My liver My liver My liver

Wow! Its already been a very long year. There has been so much going on I don't even know where to start.
First off the multi generational household did not work. The kids weren't happy sharing the space with us so they moved out in March. We really miss the grandbabies but I think its for the best. They are in a cute little bungalow in town and we see them quite a bit.

I guess the second really big thing is that my ex husband my daughters father who had been sick with liver disease for a few years became extremely ill and almost died. Everything worked out and he was able to receive a liver transplant which has improved things quite a bit. He still has a long way to go before life is back to normal but things are looking good. I began to wonder how he ended up with this disease as he has never been a heavy drinker. I was very perplexed about this and then my daughter suggested that I watch a documentary called "Sugar Coated". So I did and wow! it was an eye opener. I know a lot about nutrition and I thought I knew a lot about sugar until I watched this. One of the things it talked about is that the american diet is so over loaded with sugar consumption that americans are beginning to show signs of a fatty liver at an early age. This leads to a diseased liver later on in life. It is becoming so common that they feel it will one day maybe soon become and epidemic.

A bit about our liver: (taken from http://www.healthline.com)

The liver is the largest glandular organ in the body and performs multiple critical functions to keep the body pure of toxins and harmful substances.

An average adult liver weighs about three pounds. Located in the upper-right portion of the abdominal cavity under the diaphragm and to the right of the stomach, the liver consists of four lobes. It receives about 1.5 quarts of blood every minute via the hepatic artery and portal vein.

The liver is considered a gland—an organ that secretes chemicals—because it produces bile, a substance needed to digest fats. Bile’s salts break up fat into smaller pieces so it can be absorbed more easily in the small intestine.

In addition to producing bile, the liver:
Detoxifies the blood to rid it of harmful substances such as alcohol and drugs
Stores some vitamins and iron
Stores the sugar glucose
Converts stored sugar to functional sugar when the body’s sugar (glucose) levels fall below normal
Breaks down hemoglobin as well as insulin and other hormones
Converts ammonia to urea, which is vital in metabolism
Destroys old red blood cells (called RBC’s)

The destruction of old red blood cells produces waste that gives fecal matter its usual brown color. Discoloration of stool — or darkened urine — could signal the onset of problems within the liver, such as viral hepatitis. Another common sign of liver problems is jaundice, the yellowing of the skin and eyes due to the buildup of bilirubin, a waste product of normal hemoglobin breakdown.

Common liver diseases include hepatitis infection, fatty liver disease, and cancer, as well as damage from alcohol, the pain reliever acetaminophen, and some cancer drugs. Cirrhosis of the liver occurs when the organ becomes scarred and hardened so that it cannot function properly.

After learning more about how too much sugar can effect the function of our liver and referring to my knowledge of how our liver functions I was able to understand the possible reasons for my ex's issues. He has been a consumer of lots of sugar more than likely he didn't even know how much he was consuming and a smoker and not the best eater either. He developed a fatty liver that became diseased and then moved into Cirrhosis of the liver.

In this country there are so many health issues that people deal with on a daily basis. I bet, no I know, that 98% of people do not have a clue as to how damaging the food that they are eating is to their liver. How sad is it going to be when "Fatty Liver Disease Now An Epidemic" becomes a headline in Times magazine. There will not be enough healthy livers to go around.

I hope that you will start to; if you are not already; educate yourself about healthy eating. I will do my best here to inspire you and educate you in my own way about what you should and should not put into your body. The rest is up to you....