The liver is the body’s largest internal organ and one of the most important. It is located in the upper-right portion of the abdominal cavity, situated below the diaphragm and on top of the intestines, right kidney and stomach.
Like everything in the human body, the liver can become diseased. Early diagnosis and treatment of liver damage may mean the difference between a treatable disorder and a life threatening situation.
If you are wondering what signs can be seen or noticed when you feel pains in your liver, you can consider these signs.
1 Tiredness
Fatigue is hands down the most frequently experienced symptom of those suffering from liver disease and damage. It is important to note that a feeling of over and unwanted tiredness and fatigue can manifest itself not just physically, but mentally as well; and often both. While certainly a common enough symptom of liver damage, fatigue is a varied symptom associated with many ailments, including diabetes, heart disease and thyroid disease; so if experienced frequently, it is important to speak to your healthcare professional.
2 Bloating
While occasional bloating is normal, when you start to have real liver damage, an enlarged abdominal region is a major sign. This is caused by the liver enlarging because it is having trouble filtering what it needs to for you to be healthy. This condition is known to doctors as Ascites. The swelling is fluid building up in your liver because it does not have the ability to rid itself of proteins.
3 Nausea
Nausea is described as the sensation of an urge to vomit and most people are all too familiar with it and all of its unpleasantness. It can be short-lived or prolonged, and in the latter it can prove quite debilitating. There are many causes of nausea, from mental to physical, but in the case of liver damage, it most often occurs due to the lack of function on the part of the liver. Along with a feeling of lethargy and fatigue, nausea is one of the first symptoms of liver damage.
4 Edema
Edema is a fancy, medical way of characterizing a condition in which an excess of liquid collects in the various tissues and cavities of the body or to put it simply, swelling. When this swelling or edema is the result of liver damage, it most commonly accumulates in the abdominal cavity, known as ascites and in the legs, also known as cirrhosis.
5 Bruises
Bruises don’t heal as well and are easier to get if you are suffering from liver damage. If small bruises don’t heal within a week, then this may be a sign that something is wrong with your liver function. When your body receives an injury that causes a bruise, then your liver helps provide the proteins necessary for the bruise to heal promptly. When the liver is unable to produce these all important proteins, bruises heal very slowly or even appear to not heal at all depending on the extent the liver is struggling.
6 No appetites
If you are finding yourself unable to eat at meal times that you once enjoyed, then there may be an underlying medical reason for this. When the liver is struggling to keep your body free of accumulated toxins from your body’s natural processes, you won’t be as interested in food at mealtimes. Hepatitis is a fairly common liver disease that can be acquired through bodily fluids. There are various types of Hepatitis, with Hepatitis C being the one that causes the swiftest and rapid damage.
7 Swollen spleen
The spleen sits in the upper left corner of your abdomen behind the rib cages and is part of the lymph system that works as a drainage network in order to combat infection. While most of us don’t think about our spleen on a daily basis, it is still important to make a note if things aren’t working accordingly. Signs of a swollen or enlarged spleen include indigestion, weightless, pain and tenderness in the surrounding area and pain that has spread to the left shoulder.
