The amazing liver

When you think about the most important organs in the human body, you instantly think about the heart or the brain but there is another organ that carries out very important functions, this organ is the liver.

The liver is only found in vertebrates and in the human is specifically located in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen, bellow the diaphragm.

A human liver normally weighs 1.44 - 1.66 Kg and has a width of about 15 cm, and it is considered the heaviest internal organ and the largest gland in the body.

The liver carry out with a lot of different functions but the main are The biliary flow which is carry out in the bile ducts to transport it to the first part of the small intestine, helping to emulsify the lipids in food. Another function is the synthesis, because the liver the liver synthesizes and stores around 100 g of glycogen, which is produced from the glucose; and then the glycogen is returned to glucose to use it as energy for the body. The liver also carries out the breakdown of many molecules as the insulin and other hormones as the bilirubin. The breakdown of molecules is very important in the drug metabolism.

 The most typical disease that affects the liver is the hepatic cirrhosis which is caused mainly by alcohol and also by hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

 Whit this disease the liver does not function properly due to long-term damage.

The most important thing that we have to do to keep a healthy liver is have a balanced diet reduced in sugar, salt and alcohol, so, in this way one of the most important organs in our body is going to work properly for many years long.