Understanding Liver Function

The Liver is a fascinating organ; and is the largest of all your internal organs.

**It should be noted that the functions specified in this blog, are what SHOULD be happening in a healthy, functional system.

The Liver & its Role in the Body

The liver has three major functions in the body, as well as assisting with numerous other functions.

The liver is responsible for creating and secreting bile, filtering the blood and orchestrating the bodies’s detox.

Additionally, the liver participates in: storing vitamins for release when your body drops below its optimal level, regulating blood sugar by converting and storing excess sugar, producing enzymes, creating heat, manufacturing and controlling cholesterol, regulating fat storage, metabolizing alcohol, maintaining hormone balance, manufacturing new body proteins, managing chemicals, poisons & toxins in the blood and even regenerating its own tissue.

All of the things the liver has a hand in, are quite vital to our overall health & wellbeing. So let’s unpack some of these actions and see how it happens, and why it matters.

Creating & Secreting Bile

Within the cells of the liver, bile is created and shunted over to the liver’s neighbor the gallbladder. When the mixture of food, enzymes and stomach acid moves from the stomach into the small intestine, bile is released into the small intestine. Bile supports breakdown of macro nutrient Fat, by breaking down the fats into smaller pieces, so that the lipase enzymes have more surface area to go to work on. Bile does the mechanical processing vs the enzymes chemical processing.

Filtering Blood

As food (and whatever comes along with it, including but not limited to: toxins, bacteria, parasites, chemicals etc.) enters the digestive system, it is mechanically and chemically processed. The constituents are broken down as they continue to travel through the digestive system, all the way to the small intestine. Once the molecules are the appropriate size they are allowed to pass through the walls of the small intestine. The exterior of the Small Intestine is consistently being washed by blood, that then flows through the Portal Vein to the liver for cleansing & removal of toxins. The blood then flows out of the liver by means of the Hepatic Vein to the heart for circulation throughout the body. Additionally, blood from the heart is sent through the Hepatic Artery to the liver, so that toxins that have been picked up throughout the body can also be cleansed & removed.

Detox COnducor

The liver executes detox in a two phase process, before handing the final step (excretion) off to the colon. During the initial phase of detox, the liver conducts what is known as biotransformation. This means that the toxin is broken down through chemical modification. Free-radicals are produced here, which is why antioxidants are so important. In the second phase, each toxin is paired with a molecule that, once paired, can be excreted through various detox pathways. Once this is complete the toxins exit the body through bowel movements.

All the other things too…

The liver stores vitamins for release when your body drops below its optimal level. As our diets shift throughout the seasons, we may take in more or less of a particular vitamin or mineral. In an effort to support the body year round, the liver stores vitamins when they are in excess, to secrete back in to circulation when they are depleated.

The liver regulates blood sugar and regulates fat storage in a way that each is dependent upon the other. The liver supports blood sugar by converting excess sugar into glycogen. Glycogen is then stored in the liver, where it can be “tapped into” and converted to usable fuel for the cells when the blood sugar drops below a functioning level. On the flip side, if the liver is already over-burdened with glycogen, insulin steps in and helps convert the glycogen to fatty acids which are then circulated to other parts of the body, to be stored as fat in the adipose tissue (external fat stores). Often times, those fat stores are used to house toxins that the over-burdened liver isn’t able to deal with.

The liver manufactures and controls cholesterol. Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL) carry cholesterol and fatty acids from the liver to tissues for use in the cells. Cells use cholesterol as building blocks for cell membranes and structures. LDL are considered low density, because they have more cholesterol and less protein, so they can only travel one way. High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) are the lipoproteins that go around and pick up the excess cholesterol that has not been used by the cell and takes them back to the liver for breakdown & excretion. When there is TOO much LDL and not enough HDL to do the clean-up, the LDL can sit and oxidize in the veins and arteries, eventually leading to the development of plaque, which can eventually lead to impaired blood flow.

It’s the job of the liver to processes about 90-98% of the alcohol that is ingested. Excess alcohol consumption can put excess strain on the liver, making it harder for the liver to keep up on its other duties.

The Liver produces cholesterol which is the building block for many of our hormones. Additionally, the liver detoxes excess hormones and chemicals that are known to be hormones disruptors. For these reasons, the health of the liver is directly linked to hormone regulation and balance.

Due to the flow of blood through the body, the way the liver removes internal and external toxins from different blood supplies, it is directly responsible for managing chemicals, toxins and poisons in the bloodstream.

Finally, the liver is the only organ of its kind, in that it can regenerate its own tissues, even after 90% of the organ has been damaged or removed. It must be noted that this sort of healing may only take place when the body is treaded with practices that foster a state of healing.

Posted: February 1st 2022