Fatty Liver 2
CAUSES OF LIVER PROBLEMS
It is normal for one to give more care what they see, such as your skin, hair and so on and not what makes them look this pretty, the backstage organs such as the liver, kidneys and so on. Liver is one of the back stage workers and plays a very important role in the function of your body.
It performs more than 500 functions. Liver helps to process nutrients like carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals from the food and helps to get rid of toxins and microbes. It also plays a major role in clotting of blood. It plays a vital role in maintaining the body’s metabolic balance.
Certain unhealthy lifestyle practices and habits may cause liver diseases which can be overcome if you know how they are caused and what you need to do to stop it.
Causes of Liver Diseases
Hepatitis
The liver is infected by Viruses and Parasites which causes inflammation in the liver and reduces its routine function. This viral hepatitis is caused by Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E.
- Hepatitis A and E are caused by intake of contaminated food with virus.
- Hepatitis B, C and D spreads through blood or semen, body fluids and also it is sexually transmitted.
Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C are the main causes for liver cancer. Hepatitis can also be caused by excessive alcohol consumption, allergic reactions, drugs particularly paracetomol and other drugs used to treat cancer and obesity.
Cirrhosis
A healthy tissue is replaced with scarred tissue which is a slowly progressing disease reduces the liver function is called Cirrhosis. Due to cirrhosis the blood which passes through liver is blocked. It also reduces the processing of nutrients, hormones, naturally produced toxins, production of proteins etc.
Cirrhosis is mostly caused by excessive consumption of alcohol, overloaded iron or bile duct disease, obesity and diabetes. Other causes of this disease include prolonged exposure to the environmental toxins, parasitic infections and reactions to drugs.
The National Institutes of Health had announced that this Cirrhosis is the 12th leading cause of the death by disease in the world.
Overuse of Medications
Undue use of over the counter medication will lead to many problems. One of the most badly affected organs due to overuse of medications is Liver. Certain prescription drugs also contain harmful chemicals and may cause liver damage. These medicines include corticosteroids which are used for treating inflammation, antidepressants, mood stabilizers and pain killers.
Some herbal medications also damage the liver. Since liver is the major detoxifying organ it is subjected to variety of drugs and chemicals. Over the counter medications like paracetamol can cause liver failure.
Never choose self medication, medical prescription from a practitioner is safer. Before using the medicines one should see the side effects.
Alcohol Consumption and Smoking
Excessive alcohol consumption leads to liver failure. Liver absorbs the alcohol and converts it to a less toxin form. However when the amount of alcohol exceed the capacity of liver, it remains unattended to.
More absorption of alcohol leads to fatty liver, cirrhosis and inflammation of the liver and is called as alcoholic hepatitis. Though smoking does not harm the liver directly but the harmful chemicals from the cigarette smoke will increase the oxidative stress and cause irreversible damage to the liver.
Obesity and Diabetes
Obesity is one of the major problems for many diseases. Due to excess amount of fat in the body the liver also gets surrounded by these fats. This accumulation of fats in the liver leads to fatty liver disease. Obesity also leads to cirrhosis of liver and liver failure.
Diabetes is also plays a major role in increasing liver disease by 50 percent. When you are infected by diabetes the insulin level will increase in the blood which tends to abdominal weight gain. This leads to more fat storage in the liver which causes fatty liver disease.
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5 THINGS THAT MAY DAMAGE YOUR LIVER
You probably are not aware of the huge number of functions your liver does to maintain your overall health. In fact liver is the most important organ in your body and plays a definitive role from digestion to accumulation, generation of blood to secretion of hormones and even in your general immune system.
Almost 500 functions are performed by this football sized organ and hence should be treated rightly to keep you staying healthy throughout your life.
There are some things that you need to keep your liver healthy such as following the right kind of food habits, a good fitness regime, drinking lots and lots of water and having a good night’s sleep.
Well, there are some other things which you should not do, because these deeds of yours would damage your liver. Some such activities which you must avoid are discussed here.
- Fatty Food
10% of the overall fat that is present in your body goes directly to your liver and gets accumulated there. So for every 100 gm increase in fat your liver gets 10gm fat. The total weight of your liver is 1.36 kg; even an increase in 10 grams would mean a 10% increase t its normal weight.
Now imagine if the accumulated fat was the bad cholesterol or the saturated fat, the amount of harm it would cause to your liver and therefore your body would increase many fold almost instantly.
Thus fatty food consumption has to be minimized, concentrate on avoiding processed and preserved food such as pizzas and burgers.
- Processed Food
The main function of liver is cleansing your system; this implies that all the toxins, impurities and the non digestible waste would go to the liver for further filtration.
Preservatives, as the name suggest preserve food substances from the attack of microorganisms. Thsese microorganisms though cause harm to our body, still are living things. So basically the preservatives act against the functions of a loving thing to inhibit it from growing on a food substance. It is thus, a proven toxic product acting against the growth of a living being.
When these toxins reach the liver they cause irreparable harm to the liver and sometimes lead to serious liver conditions.
- Alcohol
Too much of alcohol consumption is considered to affect the functioning of liver directly. This is because when liver processes fats it converts them to sugars and sends it to through the blood to be used as energy. Alcohol hinders this conversion of fat to sugar.
Thus, fat remains as fat in liver rather than being converted to sugar. This leads liver conditions such as fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and even cirrhosis.
- Drug Overuse
Medications, especially over the counter medications have to be taken only under unavoidable circumstances. The drugs such as painkillers and even vitamin additives do not get metabolized completely in the digestive system.
Some chemicals in them remain circulating further and reach the liver. Here they hinder the normal functions of liver and cause damage to it.
- Artificial Sweeteners
Using glucose is good for your health because it gives energy to perform your normal activities. However artificial sweeteners which are cheaper than sugar and give instant sweetness to juices and food do not give glucose.
They are made of sucrose or fructose. These sweeteners cannot be easily metabolized and hence leave behind toxic impurities that are carried away to the liver. In the liver they affect the bile production and also other hormonal production processes harming liver and its functions.
Some of the above activities seem to be a normal thing you do in your day to day life, and may not have looked so harmful too. However in the long run you would end up with liver conditions if they are not checked.
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