Why Fish Should Be On Your Diet List?

Fish, like salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna, that high in omega-3 fatty acid is good for the heart because omega-3 fatty acid could reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Perhaps this is why American Heart Association (AHA) advice people to eat at least 2 servings of fish a week.

Despite concerns on the impact of increased exposure to mercury in fish, Swedish researchers from Umea University in Sweden argued in their paper published in November 2010 in ‘American Journal of Clinical Nutrition’ that the benefits of consuming fish still outweigh the harmful effects of mercury. However, they also advised people to avoid eating fish high in mercury, which include perch, shark, swordfish and halibut.

More than 900 Swedish men and women took part in a study that required them to answer questionnaires about the amount of fish in their diet. Their mercury and selenium levels in red blood cells were analyzed.

While the mercury levels were generally low for Scandinavians, participants who had higher mercury level in their red blood did not have a higher risk of cardiac problems. It is possible that the protective nutrients in fish offset any harmful effect of mercury at these low levels of mercury, as explained by the researchers.

Meanwhile, the researchers admitted that relying on the participants’ memories on the amount of fish consumed could have drawbacks as this could have an impact on the results obtained. They also highlighted one finding from their study: participants who had elevated traces of selenium in their red blood cells appeared to have higher risk of sudden cardiac death.

Selenium is a trace mineral that is essential to good health but only small amounts are needed. It appears to act as an antioxidant that can reduce risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Nevertheless, previous findings on effect of selenium on heart were mixed. Several studies suggested risk of heart disease and stroke might be reduced by about 40 percent by an added 100 mg per day of dietary selenium. On the other hand, a study by researchers from University of Warwick found that total cholesterol levels increased by 8 percent with an increase of 10 percent in LDL (so called bad cholesterol) in participants having more than 1.2 mol/L of selenium in their blood, leading to increase in risk of cardiovascular disease.

As such, the Swedish researchers felt that the health effect of selenium should further be probed.

Weight Loss Could Help Ward Off Diabetes!

Insulin resistance sometimes combined with absolute insulin deficiency cause Type-2 diabetes to develop. Insulin resistance is a condition in which cells cannot use insulin properly. Type-1 and gestational diabetes are the other two main types of diabetes.

Of the many risk factors identified for Type-2 diabetes, obesity, sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits are somewhat associated with weight gain. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, family history and genetics, and increased age can also raise the likelihood of getting Type-2 diabetes.

A study conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that Type-2 diabetes could possibly be reversed if obese diabetics go for a weight-loss surgery. Their findings published on August 16, 2010 in the medical journal, ‘Archives of Surgery’ indicated that 75 percent of obese diabetics who had undergone weight-loss surgery (bariatric surgery) could actually stop taking diabetes medications within 6 months of their operation.

Researchers carried out one of the few studies examining how surgery can affect health cost in Type-2 diabetics by analyzing insurance claims data from 2,235 patients who underwent bariatric surgery during a 4-year period.

The results showed that among the diabetic patients who had bariatric surgery, only one quarter were still taking diabetes drugs 6 months later. In fact, the number kept falling: 12 months after the surgery, less than 20 percent of patients were taking medications and 24 months after surgery, only 15 percent were still been prescribed with medications.

It has long been known that diabetes and obesity can rarely be reversed once they are developed. This is definitely good news for obese Type-2 diabetics since the need for chronic medications can be eliminated and the overall medical cost could be reduced too. More importantly, this can greatly reduce the risk of developing heart considering the fact that diabetes is a risk factor for heart disease.

Nevertheless, it seems that bariatric surgery would be the only solution that most of the obese diabetics can opt for in order to substantially reverse both obesity and Type-2 diabetes, at least for the time being until experts can find a successful non-surgical methods.

Liver - Development

In the fetus, the liver develops from the hepatic diverticulum, and draw blood from the arteries that carry blood from the vitelline yolk sac. Top diverticulum causes hepatocytes and bile ducts, the lower the gallbladder with cystic duct.

During fetal development, the main source of blood to the liver is the umbilical vein that transport nutrients to the fetus. The umbilical vein enters the abdomen at the navel and moves next to the free end of the falciform muscle on the bottom exterior of the liver, where it joins the left branch of portal vein. Ductal Aranza brings blood from the left branch of portal vein branches of the left hepatic vein and then into the lower vein vein so that blood from the placenta to bypass the delivery of the fetus.

Liver in the fetus develops during pregnancy and do not perform the normal function of blood purification. The activities associated with digestion, because the fetus is fed directly from the mother's bloodstream through the placenta. Releases fetal liver stem cells migrate to the thymus and fetal red blood cells and T cells after birth, the shift of stem cells in bone marrow.

Within five days after birth, the umbilical vein and ductus venosus closes first, Teresa and the ligamentum venosus ligament seconds. In the case of cash or portal vein hypertension, the umbilical vein again.

