Science Smience......Your Liver. Why you gotta have it.

Ok so I'm gonna mention this from the aspect that we all know we need our liver, right?

I'm gonna go with the thought that we all want to live full healthy lives and that we really give a crap if one of our major organs gradually dies off due to overwork and poisoning. If this is not something you have thought of then I implore you to do so, and now!

Your liver has about 500 things to do on an daily basis besides trying to filter your poison habit. Because alcohol is an immediate danger it gets to go to the top of the list when it is present in your system. This leaves the other jobs on the back burner until toxins can be dealt with. Here are your liver's functions.

processing nutrients from food;

storing energy;

making bile to help with digestion of dietary fats;

filtering toxic chemicals and bacteria from the body;

helping with blood clotting; and

processing medicines.

Your liver is also the main place in your body where alcohol is broken down.
About 90-98% of alcohol is broken down by your liver. The other 2-10% is sent out in your urine, breathed out by respiration and sweated out. Alcohol is initially absorbed  by way of oral mucosa, stomach, and small intestine, and this is why you get an immediate effect from alcohol, because it absorbs quickly and goes straight to your head, literally!!! Once this happens, I don't know about you but all inhibitions are leaving me and I stop paying attention to how much I am gulping down.

 I like the way Dr. Oz says that your liver is like border police in that everything has to be inspected in order to pass through. Here is the breakdown of alcohol by the liver:


by www.mydr.com Your liver has to break down the alcohol to a less toxic chemical that your body can process and expel.

I know everyone has heard of a fatty liver.  THIS IS IMPORTANT SO PAY ATTENTION@!!!!

According to www.webmd.com:  This is a direct quote:

More than 15 million people in the U.S. abuse or overuse alcohol. Almost all of them -- 90%-100% -- develop fatty livers. 
Fatty liver can occur after drinking moderate or large amounts of alcohol. It can even occur after a short period of heavy drinking (acute alcoholic liver disease).

 So, if you think your helping yourself by just cutting back, or perhaps just binging occasionally, think again. It's all bad. Poison is poison.  By this way if you are young, you don't get a free pass, you can still damage yourself. It goes this way----fatty liver, then comes cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is death of the liver, where scar tissue forms. Those cells that are turned into scar tissue are done, there is no cure.  Let this soak in.... People that destroy their good liver don't get to the top of the transplant list easily, if ever.

About My Sobriety

First I want to thank publicly all the people I have conversed with since this blog began. I have met several people that are on this journey. Some that just began living a sober life and some that are not yet ready to give up the drink completely. If you're are not ready to let go completely then it is a good thing that you are realizing you are not ready. I am not a psychologist but it is general knowledge that if you are not ready to quit drinking alcohol, you won't. I was ready and will never take another drink. Don't get me wrong, I tried to stop drinking several times and fell back into the hell hole repeatedly. I don't need alcohol to be happy and in fact it is a depressant. I remember times when I dealt with my problems by taking a drink. Ok so I'm depressed so I'll medicated myself with a depressant. What kind of sense does that make? NONE

 Sometimes now I just break out in laughter for no reason! My husband thinks I have a screw loose. hahahahah see?

Moving on....I implore you if you are reading this blog right now, I suspect you are concerned if not downright worried that you have a problem. I am going to start reviewing some books that I have read that made me really think about what was very gradually and unsuspecting creeping up on me. They will make you laugh, cry, and relate. Some of these autobiographies I have read are of hard core alcoholics that waited until they were near death before they took steps to save their own lives. Many were trying to kill the memory of a past trauma by killing brain cells, or sedating themselves. Some lost families, loved ones, and jobs. These are all things that start out with just a cocktail at the end of a long day.....Think about it. 

To the right of this blog there is a link called Great Sober reads. There are self help books but also there is a book by Augustan Burroughs that is a great read called, "Dry." It is a great book to start with. I recommend the audio book because he himself is that narrator and it adds a great personal touch. The Audible link is at the top of the page.