Facts About The Liver

Our liver is more than just a booze and drug filter or something that goes great with "fava beans and a nice chianti"- it's the second largest organ in the human body, weighs as much as a chihuahua, and every vertebrate has one.

The liver works hard for the human body- it regulates plasma glucose and ammonia levels, produces proteins vital for body function and serves as both an organ and a gland, since it filters toxins and pushes them out of the body.

And if that isn't enough to make you think of the liver as the mightiest of all organs consider this- the liver is the only organ that can completely regenerate, needing only 25 percent of the original tissue to do so:

“When a person donates more than half of their liver to someone who needs a transplant, the liver returns to its original size in nearly two weeks,” Reau tells Mental Floss. According to a 2009 study in the Journal of Cell Physiology, evolutionary safeguards are responsible for this regenerative effect due to the numerous functions performed by the liver. “This process allows liver to recover lost mass without jeopardizing viability of the entire organism,” the authors write.

Read 12 Bilious Facts About The Liver at Mental Floss