Your liver is a large organ located in the upper right part of your abdomen. It has several functions that are important for your health, including:
Detoxification. Your liver works to break down drugs, alcohol, and other harmful substances from your blood.
Bile production. Your liver produces a substance called bile that helps absorb fats in food and absorb vitamins.
Energy storage. Your liver can store extra glucose as glycogen and convert it to glucose when you need extra energy.
A number of substances and conditions can damage your liver and cause scarring. When scar tissue builds up in your liver, it can replace healthy liver tissue. This means your liver has to work harder to do its job.
Liver damage can be removed in the early stages. In fact, there are several ways to soothe your liver and prevent permanent damage.
In this article, we’ll look at steps you can take to improve liver health.
What can cause liver damage?
Alcohol is a major cause of liver damage. With moderate alcohol consumption, liver enzymes effectively break down alcohol.
However, if you drink too much alcohol, you won’t be able to break it down quickly.
Alcohol and its by-products can damage liver cells and lead to increased liver inflammation. Alcohol inhibits fat breakdown and causes fat to accumulate in the liver.
Alcohol is not the only factor that causes liver damage. Other possible causes of liver damage include:
infections that affect the liver, such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C
autoimmune diseases such as autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis
accumulation of excess fat in the liver unrelated to alcohol consumption (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease)
certain medications and supplements, including acetaminophen (Tylenol), certain antibiotics, and ma huang (ephedra)
Genetic disorders such as hemochromatosis and Wilson’s disease
exposure to industrial chemicals
liver cancer, or cancer that starts elsewhere and spreads to the liver