Maintaining a Healthy Liver: The Key to a Healthier Life

Team Udayavani, Oct 18, 2024, 12:07 PM IST

The liver is a vital organ, and maintaining a healthy liver is crucial for a healthy lifestyle. Unlike kidneys, which have dialysis as one of the replacement modalities, there is no such option or substitute for a failing liver. Once the liver stops functioning as it should, the only option left is liver transplantation. This makes it even more important to care for your liver from the very beginning. Most of us are born with a healthy liver, and if we put effort into maintaining liver health throughout our lives, our liver will serve us well for a lifetime.

What Stresses the Liver?

Lifestyle choices commonly impact liver health. Common stressors on the liver are alcohol consumption, a sedentary lifestyle, fatty liver (a condition resulting from processed food and an unhealthy lifestyle), and viral infections. Chronic stress and anxiety can also contribute to liver damage.

The Impact of Inflammation on Liver Function: The liver detoxifies our body and aids in digestion. Whenever the liver goes through stress, liver enzymes are released, which indicate hepatic inflammation and compromised liver health. This inflammation will result in hepatitis over time. In severe cases, liver inflammation can progress to fibrosis.

From Fibrosis to Cirrhosis: The Liver’s Progression: Fibrosis is the scarring of the liver. As the liver scars, it can no longer function well and you slowly tend to notice permanent damage to the liver. Eventually, fibrosis may progress to liver cirrhosis, in which the liver becomes hard and nodular, losing its ability to carry on important functions of the liver (bile production and blood filtration). This condition also increases the propensity of liver cancer, especially hepatocellular carcinoma, that may occur in patients with a cirrhotic liver.

Effects of Hepatitis on the Liver: Viral infections like hepatitis C increase the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. It is important to note that with modern medicine, we now have effective treatment options for hepatitis C, whereas five or ten years ago, clearing the infection was more difficult. Hepatitis B is preventable by vaccination, and hepatitis A and E can be avoided by maintaining a good diet, drinking clean water, and maintaining proper hygiene. However, in cases of alcoholic hepatitis, the only solution is to stop consuming alcohol.

Fatty Liver Disease / NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis): Fatty liver refers to fat deposits in the liver caused by lifestyle factors, like increased consumption of processed foods and high sugar intake. High fructose corn syrup, in particular, is one of the worst things you can feed your body. You may be surprised by how many packaged food items are heavily loaded with it.

How to Maintain a Healthy Liver?
To address liver diseases, increase physical activity, incorporate more fibre into your diet, and eat more whole foods. Humans evolved as hunter-gatherers, which means we once sought out food in nature and ate what we found. We did not depend on factories to make biscuits for us. Thus, if we return to eating more raw fruits and vegetables, then it can make quite a difference to our overall health. While this does not necessarily mean you should completely cut out meat, make sure you balance your diet with enough fresh items. If you need a snack, it is much healthier to eat something like a carrot rather than a processed snack like a biscuit or cake.

Increasing fibre in your diet is a must, and if you are not getting enough fibre from food, you can take supplements like psyllium husk (Isabgol). Maintaining an ideal weight is also very essential. Simple lifestyle, dietary, and health choices throughout our lives can keep our liver healthy and help it function for our lifetime.

This article is authored by Dr. Govind Nandakumar, Consultant – Surgical Gastroenterology and Laparoscopic GI-Onco Surgery, Manipal Hospital Sarjapur Road, Millers Road, Yeshwanthpur, Varthur and Hebbal.