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What Can Damage the Liver?
Until the 17th century, the liver was considered the main organ in the body. Because the health and life of a person depends on the quality of liver functions. An ancient Central Asian doctor Avicenna from the mentioned a careless attitude to liver health. He said the bad liver can damage the vessels and the whole body. Ancient Babylonians considered the liver a part of the body, keeping the soul.
The liver is a kind of barrier that protects the human body from the negative effects of toxic substances. Such functions of the glandular organ are most important for the immune system. Besides, the liver plays a key role for the normal functioning body. It influences on the endocrine, excretory, cardiovascular system and on the gastrointestinal tract. The significant liver ability is to replenish and store various types of vitamins. A healthy liver contains a large number of fat -soluble vitamins A and D, as well as water -soluble B12. The liver also takes part in the metabolism of folic acid, vitamins A, B, C, D, E, K and PP.
What reasons can cause damage to the liver is the most important question to every person trying to follow healthy lifestyle.
Fatty, Spicy And Fried Products Are Extremely Dangerous To The Liver, As They Can Potentially Damage Liver Cells
Unhealthy nutrition and extra weight are especially harmful to the liver health. The absence of any diet is also significant threat to the glandular organ. The greatest danger products to the liver are considered:
- lard, fatty varieties of fish, meat and poultry, as well as dishes prepared on its basis;
- fast foods and various semi -finished products;
- sweet carbonated drinks;
- confectionery and products rich in digestible carbohydrates;
- creamy and used vegetable oil for frying;
- sausages and all kinds of smoked meats;
- various food additives, flavors and seasonings.
All these products negatively affect the body, filling it with harmful substances. The more harmful substances come with nutrition, the greater load falls on the liver. It happens because the liver function is to cleanse the body from them.
Bad Habits As Smoking And Alcohol Can Damage Liver Health A Lot
Smoking, alcohol and other bad habits poison our body. The liver continuously cleansing the blood and performing a huge number of functions. One moment it can simply not cope with the load. Regular use of even a small amount of alcohol leads to the active destruction of liver cells. British scientists conducted a special studies and found the liver cells death. It was observed even with the use of only 40 g of alcohol for men and 20 g for women.
Regular use of alcohol can lead to the development of hepatitis, fatty dystrophy or cirrhosis.
Moreover, the irreparable liver harm causes by any type of alcohol, it could be a glass of cognac or a glass of light beer. The most dangerous component in alcohol drinks is acetaldehyde. It is an intermediate product of the decay of alcohol.
Tobaccoo is no less harmful to the liver. Resins in cigarette smoke contain a huge amount of carcinogenic substances. When smoke inhaling, part of them enters the bloodstream and “goes” straight to the liver. It is not easy to cope with such loads with a glandular organ, so smokers are included in a group of increased risk of developing various liver diseases.
Carcinogenic cigarette smoke causes changes in the walls of blood vessels. It leads to a deterioration in blood supply to almost all systems, organs and liver.
Medication Can Negatively Affect Your Liver Function, And In Some Cases Can Cause Liver Damage
Medicinal liver lesions are quite common. The main reason is the non -compliance with the safe dosages of drugs. Use of drugs incompatible with each other is a consequence of the wide medicines availability and self -medication . Additionally, a negative effect on the liver could be the possible drug side effects.
American researchers found that 2-5% of patients undergoing treatment in the hospital have a jaundice because of drugs.
Also, 40% of patients over 40 years of age have the side effects of medicines as hepatitis, and 25% of people undergoing treatment – acute liver failure.
Refusing self -medication and clear observance of dosages of drugs prescribed by a doctor will help to avoid such a negative impact on the liver.
Main Dangerous Liver Disease Can Be Result Of Viral Hepatitis
The greatest danger to the liver are various types of hepatitis. An inflammatory disease occurs in an acute or chronic form. Then it can lead to irreversible processes in the liver. Viral hepatitis (A, B, C, delta, E, G) can be transmitted both enterally and parenterally. In the first case, the infection, occurs through the mouth, in the second case – through the blood. Thus, hepatitis A and E can be transmitted through household contact with the saliva. Infection with hepatitis B, C, delta and G occurs through blood transfusion and sexual contact only.