Liver Diseases

Nmerous liver diseases are accompany by jaundice caused by augmented levels of bilirubin in the body. Bilirubin is the result of degradation of hemoglobin of dead red blood cells are normally removed by the liver and excreted in bile.

• "With hepatitis, inflammation of the liver, is caused by different viruses, but also some toxic substances, autoimmune diseases and inherited conditions;

•Liver cirrhosis is the formation of fibrous tissue in the liver to kill hepatocytes, respectively. Liver cell death caused by viral hepatitis, alcohol poisoning or other toxic substances;

• With Hemochromatosis is an inherited disorder that causes iron accumulation in the body, leading to long-term liver damage;

• Benign tumors such as adenoma, "angioma" focal nodular hyperplasia.
liver cancer as the primary tumor or carcinoma cholangiocarcinoma, or metastasis of cancer to other parts of the digestive system;

• Wilson disease is an inherited disorder that causes copper accumulation in the body;

• Primary sclerosing cholangitis, an inflammatory autoimmune disease carries bile;

• Pime biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune disease of minute rage ducts;

• Budd-Chiari syndrome or hepatic vein obstruction;

• Gilbert's syndrome, a genetic disorder of bilirubin metabolism.

There are also many pediatric liver disease. proper liver function can be verified by a number of specialized clinical studies, which measure the presence or absence of typical enzymes, metabolites, or substances associated with the regular activities of the

liver diseases

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Liver Physiology

Liver functions were performed liver cells to hepatocytes.
• The liver produces and secretes bile, used to emulsify fats. Part of the bile is poured directly into the duodenum, the part stored in the gallbladder.
• liver performs many functions in carbohydrate metabolism:
• gluconeogenesis or synthesis of glucose from certain amino acids, lactic acid or glycerine;
• glycogenolysis and the formation of glucose from glycogen (also occurs in the muscles);
• glycogen, or glycogen from glucose;
• destruction of insulin and other hormones;
• protein metabolism.
• Liver is also involved in lipid metabolism:
• There is a synthesis of cholesterol;
• the synthesis of triglycerides.
• hemoglobin, the liver breaks', creating metabolites that are added to bile as pigment.
• liver breaks highly toxic substances and various drugs in a development called drug metabolism. This process can lead to poisoning, when the metabolite is more toxic than its predecessor.

• The liver converts ammonia "in the bridge.
• liver serves as a repository for numerous substances, as well as glucose (as glycogen), vitamin B 12, copper and also iron.
• In the fetus until the third month, the liver is the major site of production of red blood cells are replaced in this capacity from bone marrow at 32 weeks of pregnancy.
• liver reticuloendothelial system contains highly specialized cells of the immune system as "filters" against anti carried by the portal vein system.

Currently there is no artificial organ able to emulate all the functions of the liver. Some of them are emulated by liver dialysis , an experimental treatment for severe cases of liver failure.

Detoxification
One of the main activities of the liver is the detoxification of the body of toxins, wastes and other harmful elements. The most important of these shares Detoxifying is the transformation of ' ammonia present in the blood (toxic substance derived from proteins ) in a substance tolerable at higher concentrations, the ' urea . The urea is then pumped back into the blood.

Relations with other bodies
The cytologic features of hepatocytes reflect the detoxifying function of the gland. They already have an endoplasmic reticulum smooth high abundance. Quest'organulo fact, in addition to chairing the synthesis of some steroids is intensely involved in the activity of its detossifacazione of potentially harmful or foreign molecules (alcohol, drugs, etc.).

Liver Physiology

Liver Physiology

Liver Cells

The four major cell types that are found in the liver are hepatocytes, stellate cells, sinusoidal endothelial cells and Kupffer cells.

Hepatocytes are the most numerous cells of the liver, represent 80% of the volume and about 60% by number. Their shape is multifaceted, with a number of areas ranging from six to twelve, their diameter ranges from 20 to 30 microns. They are often multinucleated and tetraploid, with the number of cores that can be up to four, a large nucleolus, rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum well developed, numerous cisternae of Golgi, ribosomes, lysosomes, mitochondria, peroxisomes, which are both one of the cell types in which the organelles are more developed and presented, due to the high metabolic needs and the wide variety of tasks which they perform.

In a well-nourished body is not difficult to detect moderate amounts of glycogen and lipid vacuoles, or in the case of an overdose of iron, vacuoles or aggregates of ferritin and hemosiderin. The cytoplasm is eosinophilic background for the large number of mitochondria but with numerous basophilic granules due to the rough endoplasmic reticulum and ribosomes. You can find lipofuscin granules of golden-brown. The pole is fitted with sine dell epatocita many long and irregular microvilli on average 0.5 microns, the surface area alone is equal to 2 / 3 of the entire cell. Two adjacent hepatocytes form their plasma membranes with the bile canaliculi and are joined by tight junctions to prevent the entry of bile into the interstices, in the rest of the cell are the most common desmosomes and gap junctions. At the level of bile canaliculi accumulating numerous exocytosis of vesicles containing precisely to secrete bile into canaliculi.

