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TheChronicleHerald.ca, Halifax, NS
Dec 27 2013
Cheers to a good liver, an organ that takes a holiday beating
December 27, 2013 - 7:21am JOHN MCPHEE Health Reporter
As you raise a glass or three this holiday season, be sure to include
the liver in your celebratory toasts.
After all, this reddish brown, 11/2-kilogram lump of meat takes a lot
of punishment for our pleasure.
The liver filters out toxins such as the alcohol introduced into our
body by those celebratory drinks. It metabolizes the calories
associated with the fat-laden foods we happily scarf down at this time
of year.
This multi-tasking biological marvel also synthesizes crucial proteins
and amino acids, and plays a key role in coagulation so we don't bleed
to death when we cut our finger.
As organs go, it is one tough customer. Halifax hepatologist Kevork
Peltekian uses words like damage and hits when he speaks of how it
deals with the stuff we put in our body.
`The liver can handle a lot of the short-term hits,' said Peltekian,
acting head of gastroenterology at the Dalhousie medical school and
interim chief of digestive care and endoscopy for Capital Health.
`It's an organ that's resilient. You really don't need more than a
quarter of it to do the job.'
But there is only so much an organ can take. Like any good manager, it
will be forced to prioritize in its busy schedule.
`If you keep on hitting that liver with toxin or injury, it's trying
to regenerate,' Peltekian said in a recent interview.
`But then it says, `This is taking too much work for me. I'll stop
doing that, so instead of regenerating nice-looking liver cells, I'm
going to make scar tissue instead.''
That scarring is better known as cirrhosis.
`Unfortunately with that, the total volume and function of the liver
diminishes. You get to the point where your liver looks smaller and
the functional capacity is 20 per cent of what it originally was.'
An overtaxed liver also will dispense with the elimination of
bilirubin. This pigment is produced when the liver breaks down the
blood protein hemoglobin. The liver usually disposes of bilirubin in
bile. When it doesn't, the pigment yellows the skin and eyes as
jaundice.
Eventually the liver will run out of things on its list to cross off
and it begins to close up shop.
`When the toxins get too high, you get confusion, and the final one
is, fluid can build up in the belly (and) you get ascites,' Peltekian
said.
`The liver is supposed to send a message to the kidneys to get rid of
that extra sodium, but when the liver is too sick, it cannot send that
message, so the kidneys start retaining more sodium and your belly
fills up with fluid.'
So how much is too much for the liver? Like most things to do with how
our body deals with food and drink, it depends.
Women should limit themselves to 10 drinks per week and two drinks a
day, according to Health Canada guidelines on low-risk drinking. For
men, the limit is 15 drinks per week and three per day.
The definition of `a drink' varies with your brand of booze. For beer
drinkers, it is 341 millilitres, assuming the beer is five per cent
alcohol. For wine, it is 142 millilitres based on 12 per cent alcohol.
And it is 11/2 ounces at 40 per cent for the hard liquor tipplers.
But Peltekian said these guidelines come with a big caveat. They
presume the imbiber has a normal liver, and for many of us, that is
simply not the case.
`Most people, especially in North America, have additional problems
that are affecting their liver that they don't realize,' he said.
`One of the most important is obesity. Unfortunately, it's associated
with a fatty liver. About 20 to 40 per cent of the population has
fatty liver disease.'
There are other caveats. If you are over 65, you should be more
watchful about your intake than younger folks.
You should be even more careful if you take medication. The liver
works hard to deal with drugs of any kind and reduces its capacity to
deal with the alcohol you are putting into your system, Peltekian
said.
The bottom line is, if you have problems such as fatty liver or if you
take medications, cut the Health Canada limits in half, he advised.
But it is the holidays and, unless alcohol is a problem for you, there
is no reason to totally abstain.
In answering the obvious question, Peltekian responds: `Of course I
drink! But since I am constantly struggling with my excess weight, I
limit myself to five to seven drinks per week, and I avoid drinking
and driving.'
