The Liver is a Factory

 

 

The liver is also a "chemical factory" -- performing over 500 chemical functions in your body! The liver takes certain materials in your body and turns them into something else. For example, your liver turns proteins and sugars into things that your body needs.

The liver produces blood-clotting factors that are needed to help you heal after an injury.

It also stores vitamins, hormones, cholesterol, and minerals. Your liver lets go of these chemicals and nutrients when your body needs them, and they flow into your bloodstream.

The liver also produces a greenish fluid called bile. Tubes, called "bile ducts," connect the liver and another organ, the gallbladder, to the small intestine. The bile that is made by the liver helps to digest fats in the small intestine.
Latest Hepatitis News
Impressive Vertex hepatitis C drug data unveiled

November 1, 2008 - A closely watched hepatitis C treatment being developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc showed an impressive ability to knock out the virus in patients who failed other treatments and those not previously treated for the serious liver disease, data from mid-stage studies show.

U.S. hepatitis A vaccine rates vary widely

January 25, 2012 — NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although about 85 percent of kids in two U.S. states have had a complete set of hepatitis A vaccines, overall just three in 10 have had both shots, according to a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Device makers urge coverage of weight-loss surgery

January 25, 2012 — CHICAGO (Reuters) - Device manufacturers are pushing the U.S. government and health insurers to cover weight-loss surgery, an effort that could give millions more obese Americans access to the treatments.

Arsenic cancer risk still high decades later

January 24, 2012 — NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People exposed to very high levels of arsenic in Chilean drinking water back in the 1950s and 60s are still showing a higher-than-normal risk of bladder cancer -- years after the arsenic problem was brought under control, a new study shows.

Select news items provided by Reuters Health