Yesterday when I went into town I had an interesting conversation with the towns pharmacist about preventing disease. He told me that his number one belief was protecting the liver and all it’s bodily function over the long haul is vitally important. Through the use of 1000mg of Milk Thistle daily, which Milk Thistle is proven to work better than Dandelion Root producing longevity and could possibly protect the liver from alcoholism, disease and chemotherapy treatments.
The liver an amazing organ in the body and probably most important, receives 25% of the blood that the heart pumps with each beat and holds about one pint (13 percent) of the body’s blood supply at any given moment. The liver performs many functions all at once while being necessary to keep a person well and alive. The liver makes necessary proteins in the body and this function is called the livers “synthetic function,” which many patients with liver disease have normal function until the disease worsens.
The liver makes coagulation factors, proteins that help the blood clot to protect us from bleeding. A blood test that measures blood clotting is called PT/PTT or pro-time (sometimes also referred to as INR.) When the liver is failing it can not make clotting factors and the pro-time is abnormally high. With another protein that the liver makes being called albumin, this protein helps to keep fluids in the blood stream while preventing fluid retention or swelling.
The Chinese consider the liver, General of the Army of the Bodies Working Parts, for when it’s not performing properly something will malfunction. When the liver doesn’t function properly the albumin will be low, while other conditions such as malnutrition or loss of albumin in the stool or urine can also make the albumin lower (a vicious cycle of health issues.) The liver also makes bile which helps us – absorb food while eliminating toxins.
Bile salts which comes from the liver and are dumped into the intestine via the bile duct, helps us absorb fat in our diet. When the liver is not functioning well… bile may not be made or pumped out adequately. One of these substances that bile carries out of the body is called bilirubin. Which bilirubin comes from broken down red blood cells and recycle about once in 90 days. Patients with poor liver function or with blockage to bile flow can not get rid of bilirubin, therefore builds up in the blood stream.
One of the livers most important functions is to detoxify the blood from foreign intruders. When the liver receives blood from the intestine, not only, will it be full of nutrients, but also, toxins and other che, so beingmicals the liver must filter before it enters the body’s circulation. In patients with poor liver function, Ammonia which is a by product of protein metabolism, may also, accumulate while other chemicals we are unable to identify build up as well.
Cirrhosis of the liver is a chronic liver disease where much of the normal liver is replaced by fibrous & scar tissue, along with nodules of regenerated liver cells. Cirrhosis can be caused by many different conditions, including alcohol abuse, but certainly not every case of cirrhosis is caused by alcohol. The most common causes of cirrhosis in the United States and Canada now are hepatitis C, alcohol abuse and fatty liver.
All kinds of cirrhosis are worsened by exposure to alcohol, however, in obese the rate of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease ranges from 50 percent to 90 percent. Only about 5 percent of people with fatty liver disease go on to develope cirrhosis. Even a 5 percent to 10 percent loss of body weight can prevent progression, however, once cirrhosis has set in, it usually isn’t curable.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is commonly, but not always, caused by being overweight. Especially extra weight in the abdomen and area I’m now working on (as opposed to hips and thighs), with prediabetes and diabetes. However, there are other real causes, such as sleep apnea and untreated hypothyroidism. Your doctor can periodically look at your liver to evaluate precursors of liver cancer and bleeding to the esophagus, both of which are complications of cirrhosis.