Liver Disease: The Explanation
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Newcastle
Posts: 2
Hi great posts. I had fatty liver diagnosed last June I had liver pain and was yellow, I was drinking everynight and I have really given it a tilt sinnce I was 16 I am now 45. I am pretty fit but my GGT levels were 120...Iron up through the roof and blood pressure high...achololic liver disease here I am. I cut down by 80% and went back 4 months later and my LFTs were all great as was my Iron, my blood presssure went from 155/ (something high) to the good range and still is, my Dr told me to completely quit but I wanted to see if moderating my booze intake would do the trick, which it seemed to. My Dr cancalled by second scan. Since then i have had the odd night say three where I drank more than 6 beers, thats from June until April, occassionally I still get very mild liver pain, I am very careful with my drinking now.....my blood pressure is still great I dont wake with heart pressure gasping for air. So guys if i keep this up and my LFT's remain normal am I still at risk of progressing to Hep Stenosis and beyond?
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 3,452
Originally Posted by St_Kurt 
Thanks for the responses already. I figure by doing this, everybody wins. I review the subject (it will be on an upcoming exam for me), get to practice disscussing the subject with clients, and hopefully I can help others out with their questions, concerns, etc... Thanks for providing the opportunity. 
This is how the liver functions, which is the basis of how the liver gets damaged.
First : the liver is probably the coolest organ in the body besides the brain. At any given time 25% of the blood in your body is in your liver! That's because your liver has the critical job of maintaining the body's "metabolic homeostasis". What does this mean? "Homeostasis" is the term for balance. Everything you ingest whether it is eaten, drank, inhaled, or even absorbed through the skin needs to be metabolized and is therefore processed by the liver. Without it, you would shift from extreme to extreme everytime you ate, drank, or encountered anything.
The list of things that the liver processes includes dietary amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and vitamins; in addition it's responsible for the removal of microbes (bacteria and viruses that can make you sick) and toxins (drugs and alcohol fall under this catagory as far as the liver is concerned). While it is doing that, it is also responsible for the synthesis of many of the proteins in our blood used for coagulation (so people with liver disease often have bleeding problems too). In addition it assists in the breakdown of complex sugars into glucose (our body's primary energy source), storage of excess glucose for use later, and can even make blood (usually the job of the bone marrow). And if you aren't a fan of the liver yet - it can regenerate up to 60% of its mass when damaged.
If the above was a little too much to follow - basically what it's saying is that everything that passes into the body goes through the liver. Anything toxic to the body is neutralized by the liver. These "metabolites", or neutralized toxins, are carried away in the bile. This will be important later when we start talking about cirrhosis
It should be obvious that hepatic disorders, therefore, have far-reaching consequences. Symptoms aren't just things like pain in the left side (where the liver is), they are problems with the skin, the kidneys, with the stomach and bowels, and with the nervous system.
The attached image is a very nice drawing of how the lobular architecture works. The blood arrives at the liver via both the portal vein and hepatic artery. There are several of these in each lobule because each lobule has a number of portal triads (see above for a reminder) and there are hundreds of thousands of lobules in the liver. The blood then flows across the hepatocytes like a filter and exits at the central vein. All the central veins for all the lobules for the whole liver all hook up together and the blood flows back to the heart.
Any toxins filtered out and processed by the liver enters the bile which flows in the opposite direction of the blood and leaves via the digestive tract.
The reason I've bothered to explain this in such detail is that it is the fundamental mechanism by which liver disease occurs. When the flow of bile is blocked, it is very serious. However, the redundant nature of the liver and its regenerative properties mask the early impact of disease.
I'll talk about what happens when things go wrong next.
Thanks
-e
This is how the liver functions, which is the basis of how the liver gets damaged.
First : the liver is probably the coolest organ in the body besides the brain. At any given time 25% of the blood in your body is in your liver! That's because your liver has the critical job of maintaining the body's "metabolic homeostasis". What does this mean? "Homeostasis" is the term for balance. Everything you ingest whether it is eaten, drank, inhaled, or even absorbed through the skin needs to be metabolized and is therefore processed by the liver. Without it, you would shift from extreme to extreme everytime you ate, drank, or encountered anything.
The list of things that the liver processes includes dietary amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and vitamins; in addition it's responsible for the removal of microbes (bacteria and viruses that can make you sick) and toxins (drugs and alcohol fall under this catagory as far as the liver is concerned). While it is doing that, it is also responsible for the synthesis of many of the proteins in our blood used for coagulation (so people with liver disease often have bleeding problems too). In addition it assists in the breakdown of complex sugars into glucose (our body's primary energy source), storage of excess glucose for use later, and can even make blood (usually the job of the bone marrow). And if you aren't a fan of the liver yet - it can regenerate up to 60% of its mass when damaged.
If the above was a little too much to follow - basically what it's saying is that everything that passes into the body goes through the liver. Anything toxic to the body is neutralized by the liver. These "metabolites", or neutralized toxins, are carried away in the bile. This will be important later when we start talking about cirrhosis
It should be obvious that hepatic disorders, therefore, have far-reaching consequences. Symptoms aren't just things like pain in the left side (where the liver is), they are problems with the skin, the kidneys, with the stomach and bowels, and with the nervous system.
The attached image is a very nice drawing of how the lobular architecture works. The blood arrives at the liver via both the portal vein and hepatic artery. There are several of these in each lobule because each lobule has a number of portal triads (see above for a reminder) and there are hundreds of thousands of lobules in the liver. The blood then flows across the hepatocytes like a filter and exits at the central vein. All the central veins for all the lobules for the whole liver all hook up together and the blood flows back to the heart.
Any toxins filtered out and processed by the liver enters the bile which flows in the opposite direction of the blood and leaves via the digestive tract.
The reason I've bothered to explain this in such detail is that it is the fundamental mechanism by which liver disease occurs. When the flow of bile is blocked, it is very serious. However, the redundant nature of the liver and its regenerative properties mask the early impact of disease.
I'll talk about what happens when things go wrong next.
Thanks
-e
"Beenthere"...I would encourage you to start your own thread, as you might get more responses to your question.
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