Liver Dysfunction

Liver: The liver body shape has the big potbelly or better known as a beer belly. These are the guys you usually see on the beach wearing a Speedo with a beer in their hand, they look like your cousin or uncle. The liver is the body’s filtration system. It filters out microbes, drugs, and dead cells from the body as an immune function. Every hormone, chemical, bacteria, virus, fungus and parasite is filtered through the liver. The liver is about as big as a football and lies under the rib cage on the right side and it is the biggest organ inside the body. It works much like an oil filter in your car. In addition, it acts as a digestive organ, breaks down fats, proteins and even carbohydrates it can also make sugar out of protein. The liver has 560 known functions and researchers believe it has double that many functions. When the liver gets damaged the toxins that are normally filtered out are re-circulating through the body, re-exposing delicate glands to harmful compounds, triggering a toxic overload. Synthetic estrogen from growth hormones, medications, aspirin, birth control pills and HRT (hormone replacement therapy) also cause huge side effects and causes damage to the liver. When the liver is damaged it causes a potbelly appearance. This protruding abdomen is not always fat in fact most of it is fluid. If the liver is not functioning well it can leak fluids into the stomach area behind the glands and organs within the abdomen. This characteristic is called ascites, which comes from the Greek word askos, meaning “bladder”,” belly” or” wineskin (animal skin used to hold wine). If you push the belly from side to side it feels much like a water balloon. The fluid is leaking because the liver is not able to produce proteins. This becomes a low protein situation that can’t be improved by just eating more protein. This can only be improved by eating lots of vegetables and a little bit of high quality protein, this takes the stress off the liver and lets it heal. If you have excess weight in the midsection a glass of wine or beer at night will just make it worse. Liver types can usually have a dull pressure and a fullness feeling in the upper abdomen area under the right rib cage. After eating a meal the person can have belching and burping because the liver and gallbladder are not functioning properly at times the person may feel as though they’re getting arthritis in their joints this is a symptom of the liver dysfunction and not really arthritis. After a night’s sleep the person would wake up they would be struggling to get up in the morning and their eyes may be bloodshot. Liver people in the morning are grouchy, moody and irritable. You have to give them time to wake up let them have their first cup of coffee before you talk to them. Some other symptoms liver people may experience are: brown spots on the back of their hands and throughout their body, eyelids are itchy and swollen, hives and itchiness, skin problems, little red dots on skin, acid reflux, constipation, hemorrhoids, chemical sensitivities, stiffness in the lower back and/or upper back between the shoulder blades, right shoulder pain or tightness, gallbladder problems, headaches, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, varicose veins, spider veins, bad breath, tongue coated with white film and swelling in ankles.