how the liver works
How The Liver Works. Weighing in at just over one kilogram, the liver is a complex chemical factory that works 24 hours a day. It processes virtually everything you eat, drink, breathe in or rub on your skin and that's just some of its over 500 different functions vital to life. Every day, your liver helps your body by providing it with energy, fighting off infections and toxins, helping clot the blood, regulating hormones and much, much more. To give you an idea of the liver's critical roles, here is a partial list of its functions: metabolizing alcohol and other drugs and chemicals,