Liver Problems & Symptoms

The liver is an organ about the size of a football that sits under your rib cage. It's vital for helping your body digest food and it provides nutrients and cleans your blood of toxins. Liver problems range in severity and cause and can be both inherited or the end result of toxins and chemicals introduced to your body. Depending on what your liver problem is, there can be a variety of symptoms.

Jaundice

• Jaundice is a common symptom of liver problems. Jaundice is a yellowing of the skin and eyes caused by an inability of the liver to process retired red blood cells. Essentially, when blood cells expire they become waste product, something known as bilirubin. When the liver has too much bilirubin to process or is unable to move it to the gut efficiently, that bilirubin creates a yellowing under the skin.

Abdominal Problems

• When you have a liver problem, there are certain symptoms you'll feel in the abdominal area. You may have pain and swelling on the upper right side of your abdomen. You may also experience nausea and, in more severe cases, vomiting.

Waste Product

• Because your liver is vital to the cleaning of your system and food digestion, it's not uncommon to see signs in the waste product coming out of your body. Urine will often appear dark and your stool could actually lose some of its color and come out pale. Your stool may also have blood in it or be tarry, which means that it comes out dark, even black.

Psychological Problems

• For some, especially in cases of acute liver failure, it's not uncommon to experience disorientation and confusion when the liver isn't functioning properly. This is caused by a condition called liver encephalopathy, which causes mental deterioration because of a build up of toxic substance in the body that the liver would normally dispose of.