Liver is one of the most important internal organ in our body which plays many important roles in our body on daily basis. You would be wondering to know that the Liver is the second largest organ in the human body and it has more than 500 critical jobs to do and some of them are as follows.
- Liver removes all the toxins from the body.
- It clears the medications from the body which you take.
- it is responsible for Metabolizing(break-down) all the food which we eat.
- Liver builds & maintain the cholesterol levels in the human body.
- It builds proteins and makes bile(पित्त) which helps us to absorb fats, stores sugar so that whenever our body really needs it, our body can take it.
- It regulates the hormone levels in the body.
So it’s really important to take very good care of our liver. Now questions arises how? don’t worry that’s why you are here to know the answers. So here’s a list of ways to keep your liver healthy or disease-free.
- Always wash fruits and vegetables properly before eating because many harmful pesticides and other chemicals, toxins may have been used to keep them protected and fresh.
- Do regular exercise with good healthy diet as it reduces the liver fat and keeps it healthy.
Exercises like – Aerobic , Resistance or strength training exercises, like weight lifting, improves the health of liver
3. Very important- Always be careful about alcohol consumption as excess of it is very harmful for liver.
4. Always eat a balanced diet, avoid having saturated fat, high calorie-meals deep fried, sugars, refined carbohydrates (such as white bread, white rice and regular pasta). Don’t eat raw or undercooked things. Now for a balanced diet, eat more fibers, which you can get from fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grain breads, rice and cereals. Also eat meat, but limited especially red meat, dairy products(low-fat milk and small amounts of cheese) and always have a good fats (the “good” fats refers to monounsaturated and polyunsaturated, which we get from vegetable oils, nuts, seeds, and fish). Hydration is essential, so drink a lot of water on daily basis.
5. Prevent hepatitis A, B and C because it is very dangerous for liver.
a) Get vaccinated: Hepatitis A and B are viral diseases of the liver. While many children have now been immunized, but many adults have not. So ask your doctor if you are at risk.
b) Wash your hands: Hepatitis A is widely spread through contact with contaminated food or water. So always keep your hands cleaned and sanitized.
c) Practice safe Intercourse: Hepatitis B and C develops into chronic conditions that may eventually destroy your liver. They are transmitted through blood and other bodily fluids.
6. Always watch out for medications and herbs because they may contain harmful compositions.
7. Avoid fatty liver disease by avoiding obesity. So always maintain a healthy weight. If you are tending to obese or even somewhat overweight, you are in danger of having a fatty liver and that can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease called (NAFLD), one of the fastest growing forms of liver disease. In view of above, Weight loss can play an important role in helping to reduce the liver fat but avoid taking weight loss medicines.
Now question arises about the diet, what should be included in daily diet. so here is a list.
1) Apples, grapes and citrus fruits like oranges and lemons, kiwi. Take atleast one in a day.
2) Olive Oil, Coffee & Green Tea, Nuts.
3) All green vegetables.
4) Oats Meal
5) Even fatty fish is good for liver
All you need to know is that your liver is an important organ with many essential daily roles to perform, and it’s highly recommended that you do whatever you can just to protect it. The above list is for the benefit effects of the liver like protection against harmful toxins, higher antioxidant and detoxification enzyme, a lowered risk of liver disease and cancer.
There are different medical test also to diagnose the liver problems or its health.
LFT, Liver Biopsy, Imaging test, Blood test are the test to check your liver’s health.
Now let’s discuss something very serious about liver and its disease. When someone has liver disease, their liver enters into a very dangerous cycle i.e Persistent inflammation, or hepatitis, sends nonstop signals to repair cells to continue depositing collagen and this is how, the inflammation continues, and even more collagen is deposited which leads to more stiffening and this is how fibrosis develops as can be seen in the below pic.
Also, Collagen and other proteins build-up between liver cells, forming scar tissue. Scar tissue can block or limit blood flow within the liver, starving and killing healthy liver cells.
Also, Fibrosis can be reversed if detected early but, if fibrosis is left untreated, it can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer which is untreatable.