Don't waste time, protect your liver! How to take care of your liver?

Is increased attention to liver function in order?
How to take care of your liver?
What harms and what benefits your liver?
Learn about liver function and signs of liver failure.

An organ indispensable to human life

The liver plays an indispensable role in the human body. Minor damage to the liver can be managed to a certain extent by the body because the liver has the ability to regenerate and repair. Major damage ends in death without a suitable donor for transplantation.

Interesting:
According to an old Greek legend, an eagle ate from Prometheus' liver every day. Yet Prometheus stayed alive because his liver was able to regenerate enough during the night to feed the eagle again the next day.

Liver damage is caused by a variety of substances and pathogens

Alcohol is the greatest evil for the liver, also drugs, chronic use of some medications, but also some herbs or mushrooms.

With drugs, the danger is hidden not only in the toxicity of the substance itself, but also in the way it is administered (non-sterile syringes).
These substances or their metabolites can have a disastrous effect on your liver.

Tip: How does mushroom poisoning manifest itself and what should be done?

You do not drink, take drugs or any harmful substances, but still have a diseased liver?
The liver can also be damaged by various diseases caused by viral but also bacterial agents.
These enter the body through various routes. Most often through the mouth with poor hygiene.

Tip: Hepatitis A and poor hygiene

Restoring the liver and its functions is possible

With minor liver damage, regeneration is sufficient, but not with more severe damage. The fact that the liver can be restored to some extent gives hope to patients with liver disease.

Protection of the liver consists in eliminating the intake of substances harmful to the liver and, on the contrary, in sufficient intake of substances beneficial to the liver.

Thus, elimination of all risk factors, detoxification and, last but not least, pharmacological treatment play the greatest role in treatment.

The liver plays several important roles in the body

The liver is one of the four vital organs - brain, heart, lungs, liver. They have versatile uses and can also be called the energy factory of the human body.

Basic functions of the liver:

• plays an important role in the metabolism of sugars, fats, proteins, amino acids and purines
• stores important substances such as vitamins, iron, minerals and glycogen
• involved in the production of certain hormones and enzymes
• play an important role in water management
• remove unnecessary but also dangerous substances from the body, such as waste products of metabolism, bile dye, cholesterol, toxins, heavy metals
• they influence blood clotting and are involved in blood formation
• involved in thermoregulation - regulation and maintenance of body temperature

The role of the liver in the human body is therefore irreplaceable. No other organ can replace it. When it is severely damaged, liver transplantation is often the only option for survival.

The liver has a certain degree of regenerative capacity

Any pathological process, any damage to the liver, causes the cells to break down.
From the broken down cells, molecules and proteins are released, which become the trigger for the whole regeneration process.
The driving force is the mitochondrial DNA of the cells with a genetically determined memory. Memory is the basic principle of their further renewal and growth.

Important:
It is worth remembering that liver cell renewal is possible, but never complete. Replacement nodes and scars are formed.

Avoid substances that destroy the liver

When someone says sick liver, most of us think of alcohol. Alcohol is crucial in liver disease because it damages it without a doubt. But it is far from the only one.

Other liver-destroying substances are less glossed over by the internet, and so the public rarely suspects that they too are dangerous.

Alcohol is slowly killing your liver, don't drink it!

Most substances are metabolized in the liver. The same is true for alcohol. All alcohol ingested is metabolized in the liver. It also has a negative impact on the liver. Only a minimal amount of alcohol is excreted through the kidneys, lungs and skin.

Tip: Do you know how alcoholism affects your health?

The enzymes that break down alcohol are important for metabolizing all the substances ingested. The metaloenzyme that metabolizes alcohol is called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH).

ADH catalyzes alcohol into acetaldehyde, which is further transformed into acetic acid, which in turn is transformed into smaller molecules. These molecules are harmless and their final metabolites are water and carbon dioxide. When drinking excessively and regularly, there is of course a deficiency of ADH, or the ADH cannot metabolize that much of it.

This means that most of the alcohol is not eliminated fast enough and causes a fibrous remodeling of the liver - cirrhosis.

Interesting:

Alcohol causes over 200 different diseases, including liver disease.
It is generally considered to be the third risk factor for morbidity and mortality, and even the first in the middle and lower classes.

There is no safe daily dose of alcohol for the liver. As little as 25 g per day significantly increases the risk of liver cirrhosis and, in women, the risk of breast cancer.

In men, a daily intake of 0.7 l of 10 to 12% alcohol for 20 years causes cirrhosis.
In women, as little as 0.2 l of 10 to 12% alcohol over the same period is sufficient.
Of course, this is only an estimate and each individual can tolerate different amounts.

Drugs and liver damage. Is that possible?

Drugs slowly and surely destroy their victims. Addictions to various types of drugs usually end tragically. Regardless of the specific type, they have a wide spectrum of effects.
Immediately after use, they affect the psychological state of the patient. With chronic use, the psychological changes are permanent (schizophrenia, paranoid psychosis, hallucinations of various types).

However, chronic drug abuse also causes damage to various organs. The heart, blood vessels, lungs and brain are the first to be damaged, but the liver is no exception.

Tip: Hepatitis and modes of transmission

Direct and indirect liver damage:

1. Liver damage from drugs occurs directly through their toxic effect
2. liver damage is also indirectly caused by non-sterile and incorrect administration of the psychoactive substance

The most common liver damage caused by different types of drugs

Opiate-type drugs increase the incidence of chronic inflammatory liver diseases such as hepatitis B and C in opiate users, mainly heroin.

In the case of amphetamines, account should be taken of the fact that this type of drug requires the addict to increase doses continuously. Substantial increases in doses lead to disturbances at the level of liver and other metabolism and to rapid failure of the liver and other organs.