Liver Cells

Ito or stellate cells, mesenchymal and far fewer of hepatocytes, are placed between the plates at the base of hepatocytes, and have a star-shaped or irregular. Their cytoplasm is rich in lipid vesicles containing vitamin A, and their job is to secrete the main constituent materials of the matrix, including type III collagen and reticulin. They are essential in liver regeneration following injury or surgery because they secrete growth factors responsible for good regeneration capacity of the liver. In case of injury can replace damaged hepatocytes and by the secretion of collagen and other structural proteins, forming scar tissue from the area 3 of each berry. Other substances secreted from their body contribute to homeostasis.

Liver Cells

Sinusoidal endothelial cells are fenestrated endothelium of venous sinusoids of the liver. They have flattened, with an oval centrally located, scant cytoplasm containing numerous vesicles transcitotiche, are joined by adherens junctions. The perforation between these cells are very large and combined in complex with an average diameter of 100 microns, so that blood can easily spill over the space of Disse and come into contact with the microvilli of hepatocytes.

Liver Cells

Kupffer cells, macrophages of the liver, are derived monocytes, they are in the lumen of the venous sinusoids. Their shape is variable and irregular, with numerous protrusions typical of cells of the macrophage that extend into the lumen of the sinusoid. Their function is to remove any debris by phagocytosis in the blood flow in the liver, but may also stimulate the immune system through the secretion of numerous factors and cytokines. Remove aged or damaged red blood cells acting as a complement to the spleen (which may be substituted in case of splenectomy).Liver Cells

Liver - Microscopic Anatomy

General structure
The liver is covered (except for bare triangular area on the upper surface) from the visceral peritoneum, consisting of the mesothelium, a single layer of surface cells and underlying tissue extraperitoneal. It is also completely surrounded by loose connective tissue component of the capsule of Glisson, who is also the neurovascular bundle at the hilum. Out from it and trabecular connective tissue septa that penetrate the liver parenchyma, dividing it in the portal tracts. Within each area there is a branch of the portal vein, a hepatic artery, a bile duct (portal triad) and often also small lymphatic vessels and nerve branches.

The parenchyma is composed of plates instead of the complex three-dimensional structure and consist of a single layer of cells, or hepatocytes, the major liver and those that perform almost all of its metabolic functions. Each layer of hepatocytes is separated from each other by a venous sinusoid, resulting from the branching of the portal vein which runs in the portal space. It takes up space portal to centrilobular vein. Hepatocytes do not adhere to the venous sinusoids, but are separated by a small intercellular space dilation in pathological conditions (0.2-0.5 μm), said space of Disse.

In the space of Disse contains mainly fibers of collagen type I, III and IV and there protrude dell'epatocita the microvilli and the nerve endings. There is considerable scope for exchange between hepatocytes and sinusoidal veins or because of the greater absorption surface provided by the microvilli at the beginning, that the fenestrations present in the venous sinusoids. Among un'epatocita and the other (on each side of the cell) are those small showers bile canaliculi, so that each hepatocyte is almost surrounded it. The canaliculi drain into bile ducts of greater size, the canals of Hering, in turn these bile ducts of the portal triad, and these drain the bile ducts in the liver and then in the bile duct.

The ramifications of the hepatic artery are divided further into capillaries which then convey the blood into the venous sinusoids, or the same arterial branches converge in the sinusoids, so that the hepatocytes maintain a mixed blood of the arteries and veins. Centrilobular veins unite in the veins of higher caliber, the interlobular (placed between the liver lobules), which in turn drains into the hepatic veins and those in the inferior vena cava. One of the functional units of the liver, the largest in scale, is the liver lobule.

This is a pseudo-hexagonal-shaped structure (tends to be more regular in other animals not humans) whose skeleton is represented by plates of hepatocytes separated by sinusoids resulting from venous branch portal vein. The edges are not restricted to radially expand from a vein tax centrilobular hepatic veins, but have branched structures in three dimensions and difficult to schematization. Each lobule is surrounded by thin connective tissue septa, and every "corner" opens a portal triad. Smallest functional unit of the liver lobule is the liver acinus. A berry is a section of liver parenchyma oval shape, whose axis connects two centrilobular veins and less about one side of the hexagon formed by the liver lobule. Each berry is divisible by a functional point of view into three zones.

Zone 1 is defined periportal, and is the closest to the branching of the portal vein and the terminal branches of the feeding vessels, its major axis joining the two branches portals, the child is little depth in the parenchyma of the lobule. Zone 2, intermediate level, is a triangle that includes only the parenchyma of the lobule in its middle portion, zone 3, centrilobular, centrilobular vein is approaching and it includes a commission. The berries thus assumes an oval or diamond shape.