Why does the liver hurt and what to do about it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Even a harmless itchy back can be a sign of serious pathology. Do not be too lazy to check.

The Liver is one of the largest Liver Deseases in our body. It helps to digest food, synthesize vital substances, and remove toxins from the body.

If the liver suddenly stops working, it will backfire with serious problems for the whole organism - up to and including death. The catch is this: sometimes it is difficult to recognize that the liver needs help.

Liver dysfunction is a common problem. In the US alone, Liver Pain affects at least 30 million people.

The life hacker figured out how not to miss dangerous symptoms and what to do with them.

Why you can't ignore the fact that your liver hurts

Let's say a very important thing right away. If you regularly feel unpleasant - pulling, spasmodic, painful - sensations in the liver, consider this a reason to immediately contact a hepatologist, gastroenterologist, or at least a therapist. Let us explain why now.

Here it is, the liver, in the picture below. Put your hand on your right side, covering your ribs with your palm, and with your fingers, pointing them towards the navel, hypochondrium - you have found it.

The liver itself cannot hurt Liver Pain - Causes & Location, even if it is really unwell: it does not have pain receptors. Usually, unpleasant sensations appear only when this or that disease has gone far enough. The liver swells, enlarges and presses on the walls of the surrounding membrane (capsule). There are already nerve endings in the capsule - this is how a feeling of heaviness or pain arises.

Once again: if discomfort appears in the right side and is repeated for several days or lasts longer than several hours, run to the doctor.

Perhaps you will not find anything serious. Maybe the cause of the discomfort will not be the liver: for example, stones in the gallbladder manifest themselves as painful (which is also dangerous). But this is the very case when it is better to overshoot.

What other symptoms of liver disease are there?

Pain in the liver area is an obvious sign. But not too frequent. Sometimes progressive diseases of this organ make themselves felt by discomfort in completely different places: for example, they are given to the front of the abdomen, lower back, and sometimes even to the right shoulder of Liver Pain.

And sometimes there is no pain at all. A person lives, not knowing that he is approaching cirrhosis at that stage, which medicine will no longer be able to cope with.

The sooner abnormalities in the liver are detected, the easier it is to restore it. Therefore, it is important to know other symptoms - direct and indirect. The combination of several at once is a reason to visit a therapist or hepatologist as soon as possible.

• Rapid fatigue, unmotivated fatigue for a long time - days, weeks.
• Weight loss, especially if it occurs without changes in diet or lifestyle.
• Regular nausea, dizziness.
• Decreased appetite, bitter taste in the mouth.
• Edema that regularly occurs in the ankle area.
• Increased incidence of bloating.
• Prolonged itching of unknown origin - the skin can itch in any area: on the back, chest, arms, legs.

And if, against the background of any of these symptoms, you find darkening of urine, stools that are obviously yellow or too light in color, yellowing of the skin and mucous membranes of the eyes, which suddenly become very sensitive (to painful) and soft stomach, a visit to a doctor should become an emergency one.

If you feel dizzy, dark in your eyes, it hurts, or you assess your condition as very bad, this is a reason to call an ambulance.

We can talk about a serious intoxication of the body.

Why does the liver hurt?

There are dozens of Liver Pain - Causes & Location diseases that can destroy this organ almost imperceptibly. Here are the most common ones.

Viral hepatitis

We are talking about liver inflammation caused by one of the hepatoviruses - A, B, C or D.

The most harmless of them (conditionally, in some cases it can also be fatal) is the type A virus, it is also jaundice or Botkin's disease. This is a classic "dirty hand disease": like other intestinal infections, it is transmitted through contaminated food, such as unwashed fruit or water. The main advantage of Botkin's disease is that it is obvious, preventable (there are vaccinations against the hepatitis A virus) and is most often curable without consequences for the liver.

Viruses B, C and the rarer D are much more serious things. They are transmitted with body fluids such as blood or semen. There are no vaccinations for them, the symptoms, as a rule, are erased, they can be confused with the usual malaise. In the meantime, these hepatoinfections in most cases become chronic. Ultimately, any of these hepatitis can develop into cirrhosis, liver failure, or even liver cancer.

Alcoholic hepatitis

Also inflammation of the liver, only it is caused not by a virus, but by alcohol. Regular and excessive alcohol consumption overloads the liver, destroys it from the inside and can eventually lead to cirrhosis (this is the name of a disease in which healthy liver tissue is replaced by scar tissue and can no longer perform its functions).

Other types of hepatitis

In addition to alcohol, too much medication or poisoning with heavy metals has a destructive effect on the liver. In such situations, they talk about drug or toxic hepatitis. It can also be autoimmune: when the immune system fails and attacks the cells of its own liver.

Fatty liver disease

Excess body fat is deposited not only at the waist and hips, but also around the internal organs. It can also accumulate in liver cells, increasing its size and interfering with its functions.

Liver abscess

An abscess (or cyst) is a pocket of infected fluid or pus that forms in the liver. It can be caused by bacterial, fungal, or parasitic infections. As a rule, such a disease is accompanied by an increase in temperature and quite noticeable discomfort in the liver area, so that it is difficult to view it.

Liver cancer

One of the most insidious diseases. A developing tumor often does not make itself felt until the cancer progresses to advanced stages. Oncology often imperceptibly "grows" out of chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis. That is why it is necessary to control the state of the liver - even if, at first glance, nothing hurts you.

What to do if your liver hurts

Let's repeat: try to get to the doctor as soon as possible. The doctor will listen to complaints, conduct an examination, feel the abdomen and, most likely, offer to do a blood test - the so-called liver function tests and a test for viral hepatitis. They will help you to roughly establish how healthy your liver is feeling.

Other research may be needed, for example:

• Ultrasound of the liver and biliary tract - to determine the size of the organ and possible damage;
• computed or magnetic resonance imaging;
• biopsy - a manipulation during which a piece of liver tissue is taken for laboratory analysis.

Further treatment will depend on the test results. Sometimes, to bring the liver to life, Liver Pain is enough just to make some lifestyle changes:

• lose weight;
• give up alcohol;
• switch to a healthy diet, reducing the content of fatty foods.

But not all liver problems are solved so easily. You may need medication or surgery. The final decision on how exactly to restore the damaged organ should be made only by a doctor. Do not self-medicate under any circumstances - it could cost you your life.