Imagine how overworked the liver is as it acts as a strainer filtering over fifty gallons of blood inside the body each day. The toxins filtered are stored in the liver and that compromises its function as more and more toxins are kept as waste. This causes a higher level of toxicity for the body affecting the health of the individual and the actual feeling of being healthy and fit. This led to liver screening for patients to find out how well their livers are functioning, and thus gives importance to liver detoxification.

There are detoxification enzymes inside the body that serve as catalysts and help the liver detect and dissolve toxins from a various sources inside and outside of the body. This process transforms toxins into substances that can be eliminated from the body called Phase I and II detoxification. Several nutrients such as antioxidants allow the liver to perform the said phases much more effectively. Toxins broken down by the liver are composed of anything from pollution, alcohol, pharmaceutical products, tobacco and many other carcinogens that are harmful and destructive to the body.

Every individual can help in a lot of ways to help in the natural means of liver detoxification. Most of the best and inexpensive ways to do this is by reducing intake of foods that have undergone processing and preservation that contains preservatives and chemicals. Most of the vices that include excessive drinking and smoking should also be avoided to be able to also lessen the intake of medications, all of which make the liver work too much. Healthy diet, as always, is one of the most effective means of keeping the body healthy, and this can be done by consuming fresh and raw fruits and vegetables and healthy grains such as brown rice. Clean drinking water also is always recommended with regular exercise to induce detoxification as the body produces sweat.

Liver detoxification not only keeps the liver healthy, it also benefits different parts of the body and overall improves the lifestyle and health of individuals. With the help of several herbs and supplements, it also affects normal metabolism of carbohydrates, protein, and fats. It also helps in the creation of bile salts and secretion of the bile that affects bowel movement avoiding constipation, which can be a common problem for some people. With the kidneys and the skin, the liver is also important in activation of Vitamin D, which is essential to building strong bones. Furthermore, it also prevents sallow skin, formation of age spots caused by waste build-up in the liver, wrinkles, uneven skin texture, adult acne, bad breath, and skin rashes or sores.

The liver is indeed a very crucial organ of the body that needs consideration in order to perform at its best. Every individual needs to be aware of its functions, as well as its weaknesses including ways to make liver detoxification do its job well for the benefit of the body and the individual as a whole.

Indeed, this detoxifying organ of the body is very crucial for humans, and animals, as it allows for the absorption of nutrients from the food that the individuals consume. The liver is responsible for the synthesis and secretion of bile. The bile is filled up with two components, namely fats and cholesterol. These two components help to prevent constipation.

Basically, a healthy liver greatly contributes to a healthy body. In order to keep the liver to its optimum function and activity, it also needs to detoxify every once in a while. Other helpful food types that should be included in a person’s diet that are also helpful in detoxifying the liver are rice cakes, pasta and crackers, beans such as the pinto, green peas and chickpeas, and seeds from sunflower, sesame, and pumpkin.

There are a lot of ways to trigger regular liver detox. Basically, eating fruits and vegetables are the healthiest and most convenient means in obtaining a healthy diet that will really give nutrition to the liver as well. Certain herbs consumed by the body can also treat a damaged liver. To be specific, fruits high in fiber, and that includes broccoli and its sprouts, cauliflower, garlic, onions, bell pepper, carrots and other green leafy vegetables, allow for the cleansing the liver and keeping it healthy.

With research and statistics, it is said that liver disorders are one of the primary death causing illnesses. Reasons for damaged liver are overloaded fats, sugars, chemical additives, and alcohol. This manifests the popular belief that everything that is too much is dangerous. To help identify if there are problems with a person’s liver, there are several manifestations that show a possible illness.

This includes dark spots just below the person’s eyes, chronic fatigue, recurrent flu and colds, nausea, chills, depression, as well as PMS for females. With certain detox diets that involve eating the foods specifically needed by the body to help the liver function normally can prevent further damage to the liver.

