The Liver

 

  • Our liver can be found within the upper right portion of the abdomen. It is nestled directly under the lungs, with its small end sitting above the stomach and spleen and the larger end resting above the small intestines.

    This wedge shaped organ is similar in size to a football, and is one of the largest, solid organs to be found within the body.

    The liver consists of four lobes. There is a right lobe that is larger than the left, and two smaller lobes, which are known as the caudate lobe and the quadrate lobe. There is a sickle-shaped ligament that connects the liver to the abdominal wall which separates the right and left lobes. The lobes of the liver can be broken down even further into eight separate segments. Each segment is composed of thousands of small lobes known as lobules.

  • The liver is responsible for regulating most chemical levels within our blood.

    It holds about one pint, or roughly 13%, of our blood supply and it can be seen as the bodies blood sergeant. Each of the 8 segments have thousands of small lobes, which connect the small ducts to the larger ducts. These come together to create the common hepatic duct.

    The liver cells produce a substance called bile, which helps carry away waste and break down fats during digestion. The bile is transported out of the liver by using the common hepatic duct to the gallbladder and the first portion of the small intestines, which is the duodenum.

    All the blood that leaves from the stomach and intestines passes through the liver, where it is then broken down and balanced. It is within the liver that most nutrients within the blood are created and metabolized into easier forms to digest.

    Once the liver has broken down any harmful substances, the by-products of such are excreted into either our blood or bile. All blood by-products head to the kidneys to be filtered and then excreted through the urine, and all bile by-products are sent to the intestines where it is then excreted through the form of feces.

    The liver has many functions, over 500 to be exact and each one is as important as the next. To list all of them would be excessive. Some of the more well-known functions besides the ones listed above are:

    • Helping produce immune factors and removing bacteria from the bloodstream

    • Regulation of blood clotting

    • Clearing the blood of harmful drugs and toxins

    • Processing hemoglobin for iron content

    • Conversion of excess glucose into glycogen for storage

    And so the list goes on. As you can see, the liver has a huge role when it comes to keeping the body healthy and happy. Without it, our chances at survival would be virtually none.

  • The answer is woven within the biology.

    The stress response, when activated chronically, can impair liver functions. An article published by the Hepatitis C Support Project dove into how stress impacts the liver and its functions.

    Stress was found to affect the part of the brain that controls blood flow, which in turn, can lead to the development of liver damage over time. Further more, during periods of stress, natural killer cells could be found within the liver, which contributed to liver cell death.

    The connection between stress and liver health has continued to be an area of interest. A study published in the BMC Gastroenterology Journal examined the affects of chronic stress and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD) within mice. They found that chronic stress may be a major risk factor for the development of NAFLD, and hepatic inflammation may be a rather crucial mechanism responsible for stress-induced NAFLD. This makes sense given that during the activation of the stress response, inflammation markers are increased. So a chronically activated stress response could mean bad news for the liver.

    When discussing inflammation, the same study from above discussed how NAFLD can be manifested as the result of metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions that come together to increase ones risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke. And it just so happens that chronic stress can be found at the root of developing metabolic syndrome.

    Although a direct connection between stress and the liver is still being researched, there appears to be enough evidence building to support the notion of a negative association between the two.