How Much Do You Know About the Signs of Liver Failure?

In people who frequently imbibe, the liver's healthy tissues are replaced by scar tissue. This disease, called cirrhosis, dramatically alters the liver's ability to perform its vital work.

Too much booze can cause a fatty liver, a precursor to much more serious liver disease. The good news? If your doctor recognizes your fatty liver, you can reverse the problem by altering your lifestyle.

Both variants of the hepatitis virus can cause liver cancer. Each year, perhaps half a million people die due to liver cancer caused by the hepatitis viruses. Hundreds of millions of other people are (often unknowingly) infected with hepatitis.

In the most general sense, liver failure is a condition in which the liver stops functioning properly. It can occur in both people and animals.

People who suffer from cirrhosis sometimes develop horrific abdominal swelling. Their torsos may look grotesquely distended and swollen.

As liver disease worsens, the liver loses its ability to create sufficient blood-clotting chemicals. As a result, some people develop abnormal bleeding or bruising.

Liver disease is a sneaky-scary affliction. As your liver deteriorates, it loses its ability to filter toxins, which then build up in other vital organs like your brain.

The liver is one of the body's most important organs. It filters toxins out of your blood, and it also helps you to fight off infections.

Both hepatitis B and hepatitis C are major causes of chronic liver failure. Hepatitis C is common in intravenous drug users. The "B" version can be spread through contact with infected bodily fluids.

Fibrosis is the name of the condition in which your liver's tissue becomes scarred. If you don’t stop the process of fibrosis, things can get ugly for your liver … and for you, too.

The kidneys, another major filtering organ, often fail once the liver has failed. People who suffer both liver and kidney failure are in dire straits, indeed.

As cirrhosis ravages a liver, it causes the buildup of scar tissue. Scar tissue blocks blood flow, causing the equivalent of circulatory gridlock, which then leads to ruptured blood vessels.

Acute liver failure sets in quickly and often for hard-to-understand reasons. If doctors can't get the situation under control, the condition can be fatal.

In some cases, it's possible to slow or even stop cirrhosis. For many people, this means a serious change of lifestyle, such as giving up alcohol.

With acute liver failure, sufferers often feel very, very sick, with symptoms like nausea, tiredness and loss of appetite. Those symptoms are in no way unique to liver failure, which is why the condition is often baffling until doctors make a solid diagnosis.

Scar tissue literally scars your liver, reducing your liver's capabilities. It reduces your liver's blood flow and overall functionality.

Acute liver failure is a major meltdown in the human body, and it causes a chain reaction that can affect even a person's behavior and personality.

There are two major categories (and perhaps three, depending on whom you ask) of liver failure. They are chronic liver failure and acute liver failure.

No, your eyes won't turn black. But cirrhosis has plenty of other ominous symptoms, such as yellowish skin and intense itching.

Only if you want to live. Acute liver failure is a life-threatening disease. If you're not in the hospital for treatment, your life may be at serious risk.

Common acetaminophen (like Tylenol) is an over-the-counter painkiller that's extremely harmful during an overdose. This drug is the most common cause of acute liver failure in the U.S.

People who have acute liver failure have lost at least 80 percent of their liver's function. This is obviously severe damage, and it can quickly become fatal.

Choose your wild mushrooms with care. Eating toxic mushrooms can body slam your liver, resulting in acute liver failure … and potential death.

Excessive alcohol consumption is often to blame for chronic liver disease. People who suffer from alcoholism frequently develop liver disease, and in some cases, it can kill them.

This one is false. Alcoholic hepatitis is the initial inflammation of the liver caused by excessive drinking. It's a condition that sometimes leads to cirrhosis.

Acute liver failure is scary in large part due to the speed of progression. Patients who were healthy one day may spiral into liver failure in just days or weeks.

In the earliest stages of liver disease, the liver becomes inflamed. It’s a sure sign that your liver is under attack in one way or another.

It's common for people to notice when certain parts of their bodies are inflamed. But with liver inflammation, there's a good chance that you'll never feel a thing.

Overall, end-stage liver disease (or terminal liver disease) is just outside the top 10 most common killers in the U.S. It's not be trifled with. The disease affects millions of people around the world.