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I am in nursing school, so this is my understanding of the liver. The liver is a large, vital organ that plays an active role in digestion/ metabolism and our circulatory system. It produces an enzyme called bile which helps with digestion of fats, but I think its most important role is the how it filters our blood of toxins. An instructor described it as a "pool filter, but for the body." We don't really worry about the pool filter when its working, but when it stops working the pool gets green, slimy, and smelly and then we know there is a problem. The liver is our filter and if it were not functioning properly we too would have the same problems... our bilirubin (which is dead red blood cells that are filtered by and excreted through the liver) then back up throughout the body and turn our skin a yellow or more bronze color referred to as jaundice. Also certain electrolytes and vitamins are absorbed and excreted through it so there would be an imbalance of them in a blood lab test. A good article to read about the liver was found in "Nursing Made Incredibly Easy" I don't remember which one, but you can Google it and search liver on the website. I hope that helped.

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15y ago

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