How the Liver Works

Weighing in at just over one kilogram, the liver is a complex chemical factory that works 24 hours a day. It processes virtually everything you eat, drink, breathe in or rub on your skin and that's just some of its over 500 different functions vital to life.

Every day, your liver helps your body by providing it with energy, fighting off infections and toxins, helping clot the blood, regulating hormones and much, much more. To give you an idea of the liver's critical roles, here is a partial list of its functions:

Cleanses blood:

metabolizing alcohol and other drugs and chemicals,
neutralizing and destroying poisonous substances.

Regulates the supply of body fuel:

producing, storing and supplying quick energy (glucose) to keep the mind alert and the body active,
producing, storing and exporting fat.

Manufactures many essential body proteins involved in:

transporting substances in the blood,
clotting of blood,
providing resistance to infection.

Regulates the balance of many hormones:

sex hormones,
thyroid hormones,
cortisone and other adrenal hormones.

Regulates body cholesterol by producing it, excreting it and converting it to other essential substances.

Regulates the supply of essential vitamins and minerals such as iron and copper.

Produces bile which eliminates toxic substances from the body and aids digestion.

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How the Liver Works