The Human LiverThe liver is the largest internal organ in the human body. It is essential to almost every biochemical pathway related to blood and metabolism, and is the major detoxification organ of the human body, and other vertebrates. The importance of this organ can only be measured by the fact that we cannot live longer than 24 hours without it functioning. So, why is it so essential to life?
What exactly do we need to know about this essential organ to understand the impact it has on your life and health? 
It is located on the right side of the body, directly beneath the diaphragm. It is a large, four lobed organ with an overall triangular shape.
The liver's primary function is essentially filtering and modifying blood constituents and chemicals, and at the same time forming bile which aids in the digestion of fats by emulsifying the fats which are consumed and travel through the intestines. Some of its major actions of the liver are directed towards the contents of the blood and serum. It has an overall net-like network of tiny capillaries which are surrounded by cells. As the blood travels through these capillaries, the cells take up chemicals from the blood in order to form amino acids, glucose (glu-kose), and glycogen (gly-ko-gen). The process during which it forms glucose from blood borne compounds is known as gluconeogenesis (glu-ko-ne-o-gen-e-sis) and the formation of glycogen from glucose is known as glycogenesis (gly-ko-gen-e-sis). Glycogenolysis (gly-ko-gen-ol-y-sis) is the breakdown of stored glycogen into glucose. Glycogen is the body’s method for storing glucose for later use, and the body will break it down into glucose when the blood glucose level is low. These functions, along with the formation of triglycerides, are considered major energy metabolic functions. The other major essential functions include the breakdown of chemicals in the blood. These chemicals can be anything from the normal diet to prescription drugs. It also transforms serum ammonia to urea so that it can be secreted by the kidneys and produces albumin and many of the essential coagulation factors found in the blood, which protect you from bleeding to death when cut. It performs over 500 functions and produces over a thousand essential enzymes. There are no machines that can do what this vital organ does. The only way to manage end stage liver disease is through a transplant.
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