system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How can the liver break down so many different chemicals?

The liver is where a lot of chemical compounds are broken down into useful or waste compounds. But how does the liver correctly handle so many different compounds? There are literally thousands and thousands of different compounds we can ingest, how do the liver cells know how to deal with each one correctly?
gpt
The liver has a lot of different enzymes and isoforms of those enzymes that takes care of most things we encounter in the world.  All these enzymes systems are in homestasis with your body at any given time. That said, there's only about 12+ or so reactions that take place in a biochemical system and your plethora of liver enzymes and their isoforms can cover most anything you can run in to. Problems occur when a toxin irreversibly binds to a specific enzyme and the regular ligand can't bind. An example would be cyanide which binds and enzyme in the last step of making ATP, the energy your cells run on. Basically the body runs out of ATP and its ability to make more and you die. Another way you can die is if you overwhelm a particular enzyme system by taking too much of a substance.  The liver is an amazing organ but we still need to take care of it. Avoid over doing on any substance, food or drug, including alcohol and you can live a full healthy life.