7 Things to Know about Your Liver to Stay Healthy ...

By Heather

Your liver is possibly the most important organ in your body aside from your heart, and there are some important things to know about your liver to help you care for this precious organ the best way possible. Your liver is your “clean house” organ. It makes sure everything that comes into your body is filtered so your body can operate as efficiently as possible. If you don’t care for it by living a healthy lifestyle, then your liver becomes overwhelmed. When this happens, you slow down, often get sick, or suffer major health consequences. Consider some of these things to know about your liver so you can take care of it and stay your healthy self as much as possible!

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1

It’s Your Largest Organ

One of the most interesting things to know about your liver is it is your largest internal organ. It weighs around 3.5 pounds on average, and is about 8 inches wide, 7 inches long, and 4.5 inches thick. It also has two lobes that make up the entire organ. Now, let’s take a look at what all your lovely liver does on a regular basis below.

2

Makes and Secretes Bile

One of your liver’s primary jobs is to make bile. If you’re not familiar with what bile does, it helps your body absorb fat, and fat-soluble vitamins which are Vitamins A, D, E and K. This is often why you’ll hear people say to eat fat with your vegetables. It helps your body absorb those nutrients better since they can’t be well absorbed without a little fat. Well, your liver is the organ responsible for making bile so those wonderful vitamins can do their thing in your body.

3

Breaks down the Bad Stuff

Many of you might already know that your liver is your detox organ. It breaks down toxic chemicals produced naturally through your body, and yes, you have them even if you eat a healthy diet. Some of these chemicals are ammonia and bilirubin. As it breaks down these toxins to prepare them for excretion, it allows you to function at peak energy without the bogged down feeling of these wastes stored in your body, which would eventually cause major health problems. This also keeps you regular by helping you eliminate wastes through the colon.

4

Metabolizes Nutrients

Your liver is also responsible for your metabolism. It metabolizes and stores all carbs, fats, protein, and of course, vitamins that we consume. This is what makes it so important to eat the right forms of these macro-nutrients and to leave out the junk. When you don’t, your liver has to work double time to filter out the toxic wastes of unhealthy foods, and break down those fats, carbs, and vitamins. Guess what happens when it’s too busy breaking down the toxic foods? It stores most of the carbs, and fat as added weight as waste in your body. Let your liver do it’s thing by eating the good stuff!

5

Makes Protein

Did you know your liver actually manufactures proteins? It does this to help your body maintain proper blood flow, and to help purify the blood. It is important to eat healthy sources of protein whenever possible, since the waste products from processed protein sources can often bog the liver down and slow you down in the process.

Famous Quotes

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

George Santayana
6

Hormones

Your liver also helps to use the hormones in your body, but to do so, it breaks them down first for proper assimilation. You can see here how an imbalance in hormone levels might cause some issues, and even possible health problems.

7

Clean up the Waste

And, of course, you know that your liver is the “clean house” organ as I mentioned above. In healthy condition, it does a lovely job filtering out everyday toxins, along with even things like chemicals in water, our food, and even our natural beauty products. If you drink or smoke, I’m sure you already know this affects your liver too. When your liver has to detox alcohol and drugs from your body first, guess what? It can’t do the rest of its job efficiently.

Take care of your liver and it will take so much better care of you! If you have a question about your liver, I’d love to hear it! What’s the most interesting thing you learned about your liver in this article?

Source: liverfact.com

Feedback Junction

Where Thoughts and Opinions Converge

I would love to know what are some things we can do to clean it.

I love your articles! There is just mistake in this one. The skin is your largest organ, i suppose liver would come in second.

Great article!

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