What does the liver do?

The liver is a factory inside you that weighs around 1.4 kilograms
and works 24/7.

This factory is your liver. The liver is the heaviest organ in your body, and because of its functions, it’s also one of the most important organs.

This industrious structure acts as a storehouse, a manufacturing hub, as well as a processing plant, all at the same time. These functions involve so many crucial subtasks that our bodies would stop working without the liver.

One of the liver’s primary functions is to filter the body’s blood. The liver receives the blood in regular shipments from two sources: the hepatic artery which directs blood from the heart, and the hepatic portal vein brings blood from the intestine. This double delivery supplies the liver with nutrients, which the liver will sort, process and store through thousands of tiny internal processing plants, also known as lobules.

Both blood flows supply the liver with the oxygen that it needs to function.
The blood that the liver received from the intestine has carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins and various other nutrients through it from consumed food.

The liver processes these in several ways.

Carbohydrates are broken down by the liver and converted into sugars so the body is supplied with energy when the filtered blood is sent back out. Sometimes there are some nutrients left that the body does not require immediately. When that happens, the liver keeps them, and stores them in its storage facility. This storage facility is like a pantry for the future when the body might need these nutrients.

But the blood supplied to the liver does not always contain good things. It also comes with toxins and byproducts that the body doesn’t use. These toxins and byproducts are monitored strictly by the liver. When it notices a toxic or useless substance, the liver either converts it into a product that can’t hurt the body or isolates it and channels it through the kidneys and intestine to be eliminated.

But we wouldn’t see the liver as a factory if it didn’t also produces something. This organ creates numerous things, from various blood plasma proteins that transport fatty acids and help form blood clots,
to cholesterol that creates hormones for the body. It also produces vitamin D and substances to help digestion.

But one of the most vital products of the liver is bile. Just like an eco-friendly treatment plant, the liver uses cells called hepatocytes to convert toxic waste into a bitter greenish liquid, called bile. As this bile is funneled into a small container below the liver, called the gallbladder. Then it’s trickled into the intestine to break down fats, destroy microbes, and neutralize extra stomach acid. Bile also helps carry other toxins and byproducts from the liver out of the body.

So the liver is an extremely efficient organ that performs multiple tasks that all support each other.

But this complex and crucial system has to be kept running smoothly
by keeping it healthy and prevent it from overloading with more toxins than the liver can handle. Most liver diseases come from overloading the liver with fat (obesity) and alcohol.

The liver is one organ we just can’t afford to shut down. If you want to take extra care of your liver, you can try intermittent fasting or detoxing.