Do you know how important a liver is? Can you imagine what will happen if our liver is damaged? Liver is considered as the chemical plant of the body because it performs and regulates a number of high-volume biochemical reactions requiring specialized tissues. Among its major functions include glycogen storage, plasma protein synthesis, and drug detoxification. This organ also secretes the enzymes known as bile which plays a critical role in the
digestion process. This fluid helps in absorption in the small intestine. Furthermore, the liver is regarded as the second largest organ in the body, of course next to skin. However, this is also our largest gland. A common adult human liver usually weighs between 1.3 to 3 kilograms. It is a soft, pinkish-brown "boomerang shaped" organ.
According to a
specialist from Germany, there are certain diseases that the liver can acquire. Among these diseases are hepatitis or the inflammation of the liver caused by virus, cirrhosis or the formation of fibrous tissue in the liver, hemochromatosis, cancer of the liver or hepatocellular carcinoma or cholangiocarcinoma, Wilson's disease, primary sclerosing cholangitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, Budd-Chiari syndrome, and Gilbert's syndrome. There are also pediatric liver diseases which include biliary atresia, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, alagille syndrome, and progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis.
