It's Liver Awareness Month!

October is National Liver Awareness Month and I say we should all join in the fun. We're all about liver awareness in our house, given that I have Hepatitis C and had a liver transplant three years ago. But in all honesty, I didn't know much about the liver and it's critical functions until mine broke. These days, I know some liver stuff, even a few doctor-y liver words, so let's mark this occasion with some Interesting Liver Facts:

The liver...
* Is the body's largest vital organ
* Filters toxins from blood - more than a liter every minute
* Performs over 500 different chemical functions
* Regulates glucose
* Is about the size of a football
* Weighs about three pounds in the average adult
* Can regenerate itself, in some cases

Livers do all this and much, much more, yet let's be honest - livers aren't sexy and don't nearly get the attention that other organs receive. But we can't live without a liver and need to take good care of them so they'll last a lifetime (mine didn't and getting a new one was a pain, literally and figuratively!).

Be good to your liver - no drugs, watch alcohol intake, eat a healthy diet and get vaccinated whenever hepatitis vaccines become available (Hep A and Hep B have vaccines now; they're working on one for Hep C and other letters of hepatitis).

Also, please be an organ donor and donate blood. The life you save could have been mine.

Photo by Chance Agrella