Have you ever thought about taking care of the liver, the largest solid organ in your body? In most cases, we do not care about it until our doctors ask us to do so. More or less, you should learn about the functions of the liver and signs that can indicate any dysfunction.

Before we initiate a discussion, we should know how vital the organ is for us and how it helps our body to work healthily. The liver carries out some critical functions such as generating essential fats, protein, and carbohydrates. Our liver also helps our body to remove harmful biochemical wastes and detoxify toxins, alcohol, and drugs.

Some important facts about the liver
Our liver comes with a number of special features. The liver is connected to the intestines and gallbladder by some tubes. Bile produced by the liver transports to the gallbladder through these tubes. The bile comes to the gallbladder when we do not take meals and later it goes to the intestine to help with the digestion process.

Our liver is located at an appropriate place in our body, and it receives blood coming from the intestines.

In addition, our liver comes with dual blood supply system. One supply comes through the portal vein while the other comes through the hepatic artery that also brings oxygenated blood from the lungs to the liver. Oxygenated blood carried by the hepatic artery nourishes the liver cells and bile tubes. Following a number of vital processes, the liver finally sends the blood back to the heart and lungs through hepatic veins.

Signs of liver damage
If your liver is in good condition, then it will clean the blood and send it back to the heart and lungs. One interesting fact about the liver is that it can heal itself if the damage is not too critical. It has the power to regenerate and replace old and damaged tissues with new cells. Anything that can restrict your liver from doing its job can be dangerous. Here are a few symptoms that can indicate liver damage.

Yellow signs
You will find some portion of your skin and eyes turning yellow if your liver is not doing well inside. The liver starts building a substance call bilirubin inside the blood. The condition is often called jaundice, and this occurs when some damages prevent the liver from processing bilirubin. Hepatitis, too much alcohol consumption, exposure to toxic substances, and various infections can be the reasons behind this yellowness.

Itchy skin
Disorders in the liver can cause itchy skin, thyroid problems, kidney failure, and even cancer. The itching symptoms do not affect any particular area as they target the whole body. The color of your skin will remain normal except the areas of itchiness.

Swelling
If your liver is not functioning properly or it is unable to perform its regular work due to some unknown reasons, you will start noticing disorders in many parts of your outer body. Liver dysfunction often causes swelling as patients start storing water in their legs and abdomens under this condition.

Bruises
Liver damage often causes bruises where people witness bleeding more easily. This can occur because the liver often stops the production of protein required for the process of blood clotting. Our liver generates many clotting factors, and each of the factors starts to disappear once the liver has been damaged.

No symptoms
In some cases, people do not notice any sign of disorders that can indicate that something is going wrong inside. According to specialists, more than half of liver damage cases show no symptoms. In such cases, people often feel excessive tiredness, fatigue, lack of drive, etc.

If a person has already started noticing such symptoms, the damage will be more serious. According to experts, in such conditions, toxins can build up in the brain of the affected person. If this occurs, the person will experience disorders in his or her brain functions. Nausea and diarrhea are the other symptoms a patient can experience during the process.

As the dysfunction progresses, the signs of liver damage will become more serious. Experts say that once a patient enters into such a condition, he or she becomes extremely sleepy, confused and disoriented. If the condition is unnoticed for a long period of time, the patient can fall into a coma. This is a severe condition where the patient will have no option but a liver transplant.

These are some of the common and rare liver damage signs and symptoms you should be careful about. If you have noticed any of such disorders, never hesitate to visit a specialist.