During October, we observe National Liver Awareness Month. Your liver filters toxins from your blood, helps convert nutrients into energy, and produces proteins that help your blood clot.
You cannot live without a liver.
National Liver Awareness Month focuses on raising awareness of the vital role your liver plays in your health and the rise in liver disease, such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which used to be called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Medical professionals strive to increase awareness because many initial symptoms of liver disease are subtle. Consequently, liver disease is often considered a silent threat because many aren’t diagnosed until their condition is life-threatening.
Learning about the different types of liver disease and their risk factors can help you determine whether you should take preventive steps to promote liver health and schedule a scan to check your liver.
Schedule your scan.
Understanding Liver Health and Function
Your liver sits just above your stomach and below your rib cage. Both oxygenated and nutrient-rich blood flows into your liver, which holds 13% of your body’s blood. Your liver performs many crucial functions, including the following:
- Producing bile, which your body uses to absorb fat and digest foods.
- Producing blood plasma proteins and cholesterol.
- Filtering toxins out of your blood.
- Ensuring your blood clots.
Your liver also regulates the storage and release of glucose, which impacts your body’s metabolism. Without a healthy liver, your metabolism may not function effectively, affecting your ability to maintain a healthy weight and causing symptoms, such as a slow heart rate and fatigue.
Additionally, your liver detoxifies your blood by removing toxins, such as drugs, and converting them to a water-soluble form, so they can be eliminated in your urine or feces.
Your liver also significantly impacts your digestive health by regulating the production, storage, and release of bile. Issues with your liver can cause indigestion, pale stools, or dark urine. Other digestive symptoms due to poor liver health include nausea and vomiting.
Since your liver performs so many crucial tasks, liver health issues can have widespread symptoms. You may bruise easily or suffer from nausea. If it affects your brain, you may struggle with confusion. Since the symptoms are varied and range in severity, many don’t realize they have a liver health issue until it’s serious.
Risk Factors for Liver Disease
The risk factors for liver disease depend on the type of disease. Risk factors for MASLD include the following:
- High blood fat levels
- Hypertension
- Obesity
- Prediabetes
- Type 2 diabetes
The following are some liver cancer risk factors:
- Aflatoxins
- Anabolic steroids
- Cirrhosis
- Ethnicity — liver cancer rates in the U.S. are highest for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
- Excessive alcohol consumption
- Exposure to chemicals, such as vinyl chloride
- Gender — women have higher rates of liver cancer than men
- Glycogen storage diseases
- Hepatitis B virus
- Hepatitis C virus
- MASLD
- Obesity
- Smoking
Risk factors for different types of liver diseases include lifestyle factors that can be altered. For example, it’s possible to reduce your risk of developing liver cancer if you quit smoking and reduce your alcohol consumption. However, there are some risk factors you cannot alter, such as your ethnicity.
Medical conditions, such as glycogen storage diseases, type 2 diabetes, tyrosinemia, and Wilson disease, contribute to your risk of liver cancer and MASLD. Tyrosinemia is genetic, which means there’s nothing you can do to reduce your risk of getting tyrosinemia. However, type 2 diabetes is preventable, and with lifestyle changes, you may be able to prevent yourself from developing diabetes and increasing your risk of MASLD.
Liver functions also slow as you age, affecting your overall health. Adults aged 40 and over should take proactive steps to maintain their liver health and reduce their risks of liver cancer and MASLD.
Types of Liver Disease
Common liver diseases and health conditions include cirrhosis, liver cancer, and MASLD.
Cirrhosis
Many health conditions, including hepatitis B, and lifestyle choices, such as excessive consumption of alcohol, can cause scarring on your liver. When the scarring is advanced, it means there’s a buildup of scar tissue that impairs the liver’s ability to function. Advanced scarring on your liver is known as cirrhosis.
Cirrhosis causes various symptoms, including the following:
- Ascites
- Confusion
- Easy bleeding
- Easy bruising
- Edema
- Fatigue
- Gynecomastia
- Jaundice
- Nausea
- Slurred speech
Liver Cancer
Liver cancer includes hepatoblastoma, hepatocellular carcinoma — which is the most common form of liver cancer — and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. It’s also possible for cancer to spread to the liver from other parts of your body.
Symptoms include the following:
- Abdominal pain
- Abdominal swelling
- Fatigue
- Jaundice
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Unexplained weight loss
- Vomiting
MASLD
MASLD is a growing health issue. The rate of MASLD among Mexican Americans increased by 61% between 1988 and 2018, while rates among African Americans and white Americans increased by 127% and 133%, respectively, during the same period.
Symptoms of MASLD include the following:
- Abdominal pain
- Fatigue
- Jaundice
- Weight loss
Early Detection and Screening
Preventative Diagnostic Center’s low-dose CT scans can detect the following:
- Abscesses
- Cirrhosis
- Cysts
- Inflammation
- Injuries
- MASLD
- Tumors
Low-dose CT scans provide detailed images of your liver. These images can verify the presence of tumors, determine the cause of jaundice, and provide other crucial information for diagnosing liver disease.
Prevention and Proactive Care
Since the risk of liver disease increases with age, you can invest in prevention with low-dose CT scans. A scan verifies your liver health and identifies a range of issues. Those 40 and over benefit from scans, which confirm liver health and identify issues before they become severe.
A CT scan can ensure early diagnosis if you do have liver health issues, and can enable you to get treatment before your condition becomes life-threatening. Early detection can also improve outcomes and reduce the cost and length of treatments.
Effective lifestyle choices can help reduce your risk of certain types of liver disease. You can reduce your risk of MASLD by preventing diabetes, which you can do by consuming a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy weight. You can lower the risk of liver cancer by quitting smoking, quitting or reducing your alcohol consumption, and maintaining a healthy weight.
Get Detailed Information About Your Liver Health Now
Since the early symptoms of liver disease are common symptoms for multiple issues, you may not realize you have a liver health issue until it’s severe. Booking a non-invasive CT scan is the most effective way to get detailed information about your liver health, either restoring your peace of mind, or enabling you to get prompt treatment for issues, such as cirrhosis, MASLD, and liver cancer.
At Preventative Diagnostic Center, you do not need a referral. Our medical team includes a licensed physician and licensed radiologist, who will perform the scan and provide a detailed medical report afterward.
Sources:
Carroll, L. (2023). Rates of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease are soaring, study finds.
Cirrhosis. (2025).
Computed Tomography (CT or CAT) Scan of the Liver and Biliary Tract. (2025).
Liver: Anatomy and Functions. (2025).
Liver cancer. (2023).
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. (2025).