Liver detox is strictly needed when a person is diagnosed to have a damaged liver, whether mild or moderate. Doctors say that a minimum of seven days regimen is required to allow the liver to recover from the damage it incurred. It is necessary to be conscious of the body and the organs, specifically the liver, to be healthy and work efficiently. Remember the liver’s purpose, which is to neutralize toxic substances inside the body as well as the toxins obtained from the outside environment such as the air that we breathe, is probably some of the few things that keep us alive and able to do the things we need to do.

Why is this procedure being used at present? Basically, this particular procedure is used for diagnostic purposes in order to find out the causes of liver damage. There are quite a number of diseases related to the liver and sometimes it may be difficult and confusing to pinpoint what exactly affects the function of the liver. Common illnesses that affect the liver are alcoholic or fatty liver disease, jaundice, possible injury due to drug therapies, hepatitis A, B, or C, autoimmune liver disease, hemochromatosis among others. There are also cases wherein causes are undetermined such as hepatomegaly or liver enlargement, cancers that originate from the liver or spread to the liver from other sites, noncancerous tumors or abnormalities in the liver.

As mentioned above, there are numerous approaches in obtaining tissue for a liver biopsy. The samples of tissue taken from the liver are taken to the laboratory for series of tests and examinations. The percutaneous biopsy of the liver is a procedure wherein a needle with a diameter similar to that of a pen refill is passed through the skin and through the liver to obtain a specimen.

A patient who undergoes this procedure needs to cooperate with the physician in order to locate the liver before inserting the needle in the right spot. This procedure, which can also be guided by ultrasound images as well as CT scan, is often used for diagnosing diseases that affect discrete spots in the liver.

A form of biopsy rarely used at nowadays, except as a part of a different operation, is through open surgical biopsy of the liver. Surgeons are provided with two choices in procuring a liver tissue in this procedure, either through the use of a biopsy needle or practically excise a small part from the liver surgically.

Another means of obtaining a biopsy specimen of the liver is through the laparoscope. Basically, in this approach, incisions that should be small are made in the abdomen of the patient and surgical instruments are used to obtain some tissue from the liver. The laparoscope is used to magnify the object to allow exceptional visualizations of the liver surface. Sometimes part of this particular procedure also includes ultrasound.

In spite of the presence of high technological methods used for obtaining sample of liver tissue to detect illnesses, there are certain cases wherein the biopsy of the liver can also be the cause of more problems. It may be a safety measure to observe oneself after undergoing any of the said procedures. Manifestations of damage in the liver due to a biopsy of the said organ could be fever, nausea or vomiting, chest pains, swelling or discharge. These may be indications of infection. Internal bleeding may also occur if the patient experiences worsening abdominal pains, swelling or bloating.

Before undergoing a liver biopsy, it is best to choose the best doctor possible in order to avoid having problems or doubts. The physician and patient needs to have a good agreement and communication to prevent misunderstanding and conflict in sensitive situations like this.

While other diseases in other parts of the body may cause most diseases of the liver, what is known as higher liver enzymes is a symptom of damage or even inflammation in the liver. When the liver is inflamed, the injured cells cause leakage of some chemicals, particularly enzymes higher than what should be normal excretions. The leaking enzymes and chemicals can flow into the bloodstream, which results to the elevation of the liver enzymes. Blood tests reveal this specific problem. This particular irregularity in the enzyme secretion is not a major problem in itself. Other liver function tests also detect increase in liver enzyme secretion, even though mild and temporary.

The most common causes of higher liver enzymes in the body include acute viral hepatitis A and B, chronic hepatitis C and the prolonged break down or collapse of the body’s circulatory system. All of these are the results when the liver is not provided with fresh blood that brings in oxygen and nutrients. What is also another cause of liver enzymes produced in higher levels is a fatty liver due to obesity and diabetes mellitus. This problem is not only a danger to adults, but also to children.

The fattening of the liver may also be caused by excessive drinking. There are also certain medications sold through prescription, as well as over-the-counter that can trigger the liver to produce higher level of enzymes, which when taken excessively can be harmful to the liver. Certain anti-seizure and pain killer medications result to the abnormality in production of enzymes, as well as antibiotics, cardiovascular and anti-depressant drugs.

