The liver is the largest organ in your body, and the truth is you cannot live a normal life without an adequately functioning liver. Among the key functions of your liver is to produce cholesterol and bile, filter toxic material from your blood and maintain an adequate level of glucose. Because these are all vital functions, liver disease usually translates into easily identifiable symptoms. 

Perhaps the most common is jaundice, the turning of the skin and whites of your eyes a yellowish color. It may be accompanied by dark, tea colored urine. Such discoloring of the body and bodily fluids are almost certain signs of liver damage. However, other warning signs are more subtle, and can be caused by medical problems other than liver disease. For example, your abdomen may become enlarged, accompanied with abdominal pain. You may lose your appetite and suffer from frequent episodes of dizziness and nausea. Headaches, nose bleeds and frequent urination can also be symptoms of liver disease. Sometimes these lesser symptoms are signs of sclerosing cholangitis, which develops when the bile ducts in the liver have become narrowed and scarred. These are all symptoms well worth noting if you suspect liver damage has occurred. 

Some warning signs of liver disease are related to your lifestyle choices. Do you drink alcohol a great deal, or did so in the past? Alcoholic drinking is considered one of the potentially most damaging things you can do to endanger your liver! Alcohol can do damage to liver cells so that they don't function (cirrhosis) or cause fatty deposits to form (fatty liver disease). Alcoholic hepatitis is a risk, although hepatitis can also be caused by forms of drug abuse other than alcohol, such as inter-venous drug use (needles) which can lead to a drug induced viral hepatitis infection. Either form of hepatitis can result in serious liver damage if left untreated. 

If you have any of the above symptoms of liver damage, it is essential that you take your concerns very seriously. Liver disease can lead to liver cancer, which is one of the least treatable forms, or blood clotting that can lead to heart failure. Indeed acute liver failure is an all too common form of early death. Time is of the essence in controlling and treating liver damage, so if you are suspicious that you may have suffered damage to your liver, then contact your doctor for an appointment today!