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1176089-cheers-to-a-good-liver-an-organ-that-takes-a-holiday-beating?from=most_read&most_read=1176089
From: Baghdasarian
Dec 27 2013
Cheers to a good liver, an organ that takes a holiday beating
December 27, 2013 - 7:21am JOHN MCPHEE Health Reporter
As you raise a glass or three this holiday season, be sure to include
the liver in your celebratory toasts.
After all, this reddish brown, 11/2-kilogram lump of meat takes a lot
of punishment for our pleasure.
The liver filters out toxins such as the alcohol introduced into our
body by those celebratory drinks. It metabolizes the calories
associated with the fat-laden foods we happily scarf down at this time
of year.
This multi-tasking biological marvel also synthesizes crucial proteins
and amino acids, and plays a key role in coagulation so we don't bleed
to death when we cut our finger.
As organs go, it is one tough customer. Halifax hepatologist Kevork
Peltekian uses words like damage and hits when he speaks of how it
deals with the stuff we put in our body.
`The liver can handle a lot of the short-term hits,' said Peltekian,
acting head of gastroenterology at the Dalhousie medical school and
interim chief of digestive care and endoscopy for Capital Health.
`It's an organ that's resilient. You really don't need more than a
quarter of it to do the job.'
But there is only so much an organ can take. Like any good manager, it
will be forced to prioritize in its busy schedule.
`If you keep on hitting that liver with toxin or injury, it's trying
to regenerate,' Peltekian said in a recent interview.
`But then it says, `This is taking too much work for me. I'll stop
doing that, so instead of regenerating nice-looking liver cells, I'm
going to make scar tissue instead.''
That scarring is better known as cirrhosis.
`Unfortunately with that, the total volume and function of the liver
diminishes. You get to the point where your liver looks smaller and
the functional capacity is 20 per cent of what it originally was.'
An overtaxed liver also will dispense with the elimination of
bilirubin. This pigment is produced when the liver breaks down the
blood protein hemoglobin. The liver usually disposes of bilirubin in
bile. When it doesn't, the pigment yellows the skin and eyes as
jaundice.
Eventually the liver will run out of things on its list to cross off
and it begins to close up shop.
`When the toxins get too high, you get confusion, and the final one
is, fluid can build up in the belly (and) you get ascites,' Peltekian
said.
`The liver is supposed to send a message to the kidneys to get rid of
that extra sodium, but when the liver is too sick, it cannot send that
message, so the kidneys start retaining more sodium and your belly
fills up with fluid.'
So how much is too much for the liver? Like most things to do with how
our body deals with food and drink, it depends.
Women should limit themselves to 10 drinks per week and two drinks a
day, according to Health Canada guidelines on low-risk drinking. For
men, the limit is 15 drinks per week and three per day.
The definition of `a drink' varies with your brand of booze. For beer
drinkers, it is 341 millilitres, assuming the beer is five per cent
alcohol. For wine, it is 142 millilitres based on 12 per cent alcohol.
And it is 11/2 ounces at 40 per cent for the hard liquor tipplers.
But Peltekian said these guidelines come with a big caveat. They
presume the imbiber has a normal liver, and for many of us, that is
simply not the case.
`Most people, especially in North America, have additional problems
that are affecting their liver that they don't realize,' he said.
`One of the most important is obesity. Unfortunately, it's associated
with a fatty liver. About 20 to 40 per cent of the population has
fatty liver disease.'
There are other caveats. If you are over 65, you should be more
watchful about your intake than younger folks.
You should be even more careful if you take medication. The liver
works hard to deal with drugs of any kind and reduces its capacity to
deal with the alcohol you are putting into your system, Peltekian
said.
The bottom line is, if you have problems such as fatty liver or if you
take medications, cut the Health Canada limits in half, he advised.
But it is the holidays and, unless alcohol is a problem for you, there
is no reason to totally abstain.
In answering the obvious question, Peltekian responds: `Of course I
drink! But since I am constantly struggling with my excess weight, I
limit myself to five to seven drinks per week, and I avoid drinking
and driving.'
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1176089-cheers-to-a-good-liver-an-organ-that-takes-a-holiday-beating?from=most_read&most_read=1176089
From: Baghdasarian