Complications in the body also affect the performance of the liver that affect or damage its regulation and release of enzymes. There are several other diseases that obviously affect the liver. Among those are cirrhosis, gall bladder inflammation or cholecystitis, hypothyroidism or underactive thyroid, muscular dystrophy, pancreatitis, Wilson’s disease, and Celiac disease. Staring from mild, turning to moderate, until it becomes worse, liver enzyme elevations can really be depressing and dangerous, without the affected person feeling it.

In spite of the various diseases associated with the problem of increase in liver enzymes in the body, there are also quite a number of medications that can provide treatment and allow the liver to produce the normal amount of enzymes needed by the body to function in balance. When detected soon, there are several helpful cures to prevent its further damage to the body.

Consultation with the doctor is definitely the first step in order to find out the suitable medication for every individual. Depending on the major cause of higher liver enzymes to a certain person, the prescription really varies because of the different chemical reactions that can take place to every person’s body.

There are a lot of symptoms for this kind of condition that is similar to other health problems. That includes fatigue, abdominal pains and swelling, nausea or vomiting, loss of appetite, drowsiness, restlessness and confusion. However, some of the alarming and distinctive signs of having ALF include jaundice, wherein the skin and eyes have discoloration that often yellowish, as well as the person’s mucous membrane.

Other patients may develop brain disorders as waste products tend to develop in the blood, due to the irregularity and abnormal function and filtering of the liver. Others experience pruritus or even coma. When gastrointestinal bleeding occurs due to enlarged veins in the esophagus known as varices, the illness progresses at a faster rate.

End stage liver disease causes coagulopathy and changes in the mental status of healthy individuals before they get the risky disease. This condition can also be a result of chronic Hepatitis C virus, even though it actually damages the liver slowly. Complications turn to this tragedy that may result to liver failure or liver cancer. People who have developed cirrhosis, which is scarring of the live, due to swelling from the infection of Hepatitis are more at risk to this condition. Though the virus usually takes about twenty to thirty years to spread the infection, once the progress reaches half of its total destruction, it immediately develops to liver failure or cancer.

Other causes of liver failure may be cystic fibrosis, noncancerous or benign liver tumors, biiliary duct atresia, liver cirrhosis, among others. But there are certain occasions wherein the cause of the liver failure may not be known.

The most effective treatment for patients with end stage liver disease is through liver transplant. This is particularly a choice for persons that have no other possible treatments that would cure the disease and for those who have liver cancer. Liver failure may be acute wherein the disease can worsen in a matter of just a few weeks, or it may be chronic that can occur for a longer period of over months or even years. The procedure of the liver transplant can sometimes lead to other complications that are significant.

These include blood clotting, failure of the donated liver, infection, side effects of prescribed medications, and bile duct leaking or shrinking. Others may also experience bone thinning, diarrhea, headaches, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or nausea. Though some of the effects or complications may be managed through switching of medications or alteration of dosage provided by the physicians, other complications may cause death to the patients.

End stage liver disease poses a great threat to individuals who have abnormal liver activity and function. When symptoms are experienced, no matter how minimal or manageable they may be, it is best to consult a doctor in other to undergo series of tests and examinations that would help determine the specific problem that may or may not be related to the liver itself.

It turns out that their arguments for good health are also persuasive reasons to help prevent liver problems. Most of these problems are asymptomatic or do not manifest symptoms. Hence, one of the most important tests to be conducted to diagnose liver problem is blood tests to detect elevated liver enzymes. Doctors say that it is best to cut down on alcohol now before you find it is too late. Alcohol may make you feel relaxed, but it triggers liver damage and the effects can be pretty uppity.

How does this happen? Metabolism of alcohol into the body is extremely fast. Since alcohol does not have to be digested, which may take time just like in foods, the absorption rate is much higher. Once the alcohol gets into the body, all organs are affected but the most impact sets in the liver. Normally, the liver use and metabolize fatty acids as energy. However, when alcohol is present, the liver tends to metabolize the alcohol first and so fatty acids build up. When this happens, the main function of the liver is disrupted. Once the liver operates abnormally, the cells become damaged and the liver enzymes impaired.

