Liver and its function
Liver is the largest internal organ in the body. It is also considered the biggest gland. Liver plays a vital role in metabolism and many other functions like glucose storage as glycogen, protein synthesis and detoxification of drugs, toxins and waste products from metabolism. Bile which plays a vital role in digestion is also produced by the liver. Many other high-volume biochemical reactions are also performed and regulated by it. “Hepar” is the Greek word for liver and many medical terms that start with hepato or hepatic are related to liver.
What is liver disease?
Any such disease as affects liver and its function is considered a liver disease. Liver disease often causes serious complications like jaundice, fluid retention, liver failure etc. Cirrhosis, hepatitis, fatty liver and some liver cancers are other types of liver diseases.
The real causes behind some types of liver diseases, particularly, those which present at the time of birth are not known. Some other kinds like hemochromatosis are because of inherited genes from parents. Hepatitis C and alcoholism are some common causes of cirrhosis in the United States.
Some signs and symptoms
Usually, during the early stages of liver disease there are no such particular symptoms as patients have to experience. However, fatigue, loss of appetite and weight loss without any particular reason, fever, vomiting, bruising and loss of appetite are some of those symptoms as the patients may experience. While during later stages of liver disease patients usually experience symptoms like itching, spiderlike blood vessels and anemia.
In Jaundice usually the skin gets yellow and the eyes get white. Impotence in men, decreased fertility in women, enlargement of liver, Portal hypertension, high levels of glucose, high heart rate and magnitude of blood pumped, low blood pressure low amount of red blood cells ,white blood cells and platelets, tendency to bleed and liver failure are some other signs and symptoms of later stages.
Diagnosis
Liver disease can be diagnosed through a proper physical examination that has medical history and a list of medications. Some other tests like liver function tests, liver biopsy, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and ultrasound are also performed to diagnose liver disease.
Treatment
Treatment for liver diseases depends on type of disease and there are different treatments for different types of liver diseases.
- Treatment for liver disease may consist of life style changes like avoiding alcohol, taking balance diet, regular exercises and avoiding those drugs that damage the liver
- Through medications like corticosteroids, Interferon, Beta blockers, Chelating agent and Chemotherapy.
- Some medical procedures like Phlebotomy and Radiation therapy are used to treat liver disease.
- Through surgical procedures like Shunt surgical procedures. Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt or TIPS is a common type of shunt surgical procedures.
- In advanced cases liver transplantation is considered the only option for treatment.
Liver is a vital organ and without a healthy and sound liver there is no concept of healthy and sound life. But as it is said that prevention is better cure the same is true about liver disease .Most of liver disorders are hard to cure but we can easily avoid these disorders if we take proper care.
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Thanks for this wonderful article, it helps me to guide others on Liver diseases. Also thanks to Google search.