What does the liver do?
Think of your liver as a factory. It controls everything from production and processing to storage and elimination, performing over 500 important tasks and kick-starting several thousand chemical reactions every day.
Among its main functions are converting the nutrients from our food into energy, producing the proteins and antibodies our body needs, and storing these substances until your body is ready to use them.
Myth 1: Fatty liver isn’t dangerous
Fatty liver, as the name suggests, refers to a build-up of fat in the liver. While a healthy liver contains small amounts of fat, a build-up of fat amounting to more than anything over 5% of your liver’s weight can lead to fatty liver disease.
Many people with fatty liver don’t even know they have the condition. Sometimes, it causes no problems at all. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Why? This is because a build-up of fat damages your liver cells and causes inflammation.
Your liver is the only organ in your body that can regenerate itself by replacing old, damaged cells with new ones. As your liver struggles to เล่น UFABET ผ่านมือถือ สะดวกทุกที่ ทุกเวลา get rid of the fat, scar tissue builds up, making it difficult for your liver to transport nutrients around the body and increasing pressure in the surrounding veins.
In time, fatty liver can increase your risk of more serious conditions including cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), liver disease and liver cancer.
Liver cirrhosis
Liver cirrhosis may be attributed to a variety of causes including chronic alcohol abuse, chronic viral hepatitis, accumulation of fat in the liver, and iron build-up in the body. It may also be caused by some medical conditions such as cystic fibrosis, biliary atresia, and certain genetic disorders.
Symptoms of liver cirrhosis
Signs and symptoms of liver cirrhosis are often only manifested when liver damage is extensive. These include:
- Fatigue
- Easily bleeding or bruising
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Swelling of legs, feet or ankles
- Weight loss
- Itchy skin
- Yellowing of skin and eyes
- Accumulation of fluid in the abdomen
- Spiderlike blood vessels on the skin
- Redness in the palms of the hands
Potential complications from liver cirrhosis include bruising, bleeding, kidney failure, liver cancer, diabetes and eventually, liver failure.
Liver cancer
There are different types of liver cancer, with the most common being hepatocellular carcinoma, while other forms are rare.
Liver cancer can develop from chronic hepatitis infections or liver cirrhosis, or you may have underlying health conditions that increase your risk for developing liver cancer such as diabetes or inherited liver diseases. Other risk factors include exposure to certain toxins and excessive consumption of alcohol.
Symptoms of liver cancer
Early stages of liver cancer usually do not result in symptoms. However, in its later stages, symptoms may include:
- Unintentional weight loss
- Loss of appetite
- Pain and/or swelling in the upper abdomen
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- White, chalky stools
- Yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes
- Weakness and fatigue