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The days are finally getting longer and itâs time for spring cleaning. After a long winter, itâs an excellent idea to clean and refresh your home. Since your body is actually your primary home, it could use a little spring cleaning too.
Letâs explore how a healthy body stays vibrant and working smoothly.
What the liver is
Our bodies have many ways to stay clean, orderly and working properly. Most folks may not realize that the liver is especially important to our health and well-being. This 3-pound organ is credited with performing over 500 tasks critical to survival. Sometimes called the bodyâs âchemistry lab,â the liver cleans our blood, balances blood sugar, makes digestive juices hormones and cholesterol. OK, thatâs only five things â 495 left.
According to the health body Mayo Clinic, these include:
Overweight or obesity
Insulin resistance, in which your cells don t take up sugar in response to the hormone insulin
High blood sugar (hyperglycemia), indicating prediabetes or type 2 diabetes
High levels of fats, particularly triglycerides, in the blood. These combined health problems appear to promote the deposit of fat in the liver, says the health body.
It adds: For some people, this excess fat acts as a toxin to liver cells, causing liver inflammation and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which may lead to a buildup of scar tissue in the liver.
NASH is a type of NAFLD.
FATTY liver disease is pernicious because warning signs may only emerge in the later stages. If fatty liver disease progresses to cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), it cannot be reversed. Here are six warning signs of cirrhosis.
Am I at risk?
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is caused by a build-up of fat in your liver. No one is certain why this happens. Many doctors believe that it’s linked to the way your body responds to the hormone insulin – this is called insulin resistance, says Bupa.
According to the health body, you may be more at risk of getting non-alcoholic fatty liver disease if:
You’re overweight, especially if you carry extra weight around your middle
You have type 2 diabetes
You have high blood pressure (hypertension)
You have high levels of fats in your bloodstream – known as hyperlipidaemia