Digestive · Hepar
Liver
Six hundred distinct jobs. One organ. No complaints.
- Mass
- ~1.5 kg, your largest internal organ
- Blood flow
- ~1.5 L / min, a quarter of cardiac output
- Bile produced
- 600 to 1,000 mL / day
- Regeneration
- To full size from ~25% remaining
What it does
Your chemical plant. It processes everything absorbed from the gut before it reaches the rest of you, makes bile and most of your clotting factors, stores glucose as glycogen, and metabolises drugs and alcohol.
The marvel
It is the only internal organ that regenerates to full size. Remove up to two thirds in a healthy donor and it grows back over months. This is why living-donor liver transplant exists at all: one liver becomes two functioning livers.
How to serve it well
Alcohol is the single largest lever
Liver injury tracks with total lifetime intake. There is no threshold that is protective, and the trend in guidance has been steadily downward.
Metabolic health is liver health
Fat accumulation in the liver associated with obesity and insulin resistance is now among the most common liver conditions worldwide. Weight loss of 7 to 10% can measurably reverse it.
Get vaccinated for hepatitis
Hepatitis A and B are vaccine-preventable. Hepatitis C is curable with modern antivirals but frequently silent for years, so testing matters.
Respect paracetamol
Acetaminophen is a leading cause of acute liver failure, usually from stacking multiple products containing it. Read combination cold remedy labels.
Book an appointment
- Persistent fatigue with no clear cause
- Discomfort under the right ribs
- Unexplained itching
- Abnormal liver enzymes on a routine blood test
Emergency, go now
- Yellowing of the skin or the whites of the eyes
- Vomiting blood, or black tarry stools
- A swollen abdomen with confusion or drowsiness
- Any suspected paracetamol overdose, even if you feel completely fine
What you may have been told
“Liver flushes and detox protocols clear out toxins and pass "stones."”
Your liver already is the detox system. The green-brown pellets people find after an oil-and-juice flush are soap-like complexes formed in the gut from the oil itself, not gallstones. Some detox supplements are themselves a documented cause of liver injury.
Where this comes from
- American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases · Steatotic liver disease guidance
- NHS · Alcohol-related liver disease
- National Institutes of Health · LiverTox, herbal and dietary supplements
LUMEN is education, not medical advice, and it cannot know anything about you. It does not diagnose. If something here matches what you are experiencing, take it to a clinician who can examine you.