10 Reasons Why We All Need To Be Much, Much Kinder To Our Livers!
In the competition for the prestigious title of “Most Valuable Organ” clearly the brain’s a front runner - anything whose talents range from planning and problem solving to managing the less showy, but definitely life-enhancing functions of breathing and bowel emptying, has to be the foremost contender!
It has stiff competition though from the heart for whilst a brain separated from a pumping heart dies within minutes, a heart is able to beat for hours after being disconnected from its owner’s brain, and then successfully partner with a new owner for decades!
But can I propose the liver for consideration, at least for a podium finish?
The liver’s been underestimated for years, classified as merely an “accessory” organ of the digestive system in recognition of the bile it produces to move fats out of the gut and into our blood. However, it’s now well established that this bile production is only one of at least 700 different liver functions, making our liver fundamental to the well-being of everything from our brain to our bones, our heart to our hormones.
Here are just ten of that giant list, chosen to demonstrate that every kindness we extend to our heroic hepatic organ, is actually an invaluable investment in our overall health:
1. Any time we’ve chowed down, our gut breaks up that food into smaller molecules that can be moved around the body by our blood. The first stop on that journey for most of that nutrient-loaded blood is the liver, making the liver, not the brain, heart or even muscles, the organ that gets to call dibs on those nutrients. Only after the liver’s loaded itself up with as much fat, carbohydrate, and protein as it can handle, does our blood move on to deliver the leftovers to everywhere else.
Our liver’s been given these storage privileges because:
2. In the dead of night when dinner’s a distant memory, the liver releases lots of glucose (a type of sugar/carbohydrate) for our super picky “I couldn’t possibly use fat, darling” nerve cells to use, and without which, they might not survive through to our breakfast bagel.
3. It converts cow and plant proteins in our diet into super-useful human proteins, like the clotting factors that stop us from bleeding to death...
4. …and “complement” proteins that punch holes in bacterial cells and destroy them – a vital part of our immune system defenses.
(Is it just me and yes, I know the spelling’s not quite right but I’m greatly entertained thinking of complement proteins sideling up to bacterial cells, saying “my, how gorgeous you’re looking today, hope you don’t mind if I destroy you now?”)
5. Our liver uses some of its stored fat to make cholesterol which it then empties into our blood, making the liver, rather than our love of ice-cream responsible for most of the cholesterol in our blood. Many people suffer through a cholesterol-reducing diet, only see a very small decrease in their blood cholesterol, thanks to their liver stepping up and producing extra cholesterol to offset their dietary short fall!
Why’s the liver getting so involved with cholesterol, it’s dreadful stuff, right?
6. Err, it’s complicated. Like pizza and donuts, too much cholesterol is probably (!) a bad thing but not enough is also an issue! Cholesterol is the main ingredient for at least five hormones: the cortisol we need to cope with stress, our reproductive hormones, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone as well as aldosterone, a hormone crucial for regulating the amount of potassium in the body.
Okay, we know stress and sex are a big deal, but potassium?
The electrical processes which keeps our heart beating are incredibly sensitive to changes in potassium. In fact, death row injections typically contain three things, a muscle relaxant, a sedative, and the agent that actually kills the prisoner, potassium chloride!
7. After those hormones have done their part, they need to be altered (metabolized) by our liver into different compounds that can be got rid of in our pee or poop! This stops their levels from getting too high and for example, in a man whose liver is not carrying out this task sufficiently well, the normally tiny amounts of estrogen (that all men produce) can become high enough for him to develop breasts. The liver processes synthetic estrogens, like those in the Pill, the same way - otherwise, take one pill and it would stay in our system forever!
8. It’s not news that the liver’s very involved in the breakdown of alcohol and painkillers such as Tylenol/paracetamol, but how about red blood cells (erythrocytes)? Old, failing hemoglobin-filled erythrocytes are broken down by the spleen and liver after which, the liver sorts the pieces of the hemoglobin molecules into recyclable and landfill! Much of the iron released by the breakdown of hemoglobin is stored by our liver until, for example, our bone marrow needs it to make new erythrocytes. But our liver is also critical to the disposal of the non-recyclable parts, molecules that if allowed to build up in the body, are likely to be toxic. Only after the liver’s converted these molecules into various yellow and brown compounds can they leave the body in the urine and feces – it’s the presence of these broken-down parts of old hemoglobin molecules that give our urine and feces their characteristic colors!
9. No liver to assist in the activation of vitamin D? Very little of the calcium in our spinach smoothie would make it across the wall of our gut, into our blood and from there into our bones - we’d have a bendy, weak skeleton and chalky poop!
10. And finally, the liver’s stunning ability to regenerate - a property which enables surgeons to transplant as much as 70% of a healthy donor’s liver, secure in the knowledge that the hero benefactor’s remaining liver sliver (sorry, I just couldn’t resist) will be back to its original size in only around 2 weeks!
This amazing talent for renewal isn’t license to mistreat our liver, diseased livers may not be as robust! But for anyone feeling inspired to show a little more love to their liver, the American Liver Foundation has 13 tips that are well worth taking a look at.
One thing not on that list though is a liver-loving, multi-vitamin or tonic and watch out for an upcoming post “to supplement or not, that’s the question” where we’ll look at the science (or not) of some very well-known herbal and dietary supplements.
Until then..
Stay curious,