The main danger of such diseases is asymptomatic manifestation at the initial stages. Later signs of the disease are discomfort in the right hypochondrium, dark urine and jaundice. Chronic viral hepatitis is considered after six months of the course of the disease. Cirrhosis and liver cancer are the most dangerous complications for the health.
Irresponsible Attitude To Health Is The Main Enemy Of The Liver Health
“What kills the liver?” Reply is quite simple to that question. The liver kills a person’s careless attitude to the health. It is hard to account all the reasons the liver suffers. But there are some of them important. They include irregular nutrition with snacks, fast food and bad habits, stress and drugs intake. And all this happens only through the person fault. The main character of the liver pathological processes is a fact that almost all proceed asymptomatic. It is because of smallest number of nerve endings in the liver. That is why people do not notice anything while their body under excessive loads. And people hope that it is not harm to the health.
Only an attentive attitude to the health will help to exclude risks for the liver. It is most important to eat healthy food, to refuse smoking and alcohol, try to devote time for relax.
Unexpected dangers to the liver health are where they are least expected
Almost everyone heard about the dangers of taking certain drugs or alcohol abusing the liver. But there are some factors with negative effects of which you may not suspect.
Excessive consumption of salt kills liver cells. This was stated by a group of scientists from the UK and China. They conducted an experiment with laboratory mice. For a certain period of time they consumed food with a high content of salt. According to the experiment, the high excess of sodium led to serious irreversible changes in the structure of the liver. Fibrosis signs appeared in the body of experimental rodents.
Hair dye kills liver cells. This conclusion was reached by a group of Western European scientists. The substances were found in most hair colors on the world market. They can be cause of irreparable harm to the liver health. It is enough to dye hair more often than once a month for 5-7 years and the liver would be damaged.
The lack of physical activity is destructive to the liver. The results of studies conducted by South Korean scientists. They show that sedentary lifestyle leads to non -alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Opposite Expert view for liver disease and detox programs From Nutritional Therapy Consultant
Personal opinion of Emily Stewart, nutritional therapy consultant
We often hear about the “worst enemies” for the liver. Usually doctors talk about such problems viruses and alcohol. Other problems are mentioned like drugs and poor nutrition with excess carbohydrates and fats. How to deal with them? How to avoid negative impacts?
But let’s look at this problem from the side of ordinary physiology. What else can harm the liver, also to the above factors?
It is necessary to approach the issue from the perspective of everyday life.
So. We wake up in the morning, get up, go to wash, and then morning exercises … Do we need it? Maybe it’s better to work out in the evening? True, there is no time in the evening (work, fatigue, you need to go to the store, etc.). Maybe physical education and sports are not so necessary for us, especially with age?
Recent studies show that skeletal muscle is a hormonally active tissue. It produces more than 20 hormones. Some of them do not have their own name. Some others have already been studied in details. It has been proven that an increase of muscle tissue will contribute to weight loss and normalization of blood pressure. Also muscle tissue decrease the inflammatory processes in the liver and pancreas. However, it is necessary to observe the “golden mean”. But we have identified another worst enemy of the liver, it is a hypodynamia.
After morning exercises people usually have a breakfast. Let’s not dwell on the discussion about proper nutrition now. We are now interested in the fact that food entering the bloodstream from the intestines, also passes through the liver. The liver is the main disinfecting organ. It’s time to talk about the intestinal microflora. Harmful bacteria release toxins affecting the liver in case of dysbiosis (dysbacteriosis). Studies show that even alcoholic liver damage is also due to increased intestinal permeability. And as a consequence pathogenic microorganisms from the intestine make a negative impact. But only now it was proved that living bacteria penetrate in a small amount into the bloodstream. They have a direct effect on the liver, but not only their toxins. Thus, we should care about the intestines not as a “alimentary tube”, but as a separate organ. Bacteria enter the blood every minute through the intestines. And what bacteria will penetrate is already up to us.
How to reduce the amount of harmful bacteria? First of all, is our food, changing the nature of nutrition. Increasing amount of sweet and fatty in the diet leads to a change in the composition of the intestinal microflora only in 2 months. Conversely, an increase in dietary fiber will help restore microflora. The next step is the normalization of all motor and secretory disorders. Usually doctors mean biliary dyskinesia, pancreatitis, etc. So, normally, bile has bactericidal properties. It kills pathogenic microorganisms that come with food. The composition of bile changes with biliary dyskinesia. And the bile can not longer fulfill its protective properties. So, the treatment of dyskinesia is part of the restoring process of intestinal microflora.
