Knowing the Symptoms of Liver Disease Could Save your Life

Knowing how to recognize the symptoms of liver disease can save your life. Liver disease, if spotted early enough, can be slowed down  and cured (providing the causes have been identified and are avoided in future). Eventually, your liver can fully recover by growing new healthy tissue to replace any that has been damaged, just as long as the disease has not been allowed to progress too far.

An Organ and a Gland

Your liver is the largest internal organ (and also the largest internal gland) that you have in your body. In a healthy adult, a normal liver will weigh somewhere between 3 to 3.5 pounds and it plays a crucial role in multiple key bodily functions.

The Functions of the Liver

The key functions of the liver are to detoxify your blood and to enhance your digestive system by creating bile, which helps to break down the fats that you consume into small pieces, making them easier for your small intestine to absorb. But that’s not all. Here is a quick summary of what your liver does for you:

• It detoxifies your blood, filtering out any harmful and unwanted substances like drugs and alcohol
• It produces bile to aid digestion
• It stores some of your body’s vitamins and iron
• It stores glucose
• It converts glucose into sugar that the body can use when the body’s sugar levels become depleted
• It processes haemoglobin, insulin, and a variety of other hormones
• It converts ammonia into urea; an essential ingredient for healthy metabolism
• It eliminates old red blood cells, which produces faecal matter which is normally brown in color. This is why when your stool is discolored (i.e. not brown) it can be an indication there is something wrong with your liver function.

You simply can’t live without it, that’s why it’s so important to be able to detect and interpret the early symptoms of liver disease.

Hepatic Disease

Liver disease is also sometimes referred to as hepatic disease. When any type of hepatic disease affects up to three quarters of your liver tissue, your liver function is compromised.

The Causes of Liver Disease

Liver disease can be brought about in a number of different ways.

• Its cells may be inflamed, as with hepatitis
• The passage of bile may become obstructed, as in cholestasis
• A build-up of cholesterol may occur
• The flow of blood to the liver can be damaged
• The tissue of the liver may be attacked and damaged by toxins

Alcohol Abuse and Cirrhosis of the Liver

The most common cause of liver disease in North America is alcohol abuse. The final stage of liver disease, known as cirrhosis of the liver, is responsible for approximately 25,000 annual deaths in North America.

Symptoms of Liver Disease

The most frequent and common symptoms of liver disease include:

• Bad breath
• Black circles beneath the eyes
• Bad body odor
• Brown blemishes on the skin
• Coated tongue
• Discolored stool
• Flushed facial appearance
• Inflamed palms and soles of feet
• Swollen eyeballs
• Jaundice-the yellowing of the skin which can often also be evidenced in the whites of the eyes
• Nausea
• Pain – which is felt in the uppermost right hand quadrant of the abdomen
• Increased tendency to perspire excessively

Some people also suffer from fatigue and weight loss.

source    livingtraditionally.com