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| It's amazing that all our organs can fit inside our abdomen |
There are a lot of temptations to overindulge during the summer and Christmas holidays. It is important to eat healthy and continue to exercise.
Your liver needs foods that contain Vitamins A, E and K to stay healthy. Your liver is a vital organ that you can't live without and it performs over 500 bodily functions.
If you drink alcohol, do it in moderation.
If you have risk factors like diabetes or high cholesterol, stay on the straight and narrow, especially when there are multiple opportunities to indulge.
For liver transplants, your new liver will still be functional while it regenerates. But even if 75% of your liver were removed due to disease or trauma and if you only had 25% left, that 25% could regenerate a full-size liver in 8 to 15 days. Isn't that amazing?
Now that is Awesome!
WHERE IS YOUR LIVER?
Your liver is located in the front upper right-hand section of your abdomen, just under your diaphragm and on top of your stomach, right kidney, and intestines.
WHAT IS ITS FUNCTION?
Your liver is one of your largest and most important organs and performs over 500 functions. Primarily it filters your blood just like the kidneys do, and helps to digest and break down food and drugs to make it easier for the rest of the body to use. The liver also stores glucose in the form of glycogen and helps in maintaining the proper amount of glucose in the blood
RISK FACTORS FOR LIVER CANCER OR CIRRHOSIS
One main cause of cirrhosis is drinking large amounts of alcohol for many years.
If you are very overweight, have diabetes or a condition called metabolic syndrome, you are at higher risk of getting nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a buildup of fat in your liver which can lead to liver cancer.
Certain diseases can make you more likely to get liver cancer, including:
Long-term hepatitis B or C -- viruses that attack and damage your liver
Cirrhosis -- liver damage that can make scar tissue replace healthy tissue
Liver diseases you’re born with, like Wilson’s disease (when you have too much copper in your liver)
Toxins Raise Your Risk
Some of these can cause liver cancer, including:
Aflatoxins: poisons made by molds that can grow on crops like corn and peanuts if they’re not stored the right way
Arsenic: a chemical that’s sometimes in well water
Thorium dioxide: a substance once used for some kinds of X-rays (it’s not used anymore)
Vinyl chloride: a chemical used to make some kinds of plastics
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF LIVER CANCER
Most people don’t notice any signs of liver cancer early on. Here are some of the main symptoms:
-- Feel full easily or not want to eat
-- Have a lump below your right rib cage
-- Feel pain on the upper right side of your belly or near your right shoulder
-- Have an upset stomach
-- Have swelling in your belly
-- Feel tired and weak
-- Lose weight
--Have white, chalky poop and dark urine
-- Notice your skin and the whites of your eyes are a yellowish color
TESTS
If your doctor thinks you might have liver cancer, he may recommend:
Biopsy: He will take a small sample of your liver to test for cancer.
Blood tests: Checks how well your liver is working and look for things in your blood that may be signs of cancer, called tumor markers.
Imaging tests: This might be an ultrasound, CT scan, MRI, or an angiogram, which is a kind of X-ray that looks at your blood vessels.
STAGES
The stages tell you how far the cancer has spread:
Stage I: One tumor that hasn’t spread anywhere else
Stage II: One tumor that’s spread into blood vessels, or more than one tumor, but all smaller than 2 inches
Stage III: One tumor that’s spread to major blood vessels or nearby organs, or more than one tumor and at least one of them is larger than 2 inches
Stage IV: The cancer has spread to other body parts.
TREATMENT PLANS:
Treatment for liver cancer depends on the stage you have, as well as your age, overall health, and the health of your liver. If the cancer hasn’t spread and you don’t have other liver problems, you may have:
--Treatment: Surgery to remove the tumor
A liver transplant, where you get a new liver from a donor. This isn’t common.
--Treatment: Ablation Therapy
This tries to kill cancer cells in different ways:
Alcohol: Your doctor puts pure alcohol into the tumors to destroy them.
Freezing: Your doctor uses a thin, blunt instrument called a probe to freeze and kill tumor cells.
Heat: Microwaves can make enough heat to destroy tumors.
Electrical pulses: Bursts of electricity kill cancer cells (this is still being tested).
--Treatment: Targeted Therapy
Cancer cells work differently than normal cells. Targeted therapy uses drugs designed to attack cancer cells based on those differences. This may keep tumors from making blood vessels they need to survive, or it may stop tumor cells from dividing so they can’t grow.
CAN LIVER CANCER BE PREVENTED?
No, but you can lower your chances of getting liver cancer:
1. Get the hepatitis B vaccine.
2. Stay a healthy weight through the food you eat and exercise.
3. Limit the amount of alcohol you drink: up to one a day for women, two for men.
4. Don’t use intravenous (IV) drugs -- if you do, use clean needles.
5. Get tattoos and piercings only at safe, clean shops.
6. Practice safe sex.
Sources: WebMD, Healthline, and NIH
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