The liver is a tough, maintenance-free organ that's easy to ignore - until something goes wrong. The liver performs over 500 different functions, most of which are vital for good health. Because of its wide-ranging responsibilities, the liver often comes under attack by viruses, toxic substances (including alcohol), contaminants and disease. Even when it is under siege however, the liver is very slow to complain. Often, people with liver problems will be completely unaware because they may have few, if any, symptoms. The liver is such a committed organ that it will continue working even when two thirds of it has been damaged by scarring (cirrhosis).
It's important to take steps to prevent liver disease, such as making healthy lifestyle choices and getting proper diet.
It's important to take steps to prevent liver disease, such as making healthy lifestyle choices and getting proper diet.
To safeguard your liver health, it’s important that you understand the critical roles that the liver plays in maintaining your overall health and how activities that you may take for granted can help or hurt this vital organ. By learning more about your liver and how you can keep it healthy, you may actually help reduce your risk of developing not only liver disease but also other health conditions including diabetes and heart disease.
Nutrition and the liver are interrelated in many ways. Your liver plays a key role in converting food into the chemicals essential for life. The liver serves several important metabolic tasks in handling nutrients.
Blood coming from the digestive organs flows through the portal vein to the liver, carrying nutrients, and toxic substances from drugs, alcohol or anything you breath in from the environment that enters your body and combines with blood. Once they reach the liver, these substances are processed, stored, altered, detoxified, and passed back into the blood or released in the bowel to be eliminated. In this way the liver can, for example, remove alcohol and other toxic chemicals from your blood.
In the metabolism of carbohydrates, the liver helps to ensure that the level of sugar in your blood (blood glucose) stays constant. If your blood sugar levels increase, for example after a meal, the liver removes sugar from blood supplied by the portal vein and stores it in the form of glycogen. If someone’s blood sugar levels are too low, the liver breaks down glycogen and releases sugar into the blood. As well as sugar, the liver also stores vitamins and minerals (iron and copper), and releases them into the blood when needed.
The liver is vital in maintaining the body’s protein and nitrogen metabolism. Proteins in foods can be broken down into amino acids in the intestine and delivered to the liver for use in making body proteins. Excess amino acids are either released by the liver and sent to the muscles for use or are converted to urea for excretion in the urine. Certain proteins are converted into ammonia, a toxic metabolic product, by bacteria in the intestine or during the breakdown of body protein. The ammonia must be detoxified by the liver and made into urea which is then excreted by the kidneys.
Through the production of bile, the liver makes it possible for dietary fat to be absorbed. In addition, vitamins A, D, E and K, which are fat soluble, are dependent on bile from the liver for absorption.
The relationship between the liver and hormones is an interesting one. The liver does not make hormones itself, as these are made in the many different glands in the body and not many people associate their liver with their hormones. The truth is that the liver plays a significant role in hormonal imbalances because the liver breaks down or metabolizes the hormones once they have done their work in the body.
The liver breaks down the group of hormones known as the steroid hormones which include –
When we eat unhealthy food, or live an unhealthy lifestyle it affects the liver making it overworked and overloaded. When the liver is taxed, it can’t process toxins and fat in an efficient way. It is crucial to know how to aid this most important organ by flushing unwelcome materials out of itself and out of the body.
Blue-green algae commonly known as Spirulina – is a single-celled microscopic organism which has long been recognized for its incredible liver-protecting capabilities. Not only is Spirulina a powerful anti-oxidant, it is also packed with nutrients, essential fatty acids, and chlorophyll, all of which contribute to the liver’s detoxifying activities. Add Aztec Spirulina to your daily diet . It will not only take care of your liver, it will also optimize your immune system making you live a more productive, longer, and healthier life.
Nutrition and the liver are interrelated in many ways. Your liver plays a key role in converting food into the chemicals essential for life. The liver serves several important metabolic tasks in handling nutrients.
Blood coming from the digestive organs flows through the portal vein to the liver, carrying nutrients, and toxic substances from drugs, alcohol or anything you breath in from the environment that enters your body and combines with blood. Once they reach the liver, these substances are processed, stored, altered, detoxified, and passed back into the blood or released in the bowel to be eliminated. In this way the liver can, for example, remove alcohol and other toxic chemicals from your blood.
In the metabolism of carbohydrates, the liver helps to ensure that the level of sugar in your blood (blood glucose) stays constant. If your blood sugar levels increase, for example after a meal, the liver removes sugar from blood supplied by the portal vein and stores it in the form of glycogen. If someone’s blood sugar levels are too low, the liver breaks down glycogen and releases sugar into the blood. As well as sugar, the liver also stores vitamins and minerals (iron and copper), and releases them into the blood when needed.
The liver is vital in maintaining the body’s protein and nitrogen metabolism. Proteins in foods can be broken down into amino acids in the intestine and delivered to the liver for use in making body proteins. Excess amino acids are either released by the liver and sent to the muscles for use or are converted to urea for excretion in the urine. Certain proteins are converted into ammonia, a toxic metabolic product, by bacteria in the intestine or during the breakdown of body protein. The ammonia must be detoxified by the liver and made into urea which is then excreted by the kidneys.
Through the production of bile, the liver makes it possible for dietary fat to be absorbed. In addition, vitamins A, D, E and K, which are fat soluble, are dependent on bile from the liver for absorption.
The relationship between the liver and hormones is an interesting one. The liver does not make hormones itself, as these are made in the many different glands in the body and not many people associate their liver with their hormones. The truth is that the liver plays a significant role in hormonal imbalances because the liver breaks down or metabolizes the hormones once they have done their work in the body.
The liver breaks down the group of hormones known as the steroid hormones which include –
- Aldosterone which controls the balance of the minerals sodium and potassium and water in the body
- The sex hormones which control our sex life and body shape
- Cortisone which controls the immune system
When we eat unhealthy food, or live an unhealthy lifestyle it affects the liver making it overworked and overloaded. When the liver is taxed, it can’t process toxins and fat in an efficient way. It is crucial to know how to aid this most important organ by flushing unwelcome materials out of itself and out of the body.
Blue-green algae commonly known as Spirulina – is a single-celled microscopic organism which has long been recognized for its incredible liver-protecting capabilities. Not only is Spirulina a powerful anti-oxidant, it is also packed with nutrients, essential fatty acids, and chlorophyll, all of which contribute to the liver’s detoxifying activities. Add Aztec Spirulina to your daily diet . It will not only take care of your liver, it will also optimize your immune system making you live a more productive, longer, and healthier life.