Herbal Health
Herbal Remedies Blog
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LIVER – DESCRIPTION
The liver is a remarkable organ. It is like a compact factory, performing a variety of seemingly unrelated tasks all at once.
The liver has an enormous reserve of function and a great capacity to regenerate itself, so it can stand a lot of abuse.
Worn-out red blood cells are broken down in the liver, their iron content stored for future use and the pigment excreted in the bile.
The bile runs down two ducts, one from each lobe of the liver. These ducts join and then a small side channel leads to the gall bladder. This hollow organ lies tucked under the liver and stores and concentrates the bile.
The gallbladder contracts, usually under the stimulus of a fatty meal, and the concentrated bile flows back into the common bile duct and down to run into the duodenum or first part of the small bowel. At the point where it enters the duodenum, it is joined by a duct carrying digestive juices from the pancreas.
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General health General health
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BOWEL CANCER – BLEEDING AS A SIGN
There are many normal bacteria present in the bowel, and many of these perform a useful function for the host.
They may produce certain vitamins which the host absorbs and uses.
The type of diet influences the type of bacteria present.
Some of these may act on the breakdown products of meat and fat in the diet and form cancer-causing substances.
Perhaps a high fibre diet, because of the bulk it produces, tends to dilute these cancer-causing chemicals — carcinogens — or else limits the contact between them and the bowel wall by hastening their progress through the gut.
A study in the U.S. shows a link between beer consumption and death from bowel cancer.
How beer drinking can lead to large bowel cancer is not clear.
Bowel cancer can occur in the young although it becomes more common after the age of 40.
Bleeding is the earliest and commonest sign.
Although bleeding may often be due to piles, all cases of bleeding need investigation, to exclude the possibility of cancer, as the two conditions may co-exist.
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General health General health