Signs of the toxic liver – Know now

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Signs of the toxic liver – Know now

Report: we will talk about the 10 signs of a toxic liver that you should look out for to know if your liver is toxic. Now the liver is very important for your health, not only this but it is also involved in every metabolic process that occurs in your body. We will talk about the basic signs of a toxic liver but you should try to put these pieces together to get a grasp of the whole picture.

Now, the liver is directly responsible for about 500 to 600 different reactions in the body. These include reactions like manufacturing hormones, activating or modifying hormones, degrading hormones, and making glycogen from excess glucose to store it for future use. When this stored sugar is all used up, the liver can also make sugar from scratch. The liver also makes ketones which fuel the brain when our carbs are really low. The liver is also responsible for making various proteins including proteins called albumin and globulin which are blood proteins which help maintain the properties of blood.

The liver also manufactures cholesterol and has the responsibility to package, modify and recycle cholesterol. It helps in maintaining the optimal balance between LDL and HDL. The liver is also the main detoxification plant and is the only organ which can take in very toxic substances like chemical poisons and pesticides and then turn them from fat-soluble poisons to water-soluble by-products. These were all the direct functions of the liver and now let’s talk about the indirect functions of the liver. Now we can argue that the liver, in fact, is involved with approximately every chemical reaction that takes place in the body then you should know the basic signs of a toxic liver that can harm your health

Here are the 10 basic signs of a toxic liver

You must have heard about liver disease as toxic liver or fatty liver or cirrhosis and many other terms. But, the most common form of liver disease is the fatty liver which is also a toxic liver. When you have insulin resistance then various fats, toxins or metabolic byproducts start to accumulate in the liver. This results in congestion of fat and also toxins. Also, there are different stages of liver disease. But, in the first stage, there is no real damage but there is inflammation and severe irritation going on.

If you get more accumulation, then this situation can lead to a fatty liver with insulin resistance. But when the situation gets even worse with scarring and real damage happening and if this becomes widespread and reduces the function of the liver to a large extent, then we have cirrhosis. If all these proceeds then you can end up with end-stage liver disease with liver failure. 

  • Bronze diabetes

Now let us come to the symptoms that you should look out for. The first is bronze diabetes. This is not really diabetes but it can surely be associated with it. It is called hemochromatosis which means that there is a lot of colour in the blood. This happens when there is a lot of absorption of iron and not enough of this iron is excreted. When some of this iron gets trapped in the sweat glands of the skin, your skin may start to have a bronze appearance. This not only changes the colour of your skin but also does more harm like organ damage. The most commonly damaged organs because of this are the liver, pancreas, and heart. T

his disease is thus, one of the main contributors to fatty liver, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. This symptom is very important and you should understand and check for it as it is a very common symptom. This symptom many times goes unchecked because, when they do your blood test, they test something called serum iron. This serum iron is less than 1% of the iron in your body. Thus this doesn’t give the whole picture. The correct test would be if your ferritin was being tested. So the next time you get your blood tested, do take up this test too. 

  • Xanthelasma

The second symptom is called xanthelasma. It is basically yellow and plaquing which appears on the inside corner of the eye. These are cholesterol deposits. The liver produces bile which is basically like a detergent which helps break up grease. But in a situation where the liver is stressed, it doesn’t make that much bile which results in improper fat metabolism. Thus, your cholesterol will also not be broken down effectively. 

  • jaundice

Number three is jaundice which is basically a condition of being yellow and you could have yellow in your skin or the white part of your eyes too. This colour comes from red blood cells. When red blood cells are broken down and recycled, one of the end products is called bilirubin which is the responsibility of the liver. This bilirubin is discarded by the bile and this also provides a brown colour in the stool. If the liver does not function properly and doesn’t break this bilirubin then, this starts to spread in your other tissues which then eventually appears in your eyes.

  • Diarrhoea

The fourth symptom to look out for is bowel changes. One of the most common signs of liver disease is diarrhoea, especially chronic diarrhoea. Another is steatorrhea which is fatty stool. This is pale because of the extra fat and floating because fat is lighter. This happens when the liver doesn’t make enough bile. 

  • Itching and burning

The next symptom is itching and burning. This happens due to bile retention. The bile has the job to store the toxins but if we cannot get rid of the bile itself then these toxins end up stuck in the body. One of the common places is feet and hands because of poor circulation. Circulation is responsible for bringing nutrients to the tissues as well as removing debris and junk away. Now, our feet and hands are the farthest from the heart and when you have poor circulation, the transfer of nutrients and taking away of the toxins become very hard. 

  • poor vision

The sixth symptom is poor vision. There is a vitamin associated with eyesight called vitamin A which is a fat-soluble vitamin. Now, when the liver and the bile aren’t working, this vitamin cannot be digested and utilized. And, without vitamin A you will experience disturbances with general vision and especially night vision. 

  • Allergies

Number seven is allergies which is a very important symptom which often goes unrealized. It can be food sensitivities or environmental reactions. This is because, the less function that the liver has, the more will be the number of junk accumulated. And if there is more junk then there will be more reactions or the tendency of the immune system to overreact. 

  • Ascites or oedema

Sign number 8 is called ascites or oedema. These are fluid accumulations and it is a form of leakage where the water leaks out of the vascular system into the surrounding tissues. This is caused by hypoalbuminemia. Now, you may remember that we talked about albumin earlier. This is basically like a sponge which holds water. Now if the liver cannot produce enough albumin, there would be more leakages. Now, what does it look like? This is basically when you push into your skin and it keeps going and when you retreat, the mark is still there and it remains there, for a few minutes. This is because of tissue fluid leakage. Ascites is the exact same thing but now it happens inside your abdominal cavity. 

  • Shoulder pain

The ninth symptom is shoulder pain. Whenever we have a stressed organ it can manifest as a referred pain. For example, if you have heart trouble, many people will experience pain in the left shoulder and arm. The same thing happens with the liver and gallbladder. You will experience referred pain in the right shoulder blade and even on the right side of the neck. 

  • Fatigue

The last sign of fatty liver is fatigue which is the most common sign. There are many theories about why it is associated with liver disease. Many doctors have observed that this happens because of the change in neurotransmission. Whenever the liver has stress, it changes the signals in the body and also in the nervous system. Now, there is no answer to why this happens.  But if you think about it, the liver is very important for metabolism and energy production. If the liver is affected, these two would also be affected. Another way to think about this is when you are sick your body allocated the resources differently to heal the organs. Thus being in a healing state, will produce tremendous fatigue. 

Now if you have a fatty liver, what should you do about it?

After Knowing the signs of a toxic liver, the first thing to do is increase your bowel movement. You should also eat more vegetables and meat too. Plants have a more cleansing function whereas animals have more of a rebuilding function. A lot of stress in the liver is also because of oxidative stress. To combat this situation, you should intake more antioxidants. Glutathione is one of the most important antioxidants that your body makes itself. This also contains Sulphur which is very important for detoxifying the liver.

Thus, you should intake food with high proportions of sulphur in it. Then also you have to lower your sugar and alcohol consumption. You also want to lower your medications because these are also toxins for the liver. Processed food should also be avoided because they have a lot of sugars, chemical additives and preservatives which puts a burden on your liver. Thus, you should do all these things if you want to make your liver healthy.