If so, we're guessing you said "yuck" and ordered something else. But did you know that there's one liver you don't have to order? It's always right inside your abdomen, up under your ribcage, and it's very important to your health. Your liver is the largest solid organ in your body. By the time you're grown up, it will be about the size of a football. The liver does many jobs, but here are three big ones:. The liver helps you by taking toxins substances in the body that are actually like poisons out of your blood.
Why do you have toxins in your blood in the first place? Sometimes your body produces them as part of its normal function, like breaking down protein, a component in foods such as meat and nuts. The liver also cleans blood that has just been enriched with vitamins and minerals during digestion. After you've eaten something, the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from the food pass from the intestine into the blood.
Before going out to the rest of the body, the nutrient-rich blood makes a stop at the liver. The liver processes the good stuff into forms that the rest of the body can use. Waste or stuff your body doesn't need can be carried by bile back into the intestine and out of the body when you poop. Other waste processed by the liver goes through your blood to your kidneys and out in your pee. And, if you ever accidentally ate something that was harmful, your liver would try to break it down and clear it out of your system.
The liver is the largest organ in your body. It weighs about 3 pounds and is about the size of a football. It performs many functions essential for good health and a long life. Producing important substances. Your liver continually produces bile. This is a chemical that helps turn fats into energy that your body uses.
Bile is necessary for the digestive process. Your liver also creates albumin. This is a blood protein that helps carry hormones, drugs, and fatty acids throughout your body. Your liver also creates most of the substances that help your blood clot after injury. Processing bilirubin. The liver helps your body get rid of bilirubin. This happens from the breakdown of your red blood cells.
Too much bilirubin in your body can cause jaundice. This is a yellowing of the skin and eyes. Removing waste products. Bilirubin is a waste product of hemoglobin that carries oxygen in the blood. Bilirubin is secreted into bile so that it can pass through the digestive system then leave the body in feces.
Bile plays a key role in digesting fats so that they can be used by the body. Bile is also necessary for removing what the body cannot use. Bile serves three main functions:. By breaking down fats, bile acids also help your intestines absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. The liver filters, breaks down, converts, and stores various substances so that your body can use or remove them.
The liver also produces about to 1, milliliters 27 to 34 fluid ounces of bile each day. Bile is secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder, a small organ attached to the underside of the liver. During meals, bile is released from the gallbladder through a tube called the common bile duct. This duct connects your gallbladder and liver to your duodenum , the first part of your small intestine.
Humans have wondered about bile for ages, but it wasn't until that theories about bile were first documented. Fast forward to the s when scientists began to study the chemistry and biology of bile in detail. In , a German scientist named Heinrich Weiland won a Nobel Prize in chemistry for revealing the composition of bile acids. His discovery helped clarify the important functions of bile acids in the body. Discoveries related to bile are ongoing. Research published in in the journal Nature documented the finding that novel bile acids are made by microbes in the gut.
More research is needed to confirm the findings, but the study suggests that the gut microbiome—bacteria and other microbes that live in your gastrointestinal tract—may play a role in producing both bile acids and enzymes in the liver. Between meals, bile is stored in the gallbladder and only a small amount of bile flows into the intestine.
Bile also becomes more concentrated during this storage process. Fatty foods that enters the duodenum prompt hormonal and nerve signals that cause the gallbladder to contract. The hormones that control this process are:. Signals also come from the vagus nerve , which extends from the brainstem all the way down to your abdomen.
As a result, bile flows into the duodenum and mixes with food, stomach acids, and digestive fluids from the pancreas , which helps the intestines absorb nutrients into the bloodstream.
Most of the bile acids are absorbed through the lower intestine then circulated into the bloodstream and back to the liver. Bile is a liquid produced by your liver and stored in your gallbladder. When prompted by hormones and the vagus nerve, bile is released from your gallbladder into your duodenum and intestines.
Your body then uses it to break down fats, absorb vitamins, and remove wastes that your body doesn't need. Many people are familiar with jaundice , when bilirubin the main pigment in bile accumulates in the bloodstream. It is common in newborns, who are not always developed enough to remove the pigment from their system. Classic signs include dark urine and yellowing of the skin and eyes. But jaundice can also occur in people of all ages when bile flow from the liver to the duodenum slows or stops for another reason.
Known as cholestasis , this can occur as a result of liver, pancreas, or gallbladder disorders, or any damage to bile ducts. Conditions that can scar or inflame the liver and lead to cholestasis include:. Bile duct damage is generally considered a symptom of chronic hepatitis C. Other conditions that can affect bile production or flow include:. Your gallbladder is most likely to give you trouble if something like a gallstone blocks bile from flowing through the bile ducts.
Treatment may include cholecystectomy , which is surgery to remove the gallbladder. After this procedure, bile gets transferred directly from the liver to the small intestine. The gallbladder is not essential to the process.
Bile duct obstruction, due to gallstones or gallbladder cancer, can actually mimic acute viral hepatitis. Ultrasound can be used to rule out the possibility of gallstones or cancer. Bile reflux is another related condition. It occurs when bile gets backed up in your stomach and esophagus, the tube that connects your mouth and stomach. Bile reflux sometimes happens along with acid reflux.
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