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5 Signs Your Liver Is In Trouble
Your liver does a lot to keep you healthy, especially acting as your body’s filter to clear out toxins. But when you work it too hard with heavy drinking, chronic viral infections, or eating an unhealthy diet for too long it can develop its own health problems.
5 Signs Your Liver Is In Trouble. Photo Courtesy
Pale stools
Stools are given their dark colour by the bile salts that the liver normally releases. If the stools are pale, it may indicate a problem with the liver or other part of the biliary drainage system. Black tarry stools can happen in advanced liver disease and are caused by blood passing through the gastrointestinal tract which needs urgent medical attention.
Bleeding
Your liver typically cycles about 25% of your blood from the portal vein. But cirrhosis creates an opportunity for bleeding. You may vomit blood or notice blood in the stool or rectal bleeding.
Fluid retention
This is the most common sign of liver disease, appearing in 50 percent of people who have cirrhosis, a condition in which scar tissue replaces healthy liver tissue.
Accumulating fluid may cause distension in your abdomen or swelling in your legs.
This happens when high blood pressure develops in your liver veins or when your liver is unable to make albumin, a protein that prevents leaks from your bloodstream into a tissue.
Yellow skin or eyes (jaundice)
Jaundice is due to the build-up of bilirubin (a bile pigment) in the blood because it can’t be processed effectively. The skin may also be itchy for the same reason.
Confusion
When your liver is unable to filter toxins, they may travel to your brain. The resulting condition, known as hepatic encephalopathy can cause confusion, memory problems, lethargy, and coma.
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