Liver enzymes are actually known as protein that facilitates the “chemical reaction” in the liver. The parenchymal cells of the liver play an important role in protein metabolism. Here the amino acids derived from foods lose their amine groups and are incorporated into new proteins. Among these are many of the plasma proteins, including fibrinogen, Prothrombin, the Prothrombin accelerators, and albumin.

Since most liver problems are asymptomatic, liver function tests are conducted to diagnose a potential liver problem. These tests are actually blood tests that are based on the release of enzymes from the damaged liver cells. It is said that once there is a liver damage, higher concentrations of these liver enzymes are found in the blood or serum. That’s because these enzymes tend to leak out or flow top the blood once the liver cells are damaged.

There are thee enzymes used to diagnose liver damage: SGOT or Serum Glutamic Oxaloacetic Transaminase, SGPT or Serum Glutamic Pyruvic Transaminase, and LDH or Lactate Dehydrogenase. Among the three enzymes, SGPT also known as alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is the most specific indicator. The reason behind this is that SGPT can only be found in the liver whereas the other enzymes can also be found in other organs, such as the skeletal muscle and the heart.

Indeed, these enzymes play an important role in the diagnosis of the liver disease. Elevated amount of these enzymes are enough for medical practitioners to attest that there is a liver problem.

Nevertheless, it is best not to arrive in such condition if you can avoid it in the first place. Make your liver healthy and you will surely avoid damaging your liver.

With the alarming rate of liver diseases, liver transplant seems to be the only hope especially for those who are already experiencing severe liver damage.

Complications of liver diseases are numerous and varied. Some people are not yet aware of their conditions until it has come out too late. That’s because most of the liver problems are asymptomatic. However, if the liver has already been damaged and the only chance to survive is to undergo liver transplant, then there is no reason to avoid such process.

The process can be pretty risky since this involves the life of the patient. It is crucial, therefore, to consider the basic factors to eliminate the risk or at least lessen it. Before the process, the patient and his or her relatives must understand the following pointers:

1. Do your homework

If the doctor has advised for transplantation, it is best that a thorough analysis and contemplation should be made prior to the actual decision. It is but normal to seek second opinion. Ideas from other medical experts may help lessen the worries.

You can also research more about the condition of the patient and understand if submitting to such procedure would do more good.

2. Liver support therapy

Like a typical foreign object that enters the body, transplanted liver can create reactions that may not be favorable to the patient unless thorough examinations and tests have been conducted.

The patient should submit himself to a liver support therapy prior to the actual process of transplantation. This is simply the act of bridging the gap between the existing conditions to that of transplantation. Therapies may include liver dialysis or the cleansing of damaged liver against toxins.

3. Analyzing the situation

As mentioned, there are many patients waiting and hoping that someday they can live the normal life again with a newly transplanted liver. However, with the increasing rate of patients, liver donations are becoming scarce. Hence, the UNOS have categorized the number of patients according to the most critical. This is based on the clinical data and laboratory results of the patients. This is needed to provide a fair treatment to all patients who are in need of a new liver.

People have to understand that doing transplantation is not an easy thing. Just as how cars or any motor-driven vehicle may not run or function normally when their parts have been replaced with the wrong ones, so does the body. Careful study on the liver being donated and on the condition of the patient who will use the liver should be observed at all times. If done by mistake, liver transplant may even do more harm than good.

Among the most important of the many complications that accompany liver problems are severe gastrointestinal hemorrhages and excessive water retention with ascites and edema, the result of circulatory changes within the diseased liver leading to portal hypertension; impairment of the central and peripheral nervous systems and abnormal bleeding tendencies, attributable to the inability of malfunctioning liver cells to metabolize certain vitamins; and hepatic coma, reflecting the incomplete metabolism of protein fragments by the diseased liver.

