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By Nurse Diane
When my brother first got his driver's license, he
started working for my aunt delivering flowers.
While out on deliveries, he discovered a small roadside restaurant that
fried the best chicken livers, and he would occasionally stop and bring some
home for the rest of us. That was the
only liver I would eat. This month is
liver awareness month, but not to be aware of the liver we eat, but the one
that is inside you.
The liver is a large, meaty organ that sits on the right
side of the belly. Weighing about 3 pounds, the liver is reddish-brown in color
and feels rubbery to the touch. Normally you can't feel the liver, because it's
protected by the rib cage. The liver has
two large sections, called the right and the left lobes. The gallbladder sits
under the liver, along with parts of the pancreas and intestines. The liver and
these organs work together to digest, absorb, and process food.
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The liver's main job is to filter the blood coming from
the digestive tract, before passing it to the rest of the body. The liver also
detoxifies chemicals and metabolizes drugs. As it does so, the liver secretes
bile that ends up back in the intestines. The liver also makes proteins
important for blood clotting and other functions.
There are several conditions that can affect the function
of the liver. These include:
- Cancer
- Cirrhosis
- Hepatitis
- Ascites
- Liver Failure
- Gallstones
Some ways to take
care of your liver include:
- Avoid taking unnecessary medications (too many chemicals harm your liver);
- Don’t mix medicines without the advice of a doctor (you could create something poisonous that could damage your liver badly);
- Street drugs cause serious damage and scar your liver permanently;
- Don’t drown your liver in beer, liquor or wine (if you drink alcohol, have two or fewer drinks per day); and
- Never mix alcohol with other drugs & medicines.
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Be careful when using aerosol cleaners. Your liver has to
detoxify what you breathe in, so when you go on a cleaning binge, make sure the
room is well ventilated or wear a mask.
Bug sprays, paint sprays and all those other chemical
sprays you use can harm your liver too. Be careful what you breathe.
Watch what gets on your skin (those insecticides you put
on trees and shrubs to kill bugs can get to your liver right through your skin
and destroy some cells)! Remember, they’re serious chemicals.
I would always check my husband’s medications to see how
they affected his liver, and he also had periodic blood tests, especially if I
noticed his eyes turning yellowish.
To determine if you are having any trouble with your
liver, check for these Trouble Signs:
- Yellow discoloration of the skin or eyes;
- Abdominal swelling or severe abdominal pain;
- Prolonged itching of the skin;
- Very dark urine or pale stools, or the passage of bloody or tar-like stools; and
- Chronic fatigue, nausea or loss of appetite.
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If you have any of these problems, make an appointment
with your doctor, and monitor your food intake, the alcohol intake, and be
careful of any aerosol or other fumes that you may be around. You liver is a very vital organ to the
function of your body, so please take care of it, and it will take care of you
