This Holiday Season, Give Thanks to Your Liver

It’s the OG detoxifier and so much more

Angela Lashbrook
Elemental

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Illustration: Tess Smith-Roberts

The liver is a beautiful color

A deep reddish-brown, its shade is reminiscent of rich leather, mahogany bookshelves, cigar papers. Its elegant appearance belies its purpose, which is to regulate chemical levels in the blood and excrete everyone’s favorite bodily fluid, bile. The liver also handles at least 500 other functions of which researchers are aware.

When we talk about toxins, we’re talking in large part about the liver. You can drink as much green juice and take as many detox supplements as you want, but if you’re not taking good care of your overall health, your liver will eventually feel it.

The holiday season, a time of equal parts joyous celebration and family-induced stress, is peak time for overworking your liver with alcohol and too much food. Yes, the body’s second-largest organ (after our skin) is a tough one, but if it fails, its jobs are difficult to outsource. A heart can be replaced by a pump, lungs can be assisted by a ventilator, but a liver is irreplaceable by anything other than another liver.

Luckily for holiday revelers everywhere, the liver is the salamander’s tail of the human body: It’s the only internal organ with regenerative abilities. Scientists…

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Angela Lashbrook
Elemental

I’m a columnist for OneZero, where I write about the intersection of health & tech. Also seen at Elemental, The Atlantic, VICE, and Vox. Brooklyn, NY.