THE LIVER FACTORY

There is a factory inside our body which weighs about 1.4 Kg and operates for 24 hours a day. This is our liver, which is the heaviest organ in our body and one of the most important.

This factory is structured in such a way that it simultaneously acts as a warehouse, a manufacturing hub and a processing unit. Each of these functions involves multiple sub-tasks, without which our body would simply stop working and crash.

 

Main Function of the Liver Factory:

One of the livers factories main function is to filter the body’s blood, which it receives on regular basis from the two sources:

1. The Hepatic Artery – Delivers blood from the heart

2. The Hepatic Portal Vein – Brings it from the intestine.

This double delivery fills the liver with a bundle of nutrients which it then, segregates, processes and stores with the help of thousands of tiny internal processing plants known as lobules. The blood flow delivers the oxygen that the liver requires to function efficiently. The blood that is received from the intestine consists of carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and various other nutrients dissolved in it from the food we eat.

All these nutrients must be processed in different ways:

Carbohydrates:

 

When the carbohydrates are broken into the liver they are converts into sugar so that the body can use it as energy while the filtered blood is sent back out.

The Storage Facility of Liver:

At times the body has leftovers that aren’t required, when that happens the liver holds them back and stacks that into its storage facility.

This facility works as storage in case of the future scenario when the body might need energy. But the blood flowing into the liver is not always filled up with good nutrients, it also contains toxins and byproducts that the body can’t use.

When the liver spots a useless or toxic substance it either converts it into a product that can’t hurt the body or isolates and whisks it away channeling it through the kidneys and intestines to excreted.

The Manufacturing Unit of The Liver Factory

 

We would not consider the liver a factory if it didn’t manufacture things –

It manufactures various things

Blood Plasmas Proteins:

 

It transports fatty acids and helps clot blood

Cholesterol:

 

It helps produce hormones, vitamin D and substances that help digestion.

Bile: The Eco-Friendly Treatment Plant

 

The livers uses cells called hepatocytes that converts toxin waste products into a greenish liquid known as bile. As it is produced it is transferred into a smaller container located below the liver called the gall bladder.

The bile juice before being trickled into the intestines to help break down fats, destroy microbes and neutralize extra stomach acid, the Biles also helps carry other toxin and waste products out of the body.

So as one can see the liver is an extremely efficient industrial site that performs multiple tasks that supports each other. But such a complex system needs to be kept running smoothly and efficiently by keeping it healthy and not overloading it with toxins that it can work on.

This is one such factory that we simply cannot afford to shut down.