The liver: An essential player in our health and wellness
6/9/2025 by Dan Schupack, M.D.
The liver is a complex organ with many functions that are extremely important to our health and well-being, and we can’t survive without it. Some of these essential functions include assisting digestion through the production of bile that is released into the small intestine, filtration of toxins and other substances from the blood, metabolizing some medications, storing energy in the body for later use, and producing specific proteins for the body.
Liver disease
A broad range of diseases can occur in the liver, some with sudden onset of severe symptoms and others with little to no early symptoms, but symptoms can become severe later. Injury to liver cells can lead to abnormal blood test findings in liver enzymes. However, given the interactions with many other organs, these lab elevations can sometimes be due to issues stemming from other organs not functioning properly.
When liver disease is severe, symptoms can include:
- Yellowing of the skin (jaundice) due to decreased liver processing of bilirubin.
- Fluid retention due to increased pressure in the liver and lowered blood flow through it.
- Confusion or changes in cognitive ability due to decreased processing of toxins.
- Bleeding related to decreased production of clotting proteins.
- Increased pressure in veins from the backflow of blood and reduced platelets in the blood, also due to the poor blood flow through the liver.
Some contributors to liver disease cause slow damage to the liver over time that may not be noticeable until the disease has significantly progressed. These contributors include alcohol intake, some medications, chronic viral infections and the effects of metabolic syndrome (the combination of high cholesterol, obesity and/or diabetes) on the liver.
If your laboratory exams suggest liver disease or you have symptoms that are suggestive of it, imaging tests (such as ultrasound, CT scan or MRI) and other specific blood testing can be used to assess you for the causes and severity of liver disease. Occasionally, obtaining a biopsy sample of the liver tissue is necessary to help diagnose the cause of liver disease.
Common causes of liver disease
While there are many causes of liver disease, several are common:
- Fat in the liver (fatty liver or hepatic steatosis), related to metabolic syndrome, leads to liver inflammation and eventual scarring.
- Excess alcohol intake, leading to toxic injury of liver cells.
- Viral infection, such as hepatitis A, B and C. Hepatitis B and C can lead to chronic infections that develop into low-grade liver injury and eventual scarring of the liver.
- Adverse drug reactions.
- Inflammatory and inherited disorders such as autoimmune diseases, alterations of some types of proteins in the body and changes in handling of minerals in the body (notably iron and copper).
Treating liver disease
Determining the underlying cause to treat liver disease is crucial so that specific treatments can be used if appropriate. If alcohol is determined to be a contributing factor, then complete avoidance is often necessary. When the issue is related to metabolic syndrome, which has become the most common cause of liver disease, weight loss is an extremely important part of treatment. For people found to have viral infections playing a role, there are now effective treatment options for both hepatitis B and C to help clear the infection. When liver disease progresses to severe disease, there is a risk that liver transplantation may be necessary.
How to keep your liver healthy
Things that are considered healthy lifestyle choices in general tend to help promote liver health as well. Maintaining a healthy body weight with a diet focused on plants, whole grains and lean meats and avoiding processed foods, as well as consistent exercise, helps to keep a well-functioning liver. These healthy choices can help prevent diagnoses like high cholesterol and diabetes, which are known to contribute to chronic liver disease. Coffee has also been shown to have beneficial and protective effects on the liver. Alcohol is a known toxin to the liver, especially with high intake levels, but lower intake levels can also have an adverse effect. Generally, it’s best to drink no more than one alcoholic beverage daily.
Dan Schupack, M.D., is a physician in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He treats a wide range of GI/Hepatology-related conditions with a focus on preventing GI cancers and long-term management in patients at high risk for developing them.