The liver is situated on the right side of the abdomen just below the ribs and the diaphragm which separates the chest and the abdomen. It’s not only the largest gland but also the detoxifier of the human body. The various functions of liver include break down of food (including fats and nutrients), conversion of glucose to glycogen, producing urea, purifying blood from harmful substances, producing amino acids, storing vitamins and minerals and maintaining the glucose level in blood.

The liver acts as a detoxifier by filtering the wastes of the human body. Apart from various other reasons, any underlying condition can result in the non-functioning or poor-functioning of the liver usually causing pain in the liver. Moreover, liver pains are observed and in fact play a major role in a variety of conditions like Wilson’s disease, Gilbert’s syndrome and Hepatitis A, B or C.

Pain in the liver can be a part of our life due to a couple of reasons like fatty liver pain, liver cancer pain, cirrhosis or other chronic or acute diseases of liver. The most common cause of cirrhosis disease is Alcoholic abuse. The basic means of the inflammation of liver is when liver cannot filter poisons, drugs, toxins and these types of other doses in order to recover the body by flushing them out. Additional cases of liver damage include autoimmune deficiency, hepatitis, and even overuse of acetaminophen (Tylenol).

Where is liver pain felt?

Oh, that’s so easy to answer!!  Isn’t it? The obvious answer would be ‘in the liver’. But there is more to it than just ‘in the liver’.

Liver pain location: Liver pain is usually confused with abdominal pain, kidney pain or back pain due to its location. It is felt in the upper-right quadrant underneath the rib cage. Usually felt as a dull ache, liver pains can be sharp and in some cases, experienced along with back pain.

Fatty Liver Pain

When there is an accumulation of a large amount of fat in the liver, it results in swelling. This condition of swollen liver is known as steatosis. In steatosis, only presence of large amount of fat is noticed without any inflammation. However, when fatty liver occurs along with inflammation, the liver cells are damaged and this condition is known as steatohepatitis.

Diabetes, obesity and over-consumption of alcohol are known to be the major factors for fatty liver pain.

Swollen liver pain is caused by the expansion of the liver. As the liver expands, its membrane is stretched and the organ gets heavier. This results in abdominal pain which intensifies slowly if left untreated.

Causes of Liver Pain

There causes for liver pain are as different as its symptoms.

Steatosis, also known as fatty liver causes liver pain. The presence of excessive fats causes the liver to swell and this result in liver pain.

Diabetes type-2, hypertension and metabolic syndrome are some other medical conditions that are responsible for the pain in liver.

Enlarged spleen presses the liver causing liver pain.

Liver pain is also observed after drinking alcohol and it is among the most common factors for it.

Patients in the last stage of liver cancer undergo intense liver pain along with other problems like weight reduction, tiredness and lack of energy.

Other possible causes of liver pain:

• Biliary obstruction
• Bearn-Kunkel syndrome – liver pain
• Cholangitis
• Congestive cardiac failure
• CMV
• EBV
• Dubin-Johnson Syndrome – liver tenderness
• Fatty liver of pregnancy
• Drugs
• Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome
• Gallstones
• Hepatic vein thrombosis
• Hepatitis causes swelling of the organs and thus results in pain in the right rib (liver pain in right side).
• Hepatic abscess
• Hydatid cyst
• Hodgkin’s disease
• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• Liver abscess – tender liver
• Leukemia – tender liver
• Metastatic carcinoma
• Lymphoma
• Pylephlebitis – tender liver
• Mononucleosis – liver tenderness
• Schistosomiasis japonica – tender liver
• Schistosomiasis – liver tenderness
• Toxins
• Schistosomiasis mansoni – tender liver
• Weil syndrome – liver tenderness
• Tuberculosis
• VLCAD deficiency – Liver pain

Liver Pain Symptoms

Other than numerous other symptoms and signs, the initial symptom of liver pain is a sharp and dull pain in the upper right abdomen underneath the rib cage accompanied by a skin rash. Liver pain symptoms also include itching, pain while inhaling or coughing, difficulty in breathing, swollen testes, nausea, vomiting, brownish blemishes and spots over skin, dark circles under the eyes and yellow discoloration of the eyes like in jaundice. Abdominal swelling is also noticed even though there is a weight loss.

Liver Pain Treatment

Treating a liver pain is possible only by initiating with elimination of the possible causes of the disease. Taking the example, an alcohol or drug addict should quit alcohol and drugs completely before starting the medications. There are some possible treatments to get relieve from pain of liver:

• Sufficient hydration and electrolyte repletion
• Therapy must be preponderantly preventive, good sanitation, relying on clean drinking water, and appropriate personal hygiene
• It’s only advisable for those patients to be hospitalized who are unable to maintain oral intake
• Flagyl
• Antiviral agents
• Interferon alpha II b
• 3TC
• Entecavir
• Adefovir

Remedies and Alternative Cures for Liver Pain

• A few safer, simpler and easiest techniques to cure your liver -
• Water is very important for the human body and it helps to remove the toxins too, so it’s advisable to take at the least 8 glasses of water per day.
• Diet also plays a very significant role; try to switch your diet with some fresh fruits and pure juices, and fresh vegetables. Asparagus, plums, legumes, broccoli, and brown rice are also very effective particularly.
• Take supplementations of whole-food. As we all may already know that cirrhosis contains Vitamin B1 and it’s proven by almost all physicians that Vitamin B1 can be helpful to decrease glucose of blood levels found in the human body. Insufficiency of Vitamin A is also declared as the strong reason for the peoples who are suffering from the liver diseases, and Vitamin K is another proven advantageous thing as well.
• Linseed oil is very essential fatty acids helpful and required for the proper function of liver.
• To flush away the toxins from the body as quick as possible, Herbal detoxification can be a good way to do so.
• The above listed steps are practiced and recommended by a lot of doctors.

Liver Pain Do’s and Dont’s

Apart from the treatments and medications, there are some other things to be observed and avoided when suffering form liver pain.

A lot of people with damaged liver function have excessive protein in their body, which can build up extra-ordinary amount of ammonia in the body.

Alcoholic abusing is always said to be the one of the worst thing for the human body, don’t drink alcohol.

Do not take any type of medicines or drugs without the prescriptions of physician. Anything containing acetaminophen is hazardous for the liver patient, try to avoid it; it can be dangerous for the peoples suffering from such diseases.

Mostly, you can care your liver health by diet, supplements of whole-food, and through avoiding those things which can cause dysfunction of liver. Some of the conditions are non-reversible like cirrhosis and have a hopeless prognosis. Health is wealth, Take care of your health and liver now.

References:

1. http://www.mamashealth.com/organs/liver.asp

2. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec03/ch022/ch022c.html

Also Read:

• Right Side Abdominal Pain
• Upper Left and Right Abdominal Pain
• Biliary colic (Gallstones pain)
• Mouth Herpes
• Tay Sachs Disease

by Dr. Robert on 09. Jul, 2010 in Diseases and Conditions