Save Your Liver
-Richard Selzer
Summary:
Liver is the largest glad of our body
which weighs three to four pounds. It is divided into two great parts: right
and left, and two small parts: the caudate and the quadrate. It helps in
increasing metabolism and digestive function in our body. The tissues of liver
suck nourishments from blood vessels and transfer it to our whole body. Liver has
various functions in our body; however the main function is to produce a pint
of bile a day. Without liver we can’t digest any fat neither can we digest a
single raisin per day. This organ is granted to men to digest fatty substances.
If not digested, we would become irritated and our day becomes bad. The main
agent of such damage is alcohol so we need to stay away from this substance.
Man had started taking
alcohol from Neolithic Age or earlier for romance. They had taken it accidently
or by some curious fellow as fermented honey or mead at first as written in Beowulf. The euphoria of alcohol has
been becoming popular among humans though it has been constantly prohibited. It
has been thought that alcohol has ensured one of the parts of happy nature to
humans. Alcohol has been continuing from its first presence on the planet.
Our body is perfectly
suited for taking and utilizing alcohol. It seems that we are like alcohol
lamps but we want to devour alcohol too much. It is absorbed not only from the
intestine rather from stomach directly. It has been taken as inhalant by the
lungs and rectum as well. Once you have taken it into your body it is the duty of
liver to digest. The strongest liver can produce only one or two pint of bile in
a day which can digest only a less amount of alcohol. Remaining alcohol would
directly go to the bloodstream; then it goes to brain which gives happiness to human
id. It seems like wearing a hat of your
wife and roaming to neighbors’ houses of being joker. If you don’t take it in a
high amount, it won’t give happiness to you. Moderate drinking wouldn’t affect
anymore; or after sometimes the brain would come to the original or normal
state soon. Moreover, if there is hangover, the drinker will feel guilty.
A French physician,
Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec, described about the disease named cirrhosis
of the liver at the turn of the 19th century. The same gentle man
had invented stethoscope while listening the bosoms of his patients by his naked
ear. He had taken this idea from street urchins who played with rolled-up
paper. The entire medical personnel have given credit to him for creating
interpersonal distance. He had also found the autopsy of livers that were
yellow, knobby and hard. He had named it as cirrhosis taking help of Greek word
kirrhos that means tawny. Our liver
becomes yellow due to fat; it becomes hard due to scar; and it becomes knobby
due to the mound produces by scars. We have faced it in our daily life that
cirrhosis would cause by drinking alcohol.
Alcohol is metabolized
into the liver by alcohol dehydrogenase which transformed it into energy. However
people would ignore the fact that alcohol is poisonous to the liver when it is
loaded with fat. If more alcohol is consumed and more fat is deposited, it will
turn yellowish in color. If you take more booze (wine), liver will be loaded
with fat and it comes out from our belly. We can even feel it by our finger
protruding on the right side of the abdomen.
It can’t be understood
fully till today how the inflammation and scarring would cause cirrhosis. It
may cause from other factors rather than drinking. It is susceptibility. One of
the Jews claimed that they wouldn’t get cirrhosis as they don’t consume more
alcohol due to family ties and high motivation to survive. But Jews are the most
emancipated drinkers these days like the Irish and French. Still Jews don’t get
cirrhosis more though they drink alcohol. We can see this evidence in Israel.
Another measure of
susceptibility is those who don’t have hair on the chest. It would be in males;
but female don’t have hair on their chest. The women would be away from such
disease because they don’t have hair on their chest. The writer jokingly wrote
that hairless chest men and underwear manufacturers are the attackers of
cirrhosis. In the past, It was also thought that cirrhotic men lost their chest
hair; but it was wrong.
Some would argue that
climate affected it. The people who live close to the equator would have chance
to get cirrhosis rather than those who live away from equator. The quantity
which makes Norwegian little bit toxic would make the Indian madder.
The writer didn’t see difference
between the imbibers of alcohol and alcoholics. They both develop fatty livers
which is the precursor of cirrhosis. Only one martini can increase the level of
stain in our liver. It increases one half per cent of the weight of the organ
above normal three percent. Drunkards have got 25% more chance of dying by
cirrhosis in comparison to others. Some unalcoholists have also got such
diseases as well as some modest drinkers. There is no such measurement of the
purity of spirits consumed by any person. All sorts of drinking like beer,
whisky, and wine equally affect the person. No one would or could claim that
only a single item drinker doesn’t get it. The writer felt pity on them as they
have shown innocent nature regarding drinking. The effect of alcohol can have lessened
along with the time of drinking. On the other hand, cirrhosis is the disease of
forties or fifties. However, some of the younger people are also affected by
it. One of his patients was an eighteen years old girl who returned to her room
with a continuous supply of Thunderbird wine.
Nutrition is also one
of the factors of causing cirrhosis. Mostly drinkers don’t take protein because
they can’t digest it. We should think either the drinkers wouldn’t eat protein
or they can’t afford it. Mostly sick liver can’t handle protein.
Nitrogenous material of
protein would pass directly to the brain from cirrhotic liver when it couldn’t
digest protein. If cirrhotic can stop eating protein, s/he could improve brain
well. The case of Sir Andrew Aguecheek of Twelfth
Night was full of angriness due to the indigestion problem of protein.
