Your overall health relies considerably on the choices you make every day – this week’s guest post explores some lifestyle habits that damage your liver.

The liver, the largest gland in the human body, is largely responsible for energy generation, filtering, and disposal of waste from our bodies.

Often, by the time you develop signs of liver damage, it may not be possible to return to the liver’s normal function.

So what happens when this ‘powerhouse’ of our body system is disturbed due to external factors?

Signs of Liver Damage

Well, liver damage can range from very serious chronic problems to life-threatening conditions with a huge impact on you and your family.

Fortunately, you can prevent most of the elements/lifestyle habits that damage your liver with some relatively simple changes.

So let’s learn more about them and how to prevent further harm to this precious gland!

Awareness of liver damage symptoms and what causes liver damage can help identify the problem early – or even better, prevent them from happening.

What Causes Liver Damage

Here are Five common lifestyle habits to avoid if you want to keep your liver healthy:

Excessive Alcohol Intake

• Drinking alcohol is one of the things that can severely impact the health of your liver.
• Consuming alcohol excessively leads to our liver being overloaded with lipids or fats.
• Some of these fats are known as triglycerides, and they are formed when our liver attempts to remove alcohol from our system by metabolising it.
• Furthermore, high triglycerides harm the liver by scarring the tissues.
• This can lead to a condition known as alcoholic hepatitis (liver inflammation) or alcoholic cirrhosis (scarring), both of which are extremely harmful to the liver and the entire body.
• Given this potentially significant result, alcohol should be taken in moderation if it cannot be avoided entirely.

Unhealthy Eating Habits

• We all enjoy eating out, especially at night. However, if you are not careful, this practice may place an additional strain on your powerhouse.
• Eating processed and fast foods regularly can harm your liver by increasing the amount of bad or saturated fats you must process. This is made worse by late-night bingeing, which affects the liver’s ability to filter waste and disrupts your digestive system.
• Also, binge eating leads to a spike in the body’s calorie count, contributing to more fat and liver complications. Another result of this development is…

Obesity

• Obesity is closely associated with NALD (Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease). With NAFLD, there is gradual and progressing liver inflammation and damage unrelated to excess alcohol. Rather, it is commonly due to high liver fat levels, which is more likely to happen when you are obese.
• Obesity can cause or contribute to various health conditions, including metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease. These are some of the conditions that can have a negative impact on your liver’s health.
• Thus, addressing obesity is critical to preventing liver cells from becoming overstressed and progressing to the stage of cirrhosis and failure.

Smoking

• Cigarettes contain nicotine and other harmful chemicals which are dangerous for your body due to their toxic effects on your cells. These impact your liver poorly, too.
• There are three ways that smoking can harm your liver:
  • Direct or indirect increases in levels of toxic substances in the body,
  • A negative effect on our liver’s immunity, and
  • As one of the leading causes of liver cancer.
• Smoking can cause necroinflammation in the body, hastening the process of cell death and resulting in liver damage.

Excessive Use of Nutritional and Dietary Supplements

• Also known as herbal & dietary supplements, these are used for various purposes, including providing essential proteins and minerals to support the diet, treating certain conditions, and many others.
• However, some of these supplements can hurt your organs, including the liver, by preventing them from functioning properly.
• Moreover, since some of the supplements have not been approved by regulatory authorities like the MHRA or the FDA, they should not be used without a physician’s review.

Next Steps

So, there you have it, a simple and effective way of protecting and maintaining your liver health with conscious efforts. You now have some idea of liver damage symptoms (and the signs of liver damage). Knowing your liver’s importance, what’s the next step you need to take?

Let us know in the comments section if you found the post helpful.

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• 5 Top Tips to prevent Obesity in Children

Editing by AskAwayHealth Team

Disclaimer

All AskAwayHealth articles are written by practising  Medical Practitioners on a wide range of healthcare conditions to provide evidence-based guidance and to help promote quality healthcare. The advice in our material is not meant to replace a qualified healthcare practitioner’s management of your specific condition.
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