Tag: liver

St. Patrick’s Day Is Near: Time To Toast … Your Liver
THE TRENDS, TOP FOUR

St. Patrick’s Day Is Near: Time To Toast … Your Liver

St. Patrick’s Day is almost here, we have something to cheer over – our livers. If St. Patrick is celebrated for his unselfish commitment converting Ireland to Christianity, we should also celebrate the magnanimous dedication of our liver not only to process alcohol, but keep our whole body fed and alive. I am a biochemist, and every time I teach liver metabolism, I am in awe of all its accomplishments. Here are four reasons to be grateful to your liver. It metabolizes alcohol and other bad molecules The alcohol we consume can’t be directly excreted - it has to be transformed to be eliminated. Degrading alcohol is a multi-step process that happens in the liver, where cells metabolize it using a series of enzymes working in a tidy cascade of reactions. These enzymes will turn alco...