The liver is one of the most vital organs in the human body. Sitting just below the rib cage, the liver is responsible for critical functions like iron and sugar metabolism, even as far as producing protein.
The liver’s size is no larger than a regulation size football. Unfortunately, the liver can go bad. Liver damage can result from several factors—both man-made, and inherited. From obesity, to alcohol abuse, to viruses, a lot could be behind a malfunctioning liver. Sustained liver damage could ultimately result in cirrhosis. Such liver scarring can be fatal, especially triggering acute liver failure.
When it gets to these extremes, the individual loses his liver function. This is otherwise known as a fulminant hepatic failure. This condition can result in further complications like amplified brain pressure and excessive bleeding. Treatment for liver damage—or, ultimately, acute liver failure—depends largely upon the cause. The good news is if liver damage is detected early enough, the patient has increased chances of winning the battle. Commonly, to fully restore a liver after failure, a transplant could the best way to go.
Having established the importance of early testing, you should be curious about which symptoms strongly suggest liver damage. Liver damage (or acute liver failure) can manifest in symptoms like jaundice (wherein the patient’s eyes or skin yellows), swelling of the abdomen, vomiting and nausea, drowsiness, malaise, confusion, tremors or even pain in the upper right abdomen. How about we explore some of the major causes of liver damage?
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The causes of liver damage:
Excessive Vitamin A intake from supplements
Your body loves vitamin A, but the source matters. The body covets vitamin A accrued from natural plant sources like vegetables and fresh fruit. However, Vitamin A derived from supplement sources is not equally healthy. Specifically, an excessive intake of such vitamin A from supplements can be injurious to your liver. And how? Vitamin A is predominantly stored in the liver. With increased intake, vitamin A content would accumulate there, causing more toxicity. This is termed hypervitaminosis A.
