Every organ in our bodies play their part and are in perfect sync with each other, to maintain our health. The minimum we can do is lead a healthy lifestyle that helps our organs do their bit and keep us hail and hearty. On World Liver Day (19th April), here are 7 lifestyle habits that are damaging your liver, so you can make a conscious change in your life to set it right.
7 Habits That Are Damaging Your Liver
1. Guzzling Down Alcohol
You probably already know this. And if you still have been chugging down excessive amounts of alcohol far too often, here’s why you need to stop doing so to save your liver from further damage. Alcohol gets accumulated as fats in your liver, after making its way through your digestive system. Hence, fatty liver is a commonly used medical term when the liver damage is the direct fallout of consuming excessive quantities of alcohol. For heavy drinkers, this habit can cause permanent damage to the liver or even prove to be fatal in the long run.
2. Smoking Regularly
Yet another life-threatening habit that claims lives throughout the world. One of the reasons being liver damage, by injuring the organ severely. Heavy smoking produces toxins that can cause necroinflammation as a response to the death of a cell, which leads to hepatic damages. Not enough can be said about the health benefits you will enjoy by kicking the butt. The earlier it is, the better it will be for you.
3. Eating Junk Food Often
Our superbly busy and sedentary lifestyles, and stress eating are making us turn to fast food like never before. And, to put it lightly, this ever-growing habit is taking a toll on our health, including our liver health. Junk foods are overloaded with salts, sugars, and fats that wreak havoc in our bodies. There is no junk food that is an exception to this reality. So, the next time you reach out for your third packet of chips for the day or itch to order from that fast food joint that has opened up right across the street corner for the fourth time in a week, do a self-check and ask yourself whether you really need to ruin your health.
4. Not Drinking Enough Water
The adverse effects of not drinking sufficient amount of water every day is immense. The far-reaching effects show on your liver, lungs, and lungs, and can put other organs at risk too when you’re dehydrated. Water plays an indispensable role in removing waste from your body, easing and regularising bowel movements. This process is also responsible for regulating nitrogen and protein production. Excessive nitrogen is removed from the body to keep your organs healthy and in good health.
5. No Fixed Eating Schedules
If your eating schedule goes haywire pretty often, it’s another reason why you’re subconsciously inviting yourself for a possible liver disorder. And for all your busy peeps, working professionals and full-time homemakers, this perhaps happens quite often for you, more often than you possibly realise. Those meetings that get over-stretched beyond your imagination or running after your kids to feed them, somehow you give your health the last priority. And oh, skipping breakfast, can we ever forget to mention that! Irregular eating patterns are closely linked to fatty liver disease. To top that, eating too fast and eating late into the night can cause obesity – yet another reason behind liver damage.
6. Being Restricted Indoors Often
Sunshine and fresh hair has a myriad of health benefits and one of them is boosting liver health. Sunlight helps our bodies replenish vitamin D reserves, one of the many things that the pandemic deprived us of. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to low bile production, which in turn can develop into a liver disorder. If your life is restricted to the indoors for genuine reasons, which you cannot avoid, talk to your doctor, who is likely to prescribe vitamin D supplements to make up for the lack of it in your body.
7. Having Unprotected Sex
Hepatitis B, a viral infection (HBV), occurs as a result of unprotected sex. This can lead to complicated health problems like liver damage, liver failure, and even death in severe conditions. In fact, it is one of the primary causes of liver cancer, the second type of cancer that claims lives across the globe. HBV is transmitted through unsafe sex, sharing infected needles, or by birth. What’s more, you should also refrain from sharing personal items like toothbrushes, toiletry articles, and towels. Using a condom during intercourse has shown to reduce the risk of HBV significantly.
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