Sounds disturbing? Think again. Most of these complications are not manifested in the early stages or even within the duration of a liver problem. In most cases, patients are asymptomatic or do not manifest clinical symptoms. That is why in order to identify and diagnose liver disease, several tests are conducted.

Among the many tests available, blood test is the most common. This is one way of identifying the possibilities of elevated liver enzymes. This test is more clinically known as Serum Transaminase Studies. The studies are conducted based on the release of enzymes from damaged liver cells. The enzymes that become elevated in liver cell damage are:

1. SGOT (Serum Glutamic Oxaloacetic Transaminase)

Also known as AST or aspartate aminotransferase, this enzyme is released into the blood when the heart or liver cells are damaged.

2. SGPT (Serum Glutamic Pyruvic Transaminase)

This particular enzyme is typically found in heart and liver cells. Among the three enzymes used to evaluate liver disease, SGPT is considered the most relevant due to its higher concentrations compared to the other two enzymes. Damage liver cells cause these enzymes to be elevated in the blood or serum.

3. LDH (Lactate Dehydrogenase)

Elevated levels of LDH suggest, in general, tissue breakdown. That is why it is included in the blood tests for liver damage. However, elevated LDH can also suggest meningitis, acute pancreatitis, cancer, HIV, and encephalitis.

Elevated liver enzymes generally suggest liver damage because these enzymes will not be released in great numbers in the blood if there are no damaged liver cells. So to avoid elevated liver enzymes, it is important to ensure not to damage liver cells.

Here’s how:

1. Manage your alcohol intake

One of the primary causes of liver damage is alcoholism or the excessive intake of alcohol into the body. The alcohol can bring about fatty liver and eventually cirrhosis once the liver cells are damaged and inflamed. Even if the liver cells are known to regenerate or develop new cells, experts say that once the tissues or cells in the liver are damaged and become fibrous, more severe conditions will take place, such as cirrhosis, and the damage can become permanent.

2. Observe hygiene at all times

Viral hepatitis is the next common cause of liver damage. This particular disease can be transmitted in certain ways such as contamination in food and water and sexual contact. When visiting public places, it is important that you always observe hygiene. Wash your hands every after your trip from the bathroom or when changing diapers. Before engaging to sexual contact, make sure that your partner is not a carrier of Hepatitis A, B or C. Best advice? Avoid engaging into sexual activity with a person you really don’t know well.

3. Live a healthy lifestyle

Although experts say that liver damage is not generally related to food intake, there are some cases wherein obesity bring about liver damage due to fatty liver. Also, diabetes can trigger fatty liver. So if you live a healthy lifestyle and eat nutritious food, you tend to avoid obesity and diabetes which can trigger fatty liver leading to liver damage.

4. Consult your doctor

Make it a habit to pay regular visits to your doctor and not just when you are ill. This is also applicable if you have been engaged with activities that can pose higher risk of acquiring liver disease. Remember, prevention is always better than cure.

All of these things can help you avoid elevated liver enzymes. The key to a healthy life is to avoid the problems before they hunt you down.

The functions of the liver are numerous and varied. However, with so much work, the liver especially when left unattended or unmanaged can bring about different diseases. The complications of liver diseases, just like its functions, are numerous and varied, too. In many instances, their ultimate effects are incapacitating or lethal; their beginning is threatening, and their treatment is infamously difficult.

One of the most threatening liver problems is the cirrhosis of the liver. This pertains to the scarring of the liver, which takes place after the normal liver cells have been damaged.

Three types are, in general, considered and taken into account. The first one is the postnecrotic cirrhosis in which broad bands of scar tissue appear as a late result of a previous viral hepatitis or toxic agents.

The next type is the Laennec’s portal cirrhosis or nutritional cirrhosis. With this type, the scar tissue characteristically surrounds the portal areas. This is most commonly due to chronic alcoholism, with 90% of patients who have been diagnosed with this particular problem have been reported as alcoholic.

The last type is the Biliary cirrhosis in which there is pericholangitic perilobular scarring. This type is usually the result of chronic biliary obstruction and infection (cholangitis) and is much rarer than nutritional cirrhosis and postnecrotic cirrhosis.

