3 Ways to Prevent Liver Problems with a Healthy Lifestyle

Following a healthy lifestyle will help you live longer and stronger. It can keep your organs safe, help them function well and protect them from getting affected due to a disease. However, the lifestyle practices involved in protecting every organ will vary.

The liver is one of the most important organs in our body. Let us understand 3 ways to prevent liver problems in the long term. Before getting started, let us briefly understand the liver's significance in our body and how it can get affected.

What is it Important to Protect Your Liver?

The liver is the second largest organ. It performs critical jobs in our body that relate to overall well-being. For example, the liver predominantly makes bile and builds protein to help absorb fat, store sugar, regulate hormone, clears any medication you have taken, removes toxins, and helps break down food to absorb nutrients.

Cirrhosis is a health condition wherein liver cells get replaced with scar tissues that prevent the liver from performing its normal routine functions. If the liver malfunctions, the extent of toxins will increase in your body, medications will prevail, and digestion of food will be affected.

Healthy Lifestyle to Prevent Liver Problems

A healthy lifestyle and a good routine can prevent your liver from getting affected effortlessly. Here are a few ways to do so.

• Have a healthy diet and exercise regularly - Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is one of the most common liver problems. It is caused due to excess fat being stored in the liver that can cause cirrhosis. A healthy diet with regular exercise and maintaining an optimum weight can help prevent liver disease. Here are a few foods you need to include and avoid for a healthy liver.
  
  

  • Include food items such as:
    
    

    • Legumes and whole grains rich in fibre
    • Fruits and vegetables
    • Coffee to lower the extent of abnormal liver enzymes
    • Green vegetables, beans and soy to protect the liver against the fat buildup
    • Fish and nuts to reduce inflammation
    • Garlic, turmeric, sunflower seeds

     

  • Avoid foods such as
    
    

    • Red meat
    • Alcohol
    • Added sugar and salt
    • Fried foods
      
      

  Consuming such foods good for the kidneys and liver can be highly effective with a regular exercise routine. Based on your daily routine, you can take a few minutes in the morning and evening to exercise and make yourself feel healthy and fit to let your organs function well.
  
  

• Avoid unnecessary medications for every illness or injury - Over-the-counter medications and certain prescriptions can affect liver health. Sometimes, an overdose of prescribed medications in the long term can affect your liver. For example, when you are getting affected due to a common cold, you can try certain homely remedies and get your body used to such treatments.
  
  

  While an antibiotic course can prove beneficial in relieving you from the common cold at that instant, in the long-term taking multiple courses can lead to liver damage. Therefore, try avoiding medications, and if it is of utmost essential, take only the recommended or prescribed dosage to prevent liver failure. In addition, viral infections such as Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, etc., can cause liver disease. Taking the required vaccinations and the treatments promptly can help you have a healthier liver.
  
  

• Avoiding excessive consumption of alcohol - Consuming excess alcohol is one of the most common causes of cirrhosis. It can affect your liver and, in the worst scenarios, can also lead to fatal incidences. The liver is an organ that is resilient and can regenerate itself. However, every time your liver filters the alcohol you consume, some liver cells get affected and die. The liver is capable of producing new cells.
  
  

  And excessive drinking can affect its regenerating capability. It can lead to permanent damage to your liver in the long term. But, how do you determine the extent of alcohol that is excess for your body? You can consult your medical practitioner, take a medical check-up and consider their advice on the consumption of alcohol. If you have been suffering from liver disease, completely avoiding the consumption of alcohol is highly recommended.
  
  
  

Following these methods to lead a healthy lifestyle can help prevention of chronic liver disease if followed religiously.

While such lifestyle practices can protect your liver from getting damaged, you cannot prevent it if it is due to a genetic disorder. For example, if your parents have been affected due to liver cancer, you can also get affected. In such cases, you can purchase family life insurance as a precaution. It will provide a sum assured to the family in case of the policyholder's death.

And, if your life insurance plan includes the critical illness benefit, it will provide an additional fund to pay for the hospitalisation and other medical expenses in case you get affected due to a critical illness such as liver cancer. In addition, you can purchase online life insurance to compare the policy features based on the cost. For example, when you purchase our Tata AIA life insurance plan, you can utilise the online premium calculator to determine the cost based on the sum assured and the policy tenure.

Conclusion

The liver is one of the most important organs in our body, critical to many bodily functions. Therefore, maintaining the best health is crucial. Understanding its significance and the causes that can affect its health will help you follow a healthy lifestyle that benefits liver health. Having a healthy diet, following a regular exercise routine, avoiding unnecessary medications and drinking alcohol can prevent liver damage. Finally, ensuring financial protection to pay for your hospitalisation expenses at any time for your liver treatment is essential!

L&C/Advt/2022/Jul/1540