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Your Liver wants to be known.



 Hello guys, how are you all doing today?

It's healthy Tuesday again, my sincere apologies for not meeting up last week.

Okay today we'll be looking at the gentleman organ known as the LIVER.

The liver is one of the vital organs necessary for our survival and well-being and as such is worth taking a look at. Today we will look at the liver and about 6 of its functions then next week we'll conclude by looking at the rest plus some disorders that can affect it and how we can prevent or manage them. Happy reading.





What do you know about your liver ?

Introduction.
The liver is probably of the many amazing organs in the human body when its functions are clearly understood yet happens to be one of the most misused and abused organs largely due to ignorance. This article hopes to draw back the curtains to help us see what this wonder organ is and is capable of doing.

Some facts about the liver.
- The liver is the largest internal organ in the body and is located in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen, beneath the diaphragm and is protected by the lower right ribs. It also extends across the midline toward the left upper quadrant of the abdomen and weighs about 1.5kg in the average adult.

The liver is divided anatomically into two lobes and has a rich blood supply obtained from two sources; 1) the portal vein which brings 75-80% of blood to the liver, including blood from the gastrointestinal tract (stomach, intestine, colon) and spleen. It contains 40% more oxygen than blood in the veins returning to the heart. 2) the hepatic artery supplies blood from the heart.


FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER.


1. Serves as a blood reservoir.
Because the liver is an expandable organ large quantities of blood can be stored in it.
It's blood volume is about 450mls which is about 10% of total blood volume. This unique ability of the liver is made possible because it contains sinusoids in place of capillaries which are larger and so have the ability to store more blood.


2. The liver functions as part of the immune system.
The liver sinosoids contain some giant cells called the Kupffer cells. Their job is to capture and ingest any bacteria within the blood coming into the liver from the intestines and systemic circulation.


3. It serves as a large storage of essential minerals such as iron which is one of the raw materials for red blood cell production and copper.


4. During intra-uterine life it serves as a factory for red blood cell production.


5. It is a storage site for Fat soluble Vitamins such as A,D,E as well as folic acid, Vitamin B12.


6. It secretes bile and bile salts which are used in digestion of fat.

Photo credit:Mental floss.
                     : THESIS.COM
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