Why can the liver "remain forever young"? Scientists reveal its secret of immortality!

What is the youngest organ in the human body? You might not think of it as the liver. A new study has determined that no matter how old a person is, their liver is only three years old.

Why can the liver “remain young forever”?

A person's liver is only 3 years old throughout his life

Recently, a study published in Cell Systems, a subsidiary of the authoritative American journal Cell, showed that no matter how old a person is, the average age of the liver is less than 3 years old, and aging does not affect the renewal of liver cells.

The research was carried out by the Center for Regenerative Therapies at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany. A team of biologists, physicists, mathematicians and clinicians involved in the research analyzed the livers of many people who died between the ages of 20 and 84 and confirmed that no matter how old they were, the age of their liver cells was almost the same, all around 3 years old.

The findings suggest that the body's demands on liver mass are regulated by the continuous replacement of liver cells, a process that is maintained even in old age, which is important for aspects such as liver regeneration and cancer formation.

Liver cell renewal ensures 6 major functions of the human body

It is because liver cells have the ability to renew, repair and regenerate that they can continue to deal with toxic substances. Similarly, this also explains why liver transplantation can use only part of the donor's liver.

A strong liver usually ensures the operation of 6 major functions of the human body:

Production and secretion of bile

The liver converts the hemoglobin in the hemoglobin of aging red blood cells into bilirubin and secretes it into bile.

About 600 to 1000 ml of bile is continuously secreted from the liver every day and flows into the duodenum through the bile duct, helping fat digestion and the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.

Once bilirubin cannot be produced and excreted normally in the liver, it will accumulate in the blood and cause jaundice.

Metabolic function

Humans eat a lot of food every day. The proteins, fats, carbohydrates and vitamins in them must first be chemically processed in the liver to become nutrients needed by the human body and then supplied to life activities.

Detoxification function

The liver is the largest detoxification organ in the human body. It protects the body from damage and turns poisons into non-toxic or highly soluble substances that are excreted from the body with bile or urine. This is an important function in maintaining life.

Whether it is food or medicine, it is inevitably "toxic". Once the liver's detoxification ability decreases, the consequences will be disastrous.

Phagocytosis or immune function

The liver is the largest defense system in the human body, which protects health by engulfing, isolating, and eliminating various invading and endogenous pathogens. The maintenance and improvement of any immune ability must rely on normal liver function.

Coagulation

If people accidentally cut their skin while shaving or cutting vegetables, the liver will produce clotting factors to stop the bleeding. The liver is the site where many clotting substances are synthesized or produced.

Regulate blood circulation

Under normal circumstances, the intrahepatic venous sinuses can store a certain amount of blood. When the body loses blood, more blood is discharged from the intrahepatic venous sinuses to compensate for the lack of peripheral circulating blood.

These habits are shortening the life of your liver

Although the liver can "remain young forever", if it repeatedly suffers the following damage, its energy will be depleted, it will collapse prematurely, and eventually cause a variety of diseases.

Excessive drinking

Excessive drinking can reduce the liver's ability to purify blood, leading to an increase in toxins in the body and inducing liver damage. In addition, alcoholism can easily lead to liver poisoning and induce hepatitis.

Long-term excessive drinking can easily lead to cirrhosis of the liver. Drinking more than two glasses (25 ml) of high-concentration alcohol a day can damage the liver.

Taking medicine randomly

Many drugs and their metabolites can easily cause liver damage and lead to drug-induced hepatitis, including antibiotics, antipyretics, antipsychotics, etc.

Lack of sleep

Staying up late is most likely to cause liver disease. During sleep, the human body enters a self-repair mode. Often staying up late will not only lead to insufficient sleep and decreased body resistance, but will also affect the liver's self-repair at night.

Depression, love, anger

According to traditional Chinese medicine, anger hurts the liver, because the liver has the function of ascending and dispersing, and is responsible for the smooth flow of qi throughout the body. Anger causes qi to stagnate, and qi stagnation leads to all kinds of diseases.

Clinically, headache, dizziness, tinnitus, irritability, insomnia, mental confusion and other symptoms are common. Anger can also directly damage the liver parenchyma, destroying the liver's function of storing blood and regulating blood volume.

Overeating

Eating too much will increase the gastrointestinal burden and induce fatty liver. Overeating not only damages gastrointestinal health, but also easily causes an increase in free radicals in the body.

The key role of the liver is to help the body deal with free radicals, excrete toxins, and purify the blood. The more free radicals there are in the body, the more serious the damage to liver function.

Prefer fried foods

Studies have found that eating fried foods for just one month can cause significant changes in the liver, and the accumulation of fat and saturated fatty acids can lead to fatty liver.

Smoking

When too many free radicals in tobacco enter the human body and exceed the body's ability to eliminate antioxidant free radicals, it can lead to an imbalance in the oxidation-antioxidation system of liver tissues, causing oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation of cell membranes, causing tissue damage, necrosis, cell proliferation, and even fibrosis and cancer.

In order to maintain a healthy liver and give it sustainable repair capabilities, the following points must be achieved:

Weight loss and lipid reduction: Obese people with fatty liver should pay attention to adjusting their diet, preferably a low-fat diet, mainly vegetable fat, and limit cholesterol intake. Insist on half an hour of moderate intensity physical exercise every day.

Do not take large amounts of liver-protecting drugs: liver-protecting drugs only have an auxiliary therapeutic effect on the disease, they only treat the symptoms and not the root cause, and as long as it is a drug, taking too much will increase the burden on the liver.

Eat animal liver in moderation: In order to "replenish" the liver, some people choose to eat more animal liver, but this practice is not advisable. Animal liver has a high cholesterol content and may also contain toxins. Liver disease patients already have liver damage, if they eat too much animal liver, it will not protect the liver but hurt the liver.

It is recommended to control meat intake in daily diet and eat more foods that can enhance the liver's detoxification function, such as cauliflower, tomatoes, cucumbers, bitter gourd, carrots, etc.