacterias activities. |
| D | From direct sunlight or kinds of seafood such as Tuna, Salmon, Mackerel and Fish Liver Oil |
| E | Any form or nuts or oil. Eg. Almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, sunflower seeds, sunflower oils |
| Iron | Liver, lean red meat, egg yolks, salmon, tuna, oyster and most beans. |
Toxin
Avoid at all cost.
Only consume medicines that are given by your family doctor or a GP.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, a trip to your clinic to consult your trusted doctor would be a good practice.
All the measures above are the only guideline to guide you to a better and healthy liver.
Whatever you do, make sure you are genuinely happy doing it. That is what I would normally advise my patient.
As usual, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible for easy reading. I hope that you will get some idea of how to get a healthy liver.
Thank you for reading and please do leave a comment or share your experience about how to get a healthy liver.
Cheers.
.