Addiction to hallucinogens results in inflammatory liver damage, which differs from inflammation caused by other agents in that it is extremely rapid. This worsens prognosis and treatment.

Cannabis-type drugs activate CB1 in the liver, which promotes vasodilation and subsequent ascites (accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity), hepatic steatosis, fibrinogenesis (scarring of the liver) or even apoptosis (death of liver cells).

Interesting:
Drugs are a serious issue in modern times, as they cause addiction.
Even if a patient is aware that he or she has, for example, drug-induced liver inflammation, he or she is unable to resolve the condition without the help of others.

Withdrawal from a psychoactive substance or a sharp reduction in it causes withdrawal symptoms.

Drugs help us, but they also harm us.

A drug is the final product obtained by technological modification of the active substance (drug) and excipients. The development of drugs and pharmaceutical companies is at its peak. Human drugs are used to treat but also to diagnose a wide range of diseases.

Drugs are primarily made to protect us from disease, not to cause it. Unfortunately, the adverse, even toxic, effects of drugs are unavoidable.

Side effects of medicines:

1. Drug side effects can occur after taking any medication. With the exception of anaphylactic reactions, they are not serious.
2. Acute toxic effects of a drug usually occur with excessive, single use of the drug - intoxication (poisoning).
3. Chronic toxic effects of a drug occur with long-term use of a drug or multiple drugs. They damage individual organs.

Drug-induced liver damage

Liver damage from drugs most often occurs with chronic use of higher doses or multiple drugs. Acute liver damage from drugs is rare, but is all the more serious. It occurs in deliberate overdose (suicidum) or as unintentional intoxication by the patient or doctor (iatrogenic damage).

Table of drug-induced liver damage

Avoid sweets and fatty foods!

You thought that eating habits don't affect the liver? Wrong!

Sugars are the most dangerous, followed closely by fats.
Both of these cause a disease called steatosis of the liver.
Steatosis means "fatty liver". Steatosis is a metabolic disease of the liver where fat accumulates and stores excessively around the liver.

Later, it is also deposited intracellularly (inside the cells).
It occurs with excessive intake of fats and sugars, as most of these are metabolized directly in the liver, where they are converted to fat.

TIP: Sugar, our sweetest enemy

This disease is a serious problem, as obesity is on the rise, especially among children.
They don't even know fruit and vegetables anymore. They prefer a burger and chips or a calorie bomb in the form of fruit juice or ice cream.

Obesity increases the risk of hepatic steatosis not only in children but also in adults. Of course, alcohol, drugs, diabetes mellitus and other diseases also contribute to its development.
To prevent hepatic steatosis, we should eat a healthy diet, limiting our intake of alcohol, sugars and, last but not least, fats.

What is good for the liver?

It is not for nothing that doctors point out a healthy lifestyle, sufficient fluid intake and regular exercise. These three basic components of human life are mentioned in almost every disease in connection with its prevention.

Many a scientist and physician to date have drawn on nature, preferring homeopathic therapy to the drug form.

In liver disease, we should also start from ourselves, changing our eating habits. The basis is to omit alcohol, excessive intake of sugars, fats and artificial substances, often added to semi-finished products.

Sufficient fluid intake then helps the liver to cleanse not only them, but also the whole body from toxic substances.

Not for nothing is it said that water is a life-giving fluid

In any detoxification treatment, we should not forget about sufficient fluid intake. The intake of pure water, preferably with mineral content, should be doubled during the cleanse. Sweetened drinks containing phosphates are absolutely inappropriate.

Water helps to dissolve and wash away harmful substances from the body, thus relieving the liver and supporting its proper functioning. Detoxification takes place not only at the level of the liver, but also of the whole body. One feels better, healthier, more efficient. Along with toxins, fatigue and irritability are also washed away.

The healing effects of herbs were also known to our ancestors

Fruit and vegetable juices are helpful in detoxifying the liver. The best detoxifying effects come from juices from plants containing higher amounts of chlorophyll.
Such plants include mainly "greens" such as spinach, lettuce or dandelion leaves. Juices from beetroot, carrots or apples are also proven. Whatever juice you drink, you will not harm your body.

The miracle of milk thistle

Milk thistle (Sylibum marianum) is a thistle plant native to the Mediterranean.
It can also be found in other areas as a domesticated plant.

It was also known to people in the past (antiquity), who mostly consumed its crushed seeds or drank an infusion of the whole plant. The seeds of the plant are still considered the most effective remedy for the liver.

Milk thistle contains silymarin, which binds to the membranes of hepatocytes (liver cells) and prevents harmful substances from entering the liver. It regenerates damaged liver cells and acts as one of the liver's most powerful antioxidants.

Nowadays, it is recommended for patients with liver disease or as a preventive measure.
Milk thistle helps with liver steatosis, liver cirrhosis, intoxication, alcohol damage, as well as inflammatory liver damage.

Interesting:
Milk thistle inhibits (suppresses) the growth of cancer cells, thus preventing liver cancer!

There are drugs that help the liver, which ones are they?

Medicines, food supplements and teas all have a common denominator and that is the aforementioned milk thistle.
You can get it in the form of drops, food supplements or teas.

Various tinctures composed of milk thistle with a high content of silymarin, which sufficiently protects the liver, also have positive references. The drops help with liver steatosis, cirrhosis, hepatitis B and C, as well as infectious mononucleosis. They are used as a dietary supplement in the fight against liver cancer.

Interesting:
Consumption of milk thistle or one of its preparations can save a life in the case of greenfly poisoning.
This has a toxic effect on the liver, causing acute liver failure. Milk thistle increases the chances of survival for the poisoned person.

It is advisable to supplement with Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus plantarum, which also occur naturally in the intestinal microflora. In addition to their positive effect on digestion, they help protect the liver from toxic influences and speed up the regeneration process.