A healthy liver function is required to reestablish healthy immune system, endocrine system, digestive system and metabolism and detoxification.

I store the iron reserves you need, as well as a lot of vitamins and other minerals.

I make bile to help digest your food. Without me you’d waste away to nothing!

I detoxify all the poisonous chemicals you give me, and that includes alcohol, beer, wine, and drugs – prescribed and over-the-counter as well as illegal substances.

I store energy, like a battery, by stockpiling sugar (carbohydrates, glucose, and fat) until you need it.

Without me, the sugar level in your blood would fall dramatically and you’d go into a coma!

I make the blood that got your system going even before you were born. Without me, you wouldn’t be here!

I manufacture new proteins that your body needs to stay healthy and grow.

Without me, you wouldn’t grow properly!

I remove poisons from the air, exhaust, smoke and chemicals you breathe.

I make clotting factors that stop the bleeding when you knick yourself shaving or while paring an apple. Without me, you’d bleed to death!

I help defend you against the “germ warfare” going on in your body all the time. I take those cold germs, flu bugs, and other germs you encounter, and knock ’em dead — or at least weaken them.

That’s how much I love you…but do you love me? Let me tell you some ways to love your liver.

1. Don’t drown me in beer, alcohol or wine!

More than one or two drinks could scare me for life.

2. Watch those drugs!

All drugs are chemicals, and when you mix them up without a doctor’s advice, you could create something poisonous that could damage me badly.

I scar easily… and those scars, called “cirrhosis,” are permanent.

Medicine is sometimes necessary, but taking pills when they aren’t necessary is a bad habit. All those chemicals can really hurt a liver.

3. Be careful with aerosol sprays!

Remember, I have to detoxify what you breathe in, too. So when you go on a cleaning binge with aerosol cleaners, make sure the room is ventilated, or wear a mask.

That goes double for bug sprays, mildew sprays, paint sprays and all those other chemical sprays you use. Be careful what you breathe!

4. Watch what gets on your skin!

Those insecticides you put on trees and shrubs not only kill bugs — they can get to me right through your skin and destroy my cells, too. Remember, they’re all chemicals.

So cover your skin with gloves, long sleeves, a hat and mask every time insecticides are in the air — or if you’re handling them.

5. A hug is better than a kiss or other intimate contact… because certain kinds of hepatitis are contagious.

Hepatitis viruses live in body fluids, blood, saliva, seminal fluids, etc. Most often I kill off the virus… but sometimes hepatitis viruses get the best of me.

So, if you catch hepatitis, we’ll both be in trouble.

6. Don’t eat too many fatty foods!

I make the cholesterol your body needs, and I try to make the right amount.

Give me a break. Eat a good, well balanced nourishing diet. If you eat the right stuff for me, I’ll really do my stuff for you!

Remember: I am a non-complainer. Overloading me with drugs, alcohol and other junk can destroy me! This may be the only warning you will ever get.

Take my advise, please!

Check me out with your doctor.

• Blood screening tests can identify some trouble, so ask to be tested.
• If I’m soft and smooth, that’s good. If I’m hard and bumpy, that could mean trouble.
• If your doctor suspects trouble, ultrasound and cat scans can look into it.
• Sometimes a needle biopsy is needed to find out how many scars you’ve given me. Nobody likes needles, so don’t let me get into such bad shape.
• My life, and yours, depends on how you treat me.