NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 1993 May / Jun Vol II No 3.
Dr. Manu Kothari
We are pretty close to the end of the second millenium post Christ. The liver has been the subject of human scrutiny from 3000 BC and before. Yet, the 5000 years of its study have made us know that we know naught save its spelling and the rather uncomfortable fact that liver-wise, pancreas-wise, insulin -wise etc. mankind is closest to the pig. On the one hand such closeness explains the incurable pigheadedness of man; on the other hand, our selflessness with the pig explains the puranic wisdom in the concept of Varahavtar.
"The liver is a much more complex organ than the heart or kidneys and nobody is likely to devise a machine to takeover its many functions". Modern medicine prides itself over having invented the artificial heart. But both these are as close to the original as is the picture of Mahatma Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi himself. How many people, much less patients, know that an artificial kidney creates far more problems than it solves? Regardless, medical man has started bragging about the artificial life, clearly a reflection of the undiminishing hubris and arrogance of modern times.
The wonder thats liver, is gleaned from its miracle-worker the liver cell, its vascularity and ventilation, its reserve and repairability, its vulnerability to viruses and parasites and its serene nonchalance to the entire pharmacopoeia.
The liver-cells or the hepatocytes constitute as a unit, 60 percent of the cells and 80 percent of the volume of the liver. It is distributed universally in the animal kingdom including the insects. In terms of structural and functional complexities, biochemical genius and metabolic marvels, it surpasses all the man-made laboratories put together. No metabolic component or end product, drug or diet escapes its analysing, synthesising, altering binding and storing surveillance. How many of us know that it is important even for storing water? Wingate, quoted earlier, can be requoted - " In several ways, the liver is essential to life. The most urgent is keeping a steady concentration of glucose in the blood to replace what is consumed as fuel. The brain keeps no stores at all and quickly dies if supplies from the liver are cut off". No wonder that the old English synonym of liver is lifer and Malyne who is of the opinion that life and liver have the same etymology.
The liver is so vascular that it could be looked upon as a lake of blood that has configured itself into the shape of the liver. Eighty percent of his lake is nourished by a vein - the portal vein and only 20 percent by the hepatic artery. Between the two, the former is indispensable. The latter could be done away with, without the loss of liver or live-r.The liver derives its oxygen mainly from the already deoxygenated blood brought by the portal vein. What special enzymatic machinery enables th liver to do this miracle is a mystery that future studies shall reveal.
We are gifted, each one of us, with five times the liver mass we need for a healthy being.Experimental ablation of 4 / 5the of the liver is compatible with life and before you say Jack Robinson, the stump left behind replicates itself to make good the loss. It is this tireless repairability of the liver that allows many a connoisseur to drink merrily into the nineties without turning cirrhotic. Viva la liver!
Bacterial infections rarely bother the liver but viral infections do. All viral hepatitis run their idiosyncratic course forcing the physician to be a mere witness. Amoebiasis, malaria, worm infestations do attack the liver now and then and drug therapy is mandatory and effective.
For most of the liver problems however, no drug is the best drug, for the liver is not used to being dictates of any drug. It is a self regulating, self-curing marvel that by and large, never lets down the live-r.