What is a Liver Detox? The popular questions nowadays among people of all ages.
Detox is the latest trend. The desire to cleanse the body of toxins is so great. They are ready to dilute dubious expensive powders with water. Some others drink smoothies from sprouts and even drink only water for several days. But does our body really need it?
We can find 1000 and 1 recommendations for cleansing the liver and kidneys. On the Internet, there are a lot of receipts how to remove stones from the gallbladder and even how to destroy parasites.
—Emily, is it true that our body accumulates waste and toxins?
Let’s start with the fact that there is no such term as “slag” in modern science and medicine. No one knows what slag looks like. Only sellers of dietary supplements and magic cocktails know. It has no formula, its existence has no scientific evidence. This is an alternative medicine term for something harmful accumulating in the body. But our body has an excellent and very effective cleaning system. It is our the liver and kidneys. if they are in a healthy state, they perfectly cope with harmful substances from the outside. they cannot accumulate anything. They just doesn’t need it.
– So, diseases do not happen from the accumulation of toxins?
Now we talk about the toxins. Toxins are poisons of biological origin. We get them in our everyday life from food, air and cosmetics. The body copes perfectly with that amount of toxins. But if there is a violation in the work of organs, a state of acute poisoning with toxins can occur. For example, if there is a cirrhosis of the liver, or kidney and liver failure. The symptoms of this condition will definitely not be pallor of the face and swelling in the morning. We talk about severe symptoms need an immediate medical attention in that case. A person can die within hours, without emergency medical care. I can answer you that the accumulation of toxins is more likely due to a malfunction in the body than vice versa.
By the way, alcohol intoxication followed by a hangover is an excellent example of poisoning the body with toxins. This is hard not to notice.
— Is it necessary to clean the liver and kidneys sometimes? There are so many recommendations on the Internet about this!
Recommendations that can bring sometimes a person to resuscitation. They are fasting, urine therapy, oil-lemon mixtures in the morning and even complex cleaning diets with a bunch of expensive drugs. All this has nothing to do with improving the functioning of organs. As I said before, healthy kidneys and liver do a great job of removing harmful substances from the body. And in themselves they accumulate nothing. These are not filters. These are complex organs with a mass of functions and the ability to self-purify. The body will not harm itself! And if you have violations in the work of these organs, then you do not need to experiment on yourself. Consult a doctor, a specialist will select a treatment and diet for you.
– Can the liver, kidneys or intestines be “contaminated” at all?
I don’t imagine it’s possible. Yes, there are toxic poisonings. Sometimes stones are formed in the kidneys and gallbladder. In a consequence, disturbances in the functioning of the intestines are found. It is not a pollution, but pathological changes in the state and functioning of organs. They are caused by heredity, metabolic disorders, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, infections. Unhealthy diets also could be the reason. For example, starvation diets or a diet with excess fat or protein. Some of them combined with the rejection of vegetables and fruits. If a person has a disease then teas, enemas and other dubious folk methods will no longer help.
– What is fraught with the use of “grandmother’s cleansing recipes”?
What about detox? Such a fashionable word today. Everyone sits on green smoothies, conducts detox programs, even there are special powders.
The development of acute cholecystitis and hepatic colic, for example. There is a very common development of events. A person begins to cleanse himself by drinking oil with lemon juice in the morning. The body suddenly reacts with abdominal pain, vomiting and fever. This is not a detoxification process. This is the process of pushing stones in the gallbladder into its duct. They get stuck, causing inflammation. In this case, there is only one way – to the operating table for surgery. Please, think a hundred times before using recipes from the Internet. Usually everything sounds beautiful, but no one will be responsible for the consequences.
I can’t stop people from drinking sprout, algae smoothies or expensive detox shakes. But let’s be honest, the effect of their use is almost zero. Super-powders are completely doubtful. Dietary supplements often do not pass any checks and certification procedures. You use them at your own risk.
Detox is a well-twisted myth. It allows to sell dubious mixtures to gullible people for a huge amount of money. The body does not need such a detox. For a complete detox, the body has a liver.
