What is your liver? Let’s get to know this friendly fella that lives on the right upper quadrant of your abdomen. Your liver is your friend and is incredibly vital to your overall health. You may have heard that the liver can regenerate itself, but it is not magical. Years of abuse to your liver can impair its ability to heal itself. Damage to your liver can happen through over the counter medications, prescription medications, a poor diet or obesity, hepatitis infections, uncontrolled diabetes, and of course alcohol misuse.
Two main OTC medications that can contribute to liver damage are acetaminophen also known as Tylenol and diclofenac, which you might know as the topical gel Valteran. Ask your pharmacist how to properly use medications, even those over-the-counter ones to help keep your liver happy.
Your liver plays a large role in digestion, protein synthesis, and detoxifying your blood. An unhappy liver can cause issues with every system in your body. It stores glycogen, minerals, and vitamins. It plays a role in maintaining sugar levels in your blood by either releasing stored glucose or manufacturing glucose. In fact some oral diabetic medications work to suppress the liver’s ability to either release or manufacture glucose and in that way, it helps reduce the overall glucose level in the blood.
The liver produces bile, which aides in the break down of fat during digestion. The liver also plays a role in producing proteins in the body, and proteins do ** everything **. Some notable proteins include albumin which plays a role in transporting hormones, vitamins, and drugs (just to name a few) throughout the body.
The liver also plays an incredibly important role in detoxifying your body.
As you can guess, if your liver becomes unhealthy, the body will absolutely suffer. Take care of that beautiful organ of yours! It does a lot for you 🙂
Because the liver plays such an important role in many of our body systems, there are countless signs and symptoms that could be named, but I will name a few… pale coloured bowel movements/stools/poop, dark urine, itchiness, fatigue, nausea or vomiting, yellowing of the skin or eyes, pitting edema or swelling of the skin that when pressed on sinks in, and indigestion just to name a few. Of course these signs and symptoms can be signs of other issues. If you are concerned about your liver health, please see your healthcare professional… and don’t be shy about whatever lifestyle you might be living… We have seen it all and we are ready to help you become the healthiest version of yourself.
