liver and gallbladder disorders
Liver
Functions of the Liver
The liver manufactures about half of the body's cholesterol. The rest comes from food. Most of the cholesterol made by the liver is used to make bile, a greenish yellow, thick, sticky fluid that aids in digestion. Cholesterol is also needed to make certain hormones, includingestrogen,testosterone, and the adrenal hormones, and is a vital component of every cell membrane. The liver manufactures other substances, including proteins needed by the body for its functions. For example, clotting factors are proteins needed to stop bleeding.Albuminis a protein needed to maintain fluid pressure in the bloodstream. Sugars are stored in the liver as glycogen and then broken down and released into the bloodstream as glucose when needed—for example, during sleep when a person spends many hours without eating and sugar levels in the blood become too low. The liver also breaks down harmful or toxic substances (toxins) absorbed from the intestine or manufactured elsewhere in the body and then excretes them as harmless by-products into the bile or blood. By-products excreted into bile enter the intestine, then leave the body in stool. By-products excreted into blood are filtered out by the kidneys, then leave the body in urine. The liver also chemically alters (metabolizes) drugs (see Drug Metabolism ), often making them inactive or easier to excrete from the body. 