A study report of
Chicago’s inhabitants observed that they had taken alcohol in various forms.
Among 3900 cases, only ten percent would die from cirrhosis. It means the alcoholics
have got ten percent more possibility of getting cirrhosis in comparison to
others.
There is a need to find
out which are in 10% among the affected persons so that others can enjoy.
Winston Churchill was one of the examples who consumed a fifth of whisky per
day but he lived 90 years. If anyone is transcendented or felt guilty of drinking,
s/he can regain the original condition of its color and size. He is in doubt
whether the spree drinkers would follow it and get rid of cirrhosis. Leaving
drinking would be like sin to those who have been drinking since long.
Construction of the
liver is like hexagonal tiles stick to the bathroom of first-class hotels. The
blocks are called as hepatocytes or cellular units of the liver. We can see
singular uniformity through microscope. They seem like the antlers of a buck
which make lovely structure like the maze of hallways and rectangular room. Two
types of blood vessels work with the liver: one brings food and toxins from the
intestine. Next delivers oxygen from the heart and the lungs. There is a system
of canaliculi that puts shame to the Greece and Rome. These canals carry the
bile to one of larger caliber. Ultimately they carry such bile to two large
tubes emerging from the undersurface of the liver. These two houses carry out
all the functions of the liver. Our meal is picked over, sorted out and stored
for future use in the cubicles. Starch is changed into glycogen and released
for energy when it is needed. Protein is broken down into building blocks of
amino acids. They would repair the dying old tissue of human body. They also
release vitamin and antibodies into the bloodstream. Liver is the other name of
busyness in our body. It helps to select the harmful toxic components like DDT
and alcohol and keeps in a secret closet or return back to the intestine for
excretion. It has also recycled the old blood cells and makes our body fresh
and active.
There is limit of the
liver. It will dysfunction along with the lunch that we have taken carelessly.
Unhygienic meal items like excessive fat would damage the liver. The
dysfunction would increase inflammation; it implodes and kills the cells. Then scar
would occur; that twists and disturbs the function of the liver. The blocks
couldn’t function well and avalanche would occur in it that disturbs absorption
and secretion. Gradually it would occur throughout the liver and liver turns
into useless mass of our body.
Then the bile is
obstructed and it will go to the bloodstream. It causes jaundice to a person.
Faces turns into toothpaste white and urine dark as wine. Our belly is full of
water from weeping liver like the royal servant who is capriciously victimized.
The entire body feels uncomfortable. Our palms turn red; blood vessels leap and
crawl from our skin and neck. Male’s breasts enlarge and testicles turn soft
and functionless.
The writer suggested us
to be happy to be away from cirrhosis. He gives an example of Prometheus. He was chained to a rock and his liver was
pecked by a vulture at day time and he would be recovered at night time. He was
a classical example of the regeneration of liver tissue. Humans also can
regenerate their damaged liver as well. It required avoiding alcohol from their
daily meal. The cured liver will regain the tissue damaged already. It will
recreate in a fast speed like the development of the ray of starfish from the
stump of the old. New channels would be formed; old ones would be repaired;
walls and roof would be maintained. The new house would be constructed soon
keeping away the terribleness of the affection.
The writer has given
suggestions to feel good being unaffected from cirrhosis. Sixty percent of
cirrhotic who stop drinking would be recovered within five years. It is unlike
brain damage which can’t be cured at any cost. However we can easily cure the
liver problem staying away from alcohol.
A.
Read the given text and answer the following
questions briefly:
1.
What is one of
the important functions of the liver?
The most important
function of the liver is to produce a pint of bile per day.
2.
How did man’s
romance with alcohol begin?
It was begun with
romance or accidental tasting.
3.
What are the
after-effects of consuming alcohol?
The after-effect is
damaging our liver seriously.
4.
What is the most
common cause of cirrhosis and what does a cirrhotic liver look like?
It is drinking or
alcohol. The cirrhotic liver looks like pale, swelling and heavy.
5.
What are the
links between the state of the liver and the kind of nutrition that one has?
State of liver and
nutrition is directly connected but over consuming of the alcohol damages it.
B.
Choose a, b, c and d the correct endings to the
following sentences:
1.
The liver can
oxidize only a very small quantity of alcohol at a time. The remainder is exhaled.
2.
The intake of
alcohol causes the liver to become loaded
with fat.
3.
Alcohol is not absorbed from the digestive system but
taken into the blood directly.
4.
Jews don’t get
cirrhosis easily because of their strong
family ties.
C.
Give the noun forms of the following adjectives:
Scrupulous =
scrupulousness affectionate
= affectionateness
Apologetic = aplogeticism complacent =
complacence
Introductory = introduction permanent = permanence
Dirty = dirt sympathetic
= sympathy
Flexible = flexibleness solitary
= solitarian
Playful = playfulness doubtful
= doubt
Equal = equality fluent
= fluentness
Intense = intenseness Enjoyable
= enjoyableness
Hostile = hostility Accidental
= accident
Elegant = elegance Humble
= humbleness -By
Prem Prasad Sigdel
No comments:
Post a Comment