Your liver is one of the essential organs in your body. It does numerous functions to keep your body healthy. The liver’s main job is to filter the blood that comes from your digestive tract before distributing it to the rest of your body. It removes all the toxins from your blood supply and manages your blood sugar levels, ensuring it stays at a healthy level.
However, just like the other parts of your body, your liver can also be susceptible to damage. This happens when you work your liver too much by drinking heavily and following an unhealthy diet.
This leads to the liver developing health issues. Liver failure is a severe medical condition that can lead to major conditions like liver cancer.
If you’ve been experiencing some symptoms of liver failure, it’s highly advised that you book an online medical consultation immediately. Below are some common warning signs that indicate your liver might need medical attention.
1. Water retention (oedema)
This is the most common sign of liver disease that manifests in about 50% of patients with cirrhosis, a condition in which the healthy tissue in your liver is replaced with scar tissue that prevents your liver from working correctly. Water retention or oedema occurs when there’s a buildup of excess fluid within your body.
Ascites is the fluid buildup that mainly happens in your abdomen. The fluid that’s accumulated here can cause your gut to experience distension or your legs to swell.
If you experience constant swelling in your abdomen and lower legs, bloating, indigestion, and vomiting, you should consider consulting a virtual doctor in Singapore to check if you have ascites.
2. Yellow eyes or skin (jaundice)
Jaundice is another common warning sign of a damaged liver. Jaundice is the condition in which your skin, mucous membranes, and the whites of your eyes turn yellowish because of a high level of bilirubin, a dark yellow bile that’s primarily created when your body breaks down haemoglobin.
A healthy liver can dispose of bilirubin without a problem. On the other hand, when your liver is damaged and unhealthy, it can allow bilirubin to build up in your blood and cause your skin and eyes to become yellow.
In most cases, jaundice is considered a severe symptom of liver failure. You must immediately consult a doctor once this sign appears.
3. Abdominal or liver pain
Having a liver disease can make you experience constant abdominal pain or discomfort, which is usually related to swelling from water retention and enlargement of your spleen and liver due to cirrhosis.
The pain typically feels like a dull throbbing ache or a stabbing sensation in the right upper side of your abdomen.
If you always feel pain in the right upper quadrant of your abdomen, just below your ribs, it’s a signal that there might be something wrong with your liver that needs to be addressed immediately.
This chronic pain can indicate severe medical conditions, such as Reye’s syndrome, hemochromatosis, and liver cancer.
4. Confusion
Your liver’s inability to filter toxins can cause them to travel to your brain. This can result in a condition called “hepatic encephalopathy,” where the symptoms include confusion, memory problems, lethargy, and even coma. Hepatic encephalopathy is a nervous system disorder brought on by the severe liver disease.
Because hepatic encephalopathy is usually associated with advanced-stage liver disease, confusion is most likely not the first symptom you experience when your liver is damaged.
Instead, experiencing confusion can mean that your liver problem is already at a critical level. In such a case, immediate medical treatment is necessary.
Conclusion
Your liver has some of the most critical jobs in your body. It supports many body functions, including metabolism, digestion, immunity, vitamin storage, detoxification, and many others.
For this reason, you need to take good care of your liver by eating healthily and avoiding alcohol as much as possible. Knowing the warning signs of liver disease is crucial to maintaining and restoring your precious liver’s health and proper function.
If you suspect you’re at risk of liver disease, you should immediately book an online medical consultation in Singapore for a proper diagnosis.
Fortunately, medical consultations are now made more accessible and quicker with the help of MyCLNQ, the most reliable app for telehealth in Singapore. You can already book a digital appointment with a professional and trusted doctor in just a few clicks. Download our app today to access the medical conveniences today.