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HOW DOES THE LIVER FUNCTION 1

Structure of the Liver

The liver is the largest organ inside the body, located in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen. A healthy adult liver weighs

about 3 pounds and spans the width of the torso. The liver has two lobes, divided by a ligament. The right lobe is larger, and eachlobe contains thousands of structures called lobules. The lobules are all connected to tiny ducts, which connect to larger ducts,which then connect to the hepatic duct. The hepatic duct has two branches. On branch carries bile from the liver to the gall

bladder and the other carries bile to the duodenum of the small intestine. The gall bladder is not part of the liver but it sits in aspace on the underside of the liver, next to the stomach. The liver has more than 500 functions and is considered a multisystem

organ.

The Liver's Blood Supply

The liver has two major blood vessels: the hepatic artery and the hepatic portal vein. Imagine that the liver is a water treatmentplant. All the water has to be cleaned and treated before use, including the plant's own water supply. The treatment water comesinto the processing plant through one pipe while the plant gets clean drinking water through another pipe. The two streams nevermix. The hepatic artery carries the "drinking water" that feeds the liver and the hepatic portal vein carries the "treatment water"

that the liver has to clean. The liver cleans and processes blood constantly and holds about 13 percent of the body's total b lood

supply at any given time.

How the Liver Functions

The liver processes blood by intercepting the blood leaving the digestive tract. When we eat, the digestive tract breaks the food

down into its component parts and absorbs them into the capillary beds surrounding the small intestines. The blood from thecapillaries drains into the hepatic portal vein and travels to the liver. The liver then performs its many functions, includingfiltering toxins and drugs out of the blood. The liver also removes bacteria from the blood stream. It regulates blood clotting and

produces proteins for blood plasma production. As a storage vessel, it stores excess glucose as glycogen and also stores vitamin

A. As part of the excretory system, it deposits the waste products back into the intestines or sends them to the kidneys forelimination. All of the blood that leaves the intestinal tract has to go through the liver before going out to the rest of th e body.

Bypassing the Intestinal Tract

Some elements bypass the intestinal tract and go directly into the blood stream without passing through the liver. Some of theseelements, like therapeutic drugs, are beneficial and need to hit the blood stream before the liver can eliminate them. Others, likecigarette smoke, are harmful and can do damage. These elements do eventually make it to the liver--the circulatory system is aclosed loop and all blood eventually runs through the intestines and to the hepatic portal vein.

HOW DOES THE LIVER FUNCTION 2

The liver is the heaviest organ in the body and is one of the largest. It's located in the upper right part of your belly

under the ribs and is responsible for functions vital to life. The main functions of the liver is to process nutrients

from food, make bile, remove toxins from the body and build proteins. It's easy to see how inflammation of the liver,

or hepatitis, interferes with these important functions and can lead to poor health. Fortunately, the liver is extremely

resilient and most cases of liver inflammation don't even come to medical attention, but in cases of severe liver

disease, there can be serious interruption of these essential liver functions. Let's look a each of these functions a little

closer.

Processing Nutrients from Food

The digestive system immediately begins to break down the food that we eat into smaller and smaller pieces.

Eventually these nutrients will enter the blood and travel to the liver through the hepatic portal system, the major

pathway that blood takes from the digestive system to the liver. The liver will then process these nutrients in

different ways, depending on the body's needs. It usually stores some of the nutrients in a form that the body can use

for quick energy. The rest will be used to make other important chemicals the body needs. When the liver is severely

damaged, such as in liver failure, it can't continue to process nutrients from the blood that the body must have.

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Without aggressive medical care, the absence of these essential liver functions can result in signs of serious illness

like brain damage and coma.

Making Bile

Bile is a thick, green-yellow fluid that the liver produces to help digest food, especially fat, as it passes from thestomach to the intestines. This fluid is made in the liver, but is stored in a nearby sac called the gallbladder. When a

person eats a meal heavy in fat, like a juicy steak, the body will use its store of bile to help break down the fats in the

steak for digestion.

Removing Toxins from the Blood

All of the blood in the body will eventually pass through the liver. This is important because the liver needs to pull

out any bad things in the blood, such as toxins, and remove them from the body. Some of these toxins are drugs, like

penicillin and Tylenol, and other toxins are things that the body needs but is done with, like damaged cells, proteins

and old hormones. The liver prepares all of these types of toxins to be removed from the body. However, when the

liver is damaged, these toxins can't be removed and they start to accumulate creating problems.

Building Proteins

A protein is a complex chemical that is essential to living things, like plants, animals and people. Proteins are

everywhere in the body, and need to be constantly produced. The liver is in charge of building many kinds of

proteins that the body uses every day. For instance, there are many proteins produced by the liver that are

responsible for blood clotting. When the liver is damaged, sometimes the body isn't able to clot blood effectively. In

mild cases, it just takes a longer time for bleeding to stop. However, in severe cases the blood wouldn't be able to

clot. A simple cut on the skin would lead to continued bleeding (though not necessarily a dangerous amount), and

possibly bruises.