Towards a healthy liver

October 2007     View PDF     En español

Next to your skin, your liver is the largest organ in your body. It’s also one of the hardest working and can even re-grow its own tissue. It can work when a large portion of it is diseased or removed. The things that you eat, drink, breathe and take in through your skin all get filtered through your liver. It’s also where you body stores vitamins, releasing them during the day as you need them. In all, your liver performs hundreds of tasks throughout a day.

Your liver filters alcohol and toxins from your blood. It breaks down many drugs into forms that are easier for your body to use. It changes the food you eat into energy and gives out chemicals that aid your brain and central nervous system. It also helps to maintain your body heat to clot your blood.

Many substances can be toxic to your liver. Alcohol, street drugs, smoke, toxic fumes, some herbs and even some prescription and non-prescription drugs can harm your liver. Infections can harm it as well, such as hepatitis viruses and bacteria. Since the liver performs so many vital jobs, any of these toxins can cause it to not work properly. This, in turn, can hurt almost all of your body’s other systems.

A healthy liver is essential to a healthy life. There are many everyday things that you can do to keep your liver healthy. Not putting yourself at risk for liver diseases can help. Simple changes in your diet can go a long way in helping your liver to work well and recover from illness—especially if you have liver disease. This publication describes these and many other ways to promote a healthy liver.
Other publications are also available from Project Inform. They include Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.