Dangerous Buildup: How Toxins Affect Vital Organs

This is the second post in a two part series on the excretory system. To learn how a your body is meant to excrete waste check out Part 1 (Taking Out the Trash).

While excretion may not be one of the prettiest conversations to have about our bodies, it is an absolutely vital function for daily life. As soon as any of the organs involved in this system stop doing their work of excretion, waste begins to build up in our body. If this continues to accumulate there can be serious and severe consequences. The organs involved in this system are the Kidneys, Liver, Large Intestine, Lungs and Skin. Let’s dive in to discover what can happen if any of these organs begin to have complications.

Liver

When you think of a liver that is no longer working correctly, my guess is alcoholism crossed your mind. While chronic alcohol abuse can lead to liver disease, there are also many other causes that can lead to liver disease. Problems such as: Infections like hepatitis viruses, autoimmune diseases, cancers, fat accumulation, certain medications or herbal compounds, and some genetics. While liver disease can occur from many different causes, once the disease has progressed to the point of being a chronic condition the complications to the liver follow a similar course. There are instances of acute liver failure in which the damage to the liver occurs very quickly such as following an overdose or medication or ingesting a poisonous substance. As these instances are much more rare and dependent on the cause, we will focus on discussing what happens with chronic liver failure.

The first stage of liver disease is hepatitis. This is inflammation within your liver and is your body’s helpful response when it has been injured to fix the problem. However when inflammation occurs long term it leads to tissue scarring which is called fibrosis. Fibrosis is the second stage of liver disease. During this stage more and more scar tissue builds up within the liver until it reaches a point where blood flow is severely impaired. This means that your liver’s tissues are not receiving oxygen and nutrients like it should. This leads to the third stage of liver disease which is cirrhosis. Cirrhosis occurs when enough of the liver has been damaged by scar tissue that it is no longer able to regenerate due to a lack of healthy cells. A person enters stage four of liver disease, liver failure once the liver is unable to meet the needs of your body.

One of the liver’s many roles is to clean our blood. It filters out products that have made their way into our body (think medications or bacteria) as well as parts of our body that are no longer working correctly (think old red blood cells). A majority of this “waste” is excreted by the liver as bile. The liver sends the bile into your digestive tract and this helps to break down your food on its way to be excreted from the body in your poop. When the liver is no longer functioning effectively if stops sending bile into the digestive tract. Some symptoms that you may see are:

• Jaundice: This is the yellow tint that can occur to the skin and eyes. When the liver and spleen break down old red blood cells it makes a product called bilirubin. If our liver stopped clearing out bilirubin it would continue to stay in our blood stream and build up to cause jaundice.
• Digestion problems: without bile your digestive tract will have a hard time breaking down some food products, especially fats. You will see lighter colored poops due to the fat content.
• Weight loss: without being able to break down your food effectively you will not be absorbing as many nutrients causing you to lose weight and muscle.
• Hepatic Encephalopathy: when your liver no longer filters out toxins (such as ammonia from the breakdown of proteins) in your blood stream they can accumulate to the point of causing damage to your brain and nervous system.
• Hormone changes: for example, the liver functions to filter out estrogen. With high levels of estrogen we can see irregular periods or shrunken testicles.
• Dark urine: Bilirubin in your urine.

The progression and symptoms of liver disease can depend on the cause of the liver damage. If it is caught early enough much of the damage can even be reversed, or at least manged and slowed down.

Kidneys

When your kidneys stop filtering your blood effectively there can be severe complications within your body. Your kidneys are responsible for either eliminating or retaining fluid and electrolytes within your bloodstream. This means that if your kidneys are not letting go of enough fluid you can have increased pressure in your blood vessels. You can also see fluid buildup in either the extremities or in the lungs. If your kidneys are not letting go of enough electrolytes, you can experience muscle weakness. When there is too much potassium in your blood a person can experience life threatening heart rhythms. You will see increased levels of uria nitrogen and creatinine in your blood. Increased levels of toxins such as nitrogen can lead to confusion and trouble concentrating.

Kidney damage may be from a sudden injury (acute kidney injury) or the result of gradual worsening (chronic kidney disease leading to kidney failure). The severity of injury and whether or not damage is permanent will depend on what is causing the damage. Once the kidneys have been damaged to the extent that a person is in kidney failure they will either need a kidney transplant or to be on dialysis in order to survive. A main form of dialysis utilizes a machine to filter the waste products from your blood since your kidneys cannot and then returns the cleaned blood to your body.

Large Intestine

In terms of complications that can occur from waste buildup the most obvious that comes to mind is constipation. When a person has the inability to pass stool regularly it can decrease their quality of life and lead to problems for their digestive system.

Skin

While sweat glands play a role in excretion of waste products as sweat samples show the presence of waste products like urea, when the integumentary system is impaired the affects on the body seem to be more in regards to the skins inability to reabsorb needed nutrients rather than the inability to secrete enough waste.

Lungs

Your respiratory system plays an extremely crucial role in waste removal from your body. When your lungs are unable to excrete carbon dioxide we see severe consequences within the body. This can happen suddenly, in which case it is a medical emergency. It can also occur slowly over time as carbon dioxide gradually builds up within a persons body. This can be caused by either a condition causing increased carbon dioxide or the inability of carbon dioxide to get to your lungs and out of your body. Once too much has accumulated in your blood stream you will see it affect the person’s level of consciousness. If carbon dioxide continues to build up within your body it will lead to the necessity to be on mechanical ventilation where a machine will help you to breathe.