Sunday June 8, 2008

Be kind to your liver

This is the last in a series of six monthly educational articles on maintaining a healthy liver.

WE have come to the final article on maintaining liver health. We hope you have enjoyed reading the last five articles and now have a better appreciation of one of the largest and most important organs in our body.

The liver is responsible for thousands of essential body functions and is crucial for survival. It is important to do everything we can to keep our liver healthy and protect it from harm.

Unfortunately, unlike other organs in the body, the liver is unable to let you know when it is in trouble, and often not until it is too late. We need to remember conscientiously that the liver deserves our care.

The liver works tirelessly, 24/7

The liver is a complex chemical factory that works for us non-stop, 24 hours a day, detoxifying just about everything that enters the body.

Virtually all the blood returning from the intestinal tract to the heart passes through the liver. Anything that we consume is absorbed into the bloodstream, which passes through the liver. Therefore the liver is essential to our life. How does the liver keep us alive?

• Cleansing our blood by metabolising alcohol and other drugs and chemicals, destroying and neutralising poisonous substances.

• Clearing the blood of particles and infections, including bacteria.

• Regulating the supply of body fuel by producing, storing and supplying quick energy (glucose) to keep our mind alert and our body active.

• Manufacturing many essential proteins involved in transporting substances in the blood, clotting of blood, and providing resistance to infection.

• Producing bile, which aids digestion.

• Regulating body cholesterol by producing, excreting and converting it into other essential substances.

• Manufacturing, breaking down and regulating of numerous hormones, including sex hormones.

• Regulating the supply of essential vitamins and minerals, such as iron and copper.

This is how much the liver actually cares for us! However, most people are taking this noble organ for granted ... damaging the liver to such an extent that scarring occurs, and ultimately the liver fails.

The liver can regenerate itself

The liver is the only organ that is able to regenerate itself, and take care of itself to a certain extent. If however, the damage becomes too extensive, the liver will not be able to repair itself and will start to show signs of damages.

Overloading the liver with drugs, alcohol, multiple medications and even stress will eventually destroy our liver. So, take care and protect your liver for there is a point of no return.

In our past articles, we have mentioned that liver damage can be due to various factors. One of the common myths that people often have is that liver diseases are primarily caused by alcohol. However, this is not true. In reality, alcohol is only one of the causes of over 100 forms of liver disease.

It may be difficult to diagnose liver diseases because of its vague presentation of symptoms. Some people may experience no symptoms at all even though the liver may have significant damage.

Some of the signs of early liver damage include loss of appetite, low grade fever, dark urine or abnormally yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes (usually referred to as jaundice), which may often be the first and sometimes only sign of liver disease.

Fatty liver (FL)

One of the most common liver diseases is fatty liver. In one of our earlier articles, Prof Datuk Dr KL Goh called it “the bane of modern living”. We are seeing an increase in the prevalence of fatty liver diseases with the growing affluence of the population throughout the world and its associated changes in diet and other lifestyle changes.

In the past, fatty liver associated with heavy alcohol consumption was thought to be a prelude to cirrhosis, or hardening of the liver. But the fairly “new” condition of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is gaining more prominence as a common liver disease of increasing affluence.

This condition is basically fatty inflammation of the liver which is not due to excessive alcohol use but rather due to insulin resistance, the metabolic syndrome and obesity.

In FL, there is deposition of fat in the cells of the liver and when this happens, it affects the function of every cell in the liver. If left untreated, it can progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which is characterised by both accumulation of fat in the liver cells and inflammation of the liver.

The destruction of liver cells due to inflammation will eventually lead to hepatocellular necrosis.

The liver cell

The liver is an organ that has one of the highest turnover of cells (by virtue of the fact that it has a vast array of functions). An integral component of the liver cell membrane is phospholipids. Any damage to the phospholipids will, needless to say, cause the membrane to be unstable and threaten the life of the liver cell.

If cells are to survive, the damaged phospholipids will need to be replaced quickly and this is where dietary sources of high quality phosphatidylcholine (a type of phospholipids) fit in2.

The importance of phospholipids in health is aptly described in the verse below:

“Without phospholipids there is no membrane.
Without membrane there is no cell,
Without cells no tissue,
Without tissue no organs,
Without organs no systems, hence no life!”

Therefore in a nutshell: Phospholipids are an essential component of all life.

One of the commonest sources of phospholipids is lecithin, which occurs naturally in foods like egg yolk, soy beans and sunflower seeds1. However, the percentage of phosphatidylcholine in these foods is quite low (as low as 20%)2.

In addition, although phosphatidylcholine can be derived from a variety of foods, it must be mentioned that phosphatidylcholine derived from soy contains far lower levels of saturated fatty acids and is rich in unsaturated fatty acid.

But again, this depends on the species of the soy bean, the location of the plantation and the extraction method. Essential phospholipids (EPL) are highly purified extracts from the soy bean, containing approximately 76% to 94% phosphatidylcholine2,3.

A partial list of the beneficial effects of EPL include2:

• Formation and regeneration of cell membrane.

• Maintenance of structure and function of cell membrane.

• An excellent source of choline for production of acetylcholine.

• For prostaglandin (a valuable family of biochemicals) production.

• As a component of bile, hence aiding in the emulsification and digestion of fat.

• Aids blood clotting.

• Increasing cholesterol solubility and therefore decreasing cholesterol’s propensity to promote atherosclerosis.

• Antioxidant protection.

The hepatoprotective effects of EPL have been demonstrated again and again in experiments which clearly show that EPL is “hepatoprotective, regenerative and curative”3.

Liver care

Take a daily step forward to take better care of your liver by:

• Maintaining a healthy, well-balanced diet.

• Lose weight in stages.

• Avoid taking medication unnecessarily. Do not exceed the maximum daily dosages and do not mix alcohol and medication.

• If you drink alcohol, have two or less drinks a day.

• Protect yourself from viral hepatitis A and B by getting vaccinated.

• Avoid exposure to industrial chemicals.

• Taking some supplements to enhance overall liver performance (i.e. EPL).

Conclusion

“... because the liver is a source of many diseases, and is a noble organ that serves many organs, almost all of them: so when it suffers, it is not a small suffering, but a great and manifold one.” – Paracelsus (1493 -1541)

Perhaps, it is time to take heed and start taking care of our liver.

References:

1. Lane Lenard. The Power of Essential Phospholipids. http://www.life-enhancement.com/mediadisplaynav.aspx?id=1575. Accessed 20 Feb 2008.

2. Gundermann KJ. The essential phospholipids as a membrane therapeutic. Szczecin, Poland: Polish section of European Society of Biochemical Pharmacology, Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Medical Academy, Szczecin; 1993

3. E. Kuntz and H.D. Kuntz. Hepatology: Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition. Springer 2006, Germany.

This article is courtesy of sanofi-aventis.