The difference among the three types is largely one for the pathologist. Laennec’s cirrhosis is a disease characterized by episodes of necrosis involving the liver cells, sometimes occurring repeatedly throughout the course of the disease. The destroyed liver cells are replaced by scar tissue, the amount of which in time may exceed that of the functioning liver tissue. The disease usually has a particularly insidious onset and a very protracted course, occasionally proceeding over a period of 30 or more years.

In the early stages of cirrhosis of the liver, the liver is apt to be large, its cells loaded with fat as the replacing scar tissue contracts, it becomes small. Also, its surface often becomes rough because the scar tissue within it is disposed in coarse bundles, which by contracting pull in the capsule at certain points and causes the islands of residual normal tissue and of new regenerating liver tissue to protect in little lumps. The late symptoms are due partly to chronic failure of liver function and partly to obstruction of the portal circulation.

Patients suffering from cirrhosis of the liver require careful attention of the nurse who can make sound judgments and initiate nursing action.

1. Weight and fluid intake and output volumes must be measured and recorded daily.
2. Position in bed should be adjusted for maximal respiratory efficiency, which is especially important if ascites is marked.
3. Skin care must be observed meticulously because of the presence of subcutaneous edema and the relative immobility of the patient.

Boiled down, the success and treatment of cirrhosis of the liver depends upon convincing the patient of his need to adhere willingly and wholeheartedly to the therapeutic plan. This includes rest, a sensible way of life, an adequate well-balanced diet and the elimination of alcohol.

Recovery is neither rapid nor easy; there are frequent setbacks and apparent lack of improvement. But with understanding and support, people surrounding the patient can play a significant role in offering encouragement to the patient.

It is no fun to acquire fatty liver, especially if you cannot even detect if you have one. One of the most disturbing facts about this particular liver disease is that its patients are usually asymptomatic or do not manifest fatty liver symptoms.

However, some patients were reported to have experienced jaundice, a condition wherein all the body tissues including the sclerae and the skin become tinged with a yellow or greenish-yellow color. Others experience enlargement of the abdomen, soreness under the rib cage usually on the right part of the body, abdominal pain, and fever.

In case you have experienced any of these fatty liver symptoms, it is important that you seek medical help immediately. In order to differentiate among the many possibilities of liver disturbances, it is necessary to perform a number of tests. There are many tests because the liver has many functions. Some of these tests include:

1. Pigment studies

These are measures of ability of liver to conjugate and excrete bilirubin. They are abnormal in liver and biliary tract diseases causing jaundice clinically.

2. Prothrombin time

Prothrombin time may be prolonged in liver disease. It will not return to normal with vitamin K in severe liver cell damage.

3. Radiologic Studies

These are done to determine adequacy of portal blood flow. It is also conducted for gallbladder and bile duct visualization and to show size and shape of the liver. It also shows replacement of liver tissue with scars, cysts, or tumor.

4. Blood ammonia

With this test, it can be noted that an increase in ammonia is a positive sign of liver failure. Liver converts ammonia to urea.

5. Serum Transaminase Studies

These studies are based on the release of enzymes from damaged liver cells. These enzymes are elevated in liver cell damage. In severe cases, liver biopsy is conducted. This is a procedure that facilitates greatly the diagnosis of most hepatic disorders.

All of these tests can have an impact on the patient’s life or even that of his relative and friends. The actual process of the test itself can be disturbing since there will be a lot of laboratory procedures to follow. These can be avoided if people know how to manage their health and lifestyle.

The common misconception on this particular type of liver disease is that it is caused by eating too many fats. Experts say that losing weight and strict dietary fat limit may even sound useless for patients who have fatty liver and are obese. The most important thing to observe here is to avoid acquiring the disease in the first place and in most cases, alcoholism is the number one factor. For diabetic patients who have acquired this liver disease, controlling blood sugar can help.

Indeed, the old adage “prevention is better than cure” is truer than ever. In order not to experience possible fatty liver symptoms, it is best to maintain a good and healthy lifestyle.