The liver is one of your vital organs, responsible for maintaining key functions throughout the body – and there could be telltale signs around your body that suggest it’s not working properly.
The liver is responsible for removing waste products and toxins, as well as converting food into energy, reports The Mirror. It means damage to the liver can have dangerous implications.
A health expert has now shared ways you can spot issues with your liver. And some might be in areas of the body you might not expect.
Dr Eric Berg, author of the The Healthy Keto Plan and known as The Knowledge Doc, has warned of the symptoms that could be found on the feet. In a YouTube video over 11 million subscribers, he said: “You can get a lot of clues by looking at certain parts of the body, especially the foot, to be able to understand what’s going on on the inside.”
These are five warning signs to look out for on your feet.
Red and brown spots
Dr Berg says this symptom is often associated with diabetes, but could also indicate liver problems. He said: “But if someone has cirrhosis or hepatitis or even a severe fatty liver, a lot of times the circulation is so bad in the lower part of their body you’ll see these little red and like kind of a rust colour brown, maybe sometimes scaly little dots or pigments that look a little bit like a bruising.”
He added: “So the liver has a lot to do with the clotting factors, vitamin K and when you lose the liver function you can have a lot of things like bruising and discoloured spots in different parts of your body.”
Itchy feet
According to Dr Berg itchy feet “usually” exist because that bile that’s produced by the liver is very very thickened. The bile then backs up into the liver and then backs into the blood.
He explained: “From the blood it backs into the tissues and that can show up as itching. I know some people that have this unbearable itching [in their] feet [that] drives them crazy all night long but they’re not making the connection. The problem is probably not in the foot, it’s in the liver. But it can also be a fungus growing on the foot. People with liver problems have more fungal infections not just on the foot but on the toenail as well.”
Spider-like veins
Spider-like veins are most commonly found around the ankles. However, Dr Berg said they can be found anywhere.
He said: “So this is a certain situation where the liver is no longer able to to regulate oestrogen so we have this unregulated excessive amount of oestrogen that floats around the body and oestrogen tends to vasodilate and kind of create this vascular pooling effect of your blood. The problem with having this extra oestrogen is that extra oestrogen can then damage the liver and create things like even a fatty liver and problems with your bile duct which could lead to gallstones.”
Dry and cracked heels
Dry and cracked heels are often a sign of a severe omega-3 deficiency. Dr Berg explained: “The liver makes bile and bile helps you break down and absorb fat soluble vitamins as well as fat soluble nutrients like the omega-3 fatty acids. But with poor liver function we don’t produce the amount of bile that we need to help to extract the omega-3 fatty acids. It can also be a vitamin B3 deficiency which could lead to pellagra.”
Toenail conditions
There are five toenail conditions that come with liver damage including dystrophic nails, onychomycosis, leukonychia, onychorrhexis and a club nail. Dystrophic nails are nails that are deformed and very thick. Dr Berg said: “It’s cracking, it’s distorted, it’s yellow. Sometimes it breaks off from the nail bed.
“It can be very uncomfortable with just a little bit of force and a person kind of stubs her toe and then the nail just starts breaking off. The nail bed just starts to break down because there’s this fungus invading and there’s a bit of a yellow colouring but that fungus is living off of your protein and the collagen in your nail,” he said.
Leukonychia is identified by white lines that go across the nail or little dots and onychorrhexis appears as vertical ridges that go up and down. Dr Berg said: “Both of those situations can be a liver problem also having a club nail could be a liver problem and in that situation it’s kind of an upside down spoon so you have this kind of a squarish very large kind of a bulbous nail that’s occurring on your foot or it could be in the hand.”