Maintaining a healthy liver is essential for overall health. Though you can live with only a portion of your liver, you can’t survive with no liver at all. In the absence of the liver, blood clotting is disrupted, resulting in excessive bleeding.
Your liver is tasked to produce proteins, cholesterol, and bile. Additionally, it also stores vitamins, minerals, and even carbs in the form of glucose. Finally, the liver also breaks down toxins like alcohol and drugs. Your liver plays all these crucial roles in the human body. That’s why you should keep it healthy and functional as much as possible.
Tips to Keep the Liver Healthy
The liver is a resilient organ in the human body. It has the ability to self-regenerate. However, you should be kind to your liver because if you continue to overuse it, it will eventually fail to serve its functions in your body. Take the following initiatives and start maintaining a healthy liver today.
Watch Your Weight
Cholesterol accumulates in the liver as a result of being overweight or obese. Adults should have total cholesterol levels of lower than 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). However, it is reported that 12% of adults cholesterol is higher than 240 mg/d.
Obesity is closely linked to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. As a result, liver scarring and long-term inflammation (cirrhosis) could manifest.
Insulin resistance, a condition closely linked to obesity, is now thought to cause all non-alcoholic fatty liver disease phases. Moreover, BMI is linked to the severity of liver damage. It means that the greater the BMI, the worse the liver damage.
Eat Organic
Pesticides may raise the risk of liver cancer in people who are exposed to these. The pesticide residues found in nearly all of the food we consume may increase the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Because residues are found across the food chain, it is impossible to avoid them.
Buy and consume organic food as much as possible. Growing your fruits and veggies will be perfect if you have some space for a garden. Now, if your liver is fatty, making your raw vegetable juices will significantly enhance your liver’s health.
Avoid Salty Food
Consuming too much salt is well believed to trigger high blood pressure, which can lead to stroke and heart attacks, kidney troubles, osteoporosis, and fluid retention. Now, according to a new study, it can also cause liver damage in adults.
Based on a recent study, high salt intake is linked to an increased risk of contracting a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In addition, the findings revealed that too much sodium caused a range of abnormalities in the liver, including malformed cells, increased cell death, and reduced rates of cell division. All of these can contribute to liver fibrosis.
On a positive note, the researchers discovered that treating injured cells with vitamin C, an antioxidant, proved to mitigate some of the damage caused by excessive salt intake.
Moderate Alcohol Consumption
The liver is responsible for breaking down the alcohol you consume so that it will be eliminated from your bloodstream. For that reason, compounds that are even more dangerous than alcohol are created. These compounds have the potential to harm liver cells, resulting in significant liver complications.
What Damages the Liver?
Here are the things you should avoid to keep your liver healthy.
Processed Foods
Added sugar, salt, and fat are all common ingredients in heavily processed foods. These components improve the taste of the food we consume, but too much of them can cause significant health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and liver damage.
Processed foods contain a lot of saturated or trans fats and are hard to digest. To put it another way, your liver has to work extra hard to process certain foods. In addition, the high saturated fat content might cause inflammation which can lead to cirrhosis.
Sedentary Lifestyle
Regular exercise is a practical approach to reduce liver fat. Several studies have indicated that engaging in endurance or strength training multiple times a week can considerably lower the fat deposited in liver cells. A sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise are thus risk factors for fatty liver disease.
Pain Relievers
Pain relievers can help treat headaches, muscle pains, and arthritis. However, if you get more than the advised dose of medication, your liver can be at stake. This can even lead to liver failure.
Alcohol
Alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) refers to liver damage caused by excessive alcohol consumption. Alcoholic fatty liver is the most common type of ALD.
Fatty liver disease has few symptoms, but it can result in a higher level of ALD, which can be deadly. If you have fatty liver disease, avoiding alcohol for at least two weeks may help you repair the damage.
Bottomline
There are many ways to destroy the liver, but restoring it can be difficult once it’s already damaged. The severity of complications is mainly rooted in the things you consciously or unintentionally do to damage it. So make an effort to take care of it today while you’re still able to.
