Long Live the Liver

By Casey Adams, Ph.D.

While some call the liver the body’s chemical factory, it is really the body’s lifeline. The liver sits just below the lungs on the right side under the diaphragm. Partially protected by the ribs, it attaches to the abdominal wall with the falciform ligament. The ligamentum teres within the falciform is the remnant of the umbilical cord that once brought us blood from mama’s placenta. As the body develops, the liver continues to filter, purify and enrich our blood. Should the liver shut down, our body would be dead within hours.

The Waste Treatment Plant

Into the liver drains nutrition-rich venous blood through the hepatic portal vein together with some oxygenated blood through the hepatic artery. A healthy liver will process almost a half-gallon of blood per minute. The blood is commingled within well cavities called sinusoids, where blood is staged through stacked sheets of the liver’s primary cells—called hepatocytes. Here blood is also met by interspersed immune cells called Kupffers. These Kupffers attack and break apart bacteria and toxins. Hepatocytes further filter and purify the blood. Nutrients coming in from the digestive tract are converted to molecules the body’s cells can utilize. The liver converts old red blood cells to bilirubin. The filtered, purified and metabolized blood is jettisoned through hepatic veins out the inferior vena cava, where it is pumped through the heart, oxygenated, and sent into circulation.

The liver’s filtration/purification mechanisms protect our body from various infectious diseases and chemical toxins. After hepatocytes and Kuppfer cells break down toxins, the waste is disposed through the gall bladder and kidneys. The gall bladder channels bile from the liver to the intestines. Recycled bile acids combine with bilirubin, phospholipids, calcium and cholesterol to make bile. Bile is concentrated and pumped through the bile duct to the intestines. Here bile acids help digest fats; and the broken down toxins are (hopefully) excreted through our feces.

The Factory and Warehouse

The liver produces over a thousand biochemicals the body requires for functioning. The liver maintains blood sugar balance by monitoring glucose levels and producing glucose metabolites. It manufactures albumin to maintain plasma pressure. It produces cholesterol, urea, inflammatory biochemicals, blood-clotting molecules, and many others critical to metabolism.

Interspersed within the liver are functional fat factories called stellates. These cells store and process lipids, fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, and secrete structural biomolecules like collagen, laminin and glycans. These are used to build some of the body’s toughest tissue systems.

Pummeling the Liver

Research on infectious diseases such as Ebola, SARS, Salmonella, E. coli, hepatitis, HIV, influenza and MRSA indicate that infection rates over the past decade are increasing. Meanwhile, toxicity-related and autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, allergies, irritable bowel syndrome and many others are also on the rise. Why are these illnesses rising in the face of increased availability of pharmaceuticals and antibiotics?

While this is a complex question, without a doubt we know that our livers are weakening under the attack from an avalanche of toxins pelting our bodies. Today our diets, water and air are full of plasticizers, formaldehyde, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, DDT, dioxine, VOCs, asbestos, preservatives, artificial flavors, food dyes, propellants, synthetic fragrances and more. Every single chemical requires the liver to work harder.

Frankly, most livers are now overloaded and beyond their natural capacity. What happens then? Generally, two things. First, the hepatocytes collapse from overtoxification, causing genetic mutation, cell death, and liver exhaustion. Secondly, their weakened condition opens hepatocytes to diseases from infectious agents such as viral hepatitis.

Liver disease—where one or more lobes begin to malfunction—can result in a life-threatening emergency. Cirrhosis is a common diagnosis for liver disease, but a malfunctioning liver can also result in fatty liver, jaundice, high cholesterol, gallstones, encephalopathy, kidney disease, clotting problems, heart conditions, hormone imbalances and many others. Cirrhosis can occur concurrently, resulting in massive hepatocyte die-off and subsequent scarring, causing the liver to begin to shutdown.

Saving the Liver

While most of us have heard about the damage alcohol can have on the liver, many do not realize that pharmaceuticals and even some supplements can also be extremely toxic to the liver. The liver must find a way to break down these foreign chemicals. Many pharmaceuticals require a Herculean effort simply because the liver’s various purification processes were not designed for these foreign molecules. As liver cells weaken and die their enzymes leak into the bloodstream. Blood tests for AST and ALT enzymes can reveal this weakening of the liver.

We must therefore closely monitor the quantity and types of chemicals we put into our body. Eliminating preservatives, food dyes and pesticides in our foods can be done easily by eating whole organic foods. We can eliminate exposures to many environmental toxins mentioned above by simply replacing them with natural alternatives.

Reviewing our prescription medications closely with our doctor and questioning the necessity of each is also critical to the health of our liver. Today physicians often prescribe multiple medications without reviewing their combined effect upon the liver. While prescriptions should never be changed without our doctor’s consent, there is no reason why we cannot carefully question our physician or even seek a second or third opinion. We can also request a liver enzyme test, and we can also request a referral to an herbalist or naturopath who can work conjunctively to offer herbal alternatives that do not endanger our liver.

A number of herbs help detoxify and strengthen the liver. These include golden seal, dandelion, milk thistle and others. Dandelion and milk thistle are common “weeds” that can also be harvested locally and added to the diet as general tonics. It is also important to drink enough water. ½ ounce of water per pound of body weight is a good guide for athletes, less about 20% for the water in food. A healthy liver is critical for athletic performance, mental acuity and skin health. Without a healthy liver, our body is destined for sub-performance and early death.

Consult your health practitioner before changing medications or embarking on any radical change in diet or lifestyle.

© Copyright 2008, Realnatural, Inc.