Living well has a lot to do with the health of your liver. As the largest internal organ of the human body heaves with all its complex metabolism tasks, remember, you are not making it any easier if gay abandon leads you onto a life of excesses.
Liver Day is celebrated every April 19, just to serve as a reminder of this grave fact. How you live your life has a huge say in deciding how healthy your liver is, experts say.
“As life expectancy increases, and lifestyle changes, the more we have to exercise caution,” R.Surendran, director, Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology and Liver Transplant, Stanley Medical College, says.
Alcohol, he says, is the biggest culprit when it comes to the liver. When demanded to metabolise large quantities of alcohol, the basic liver cell structure can change. This will also impede the liver from carrying out its most essential task of metabolising fats. The fat, then, is not broken down, but remains in the organ, causing a fatty liver. The effects of this are long standing, leading to a complete shutdown of the liver, and ultimately, necessitate transplantation.
“The liver is a very strong organ capable of putting up with much abuse. This actually turns out to be a disadvantage. We won't know anything is wrong until 80 per cent of the liver has been damaged,” explains P.Ravichandran, surgical gastroenterologist, Stanley Medical College.
Viral infections (Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E) some of which are caused by consuming contaminated water and food products, and others through exposure to infectious blood and body fluids can also cause liver disease.
An unhealthy-fatty diet, sedentary lifestyle, all contribute towards deterioration of the organ. The Indian pre-disposition to non-alcoholic fatty liver only worsens the situation. “In cases where we do cadaveric organ harvesting, in a number of donors, we are unable to use the liver because it is fatty,” Dr. Surendran adds.
The way out, of course, is simple, according to Dr. Ravichandran. Going in for a fat-free, high-fibre diet, with a good intake of fruits, vegetables, and cereals would be ideal. Removing the fat from meat, using oils that have monounsaturated fatty acids, even that in limited quantities, and topping it up by exercising regularly, are some of the tips a handbook released at a liver day function at Stanley Hospital on Thursday provides.
