How Do You Know if Your Liver Is Healthy? Signs, Symptoms, and Lifestyle Factors
Published on April 13, 2026
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It can be difficult to know whether your liver is healthy. Liver conditions can develop silently over time because of the organ’s ability to sustain significant damage before symptoms appear.
But as rates of liver disease continue to rise in the United States, research suggests that it’s more important than ever to understand the subtle signs and risk factors of liver trouble.
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The Role of the Liver, and Why You May Not Realize Yours Is Unhealthy
The liver is the largest internal organ in the body. It’s responsible for performing many vital functions, ranging from supporting digestion to regulating blood clotting.
But it can be hard to tell when something is off with your liver, since liver disease is often silent in its early stages until damage becomes advanced.
“Other organs let it be known when things are going wrong, but the liver is much more of a quiet organ,” says Wajahat Mehal, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine in digestive diseases and the director of the Yale Fatty Liver Disease Program in New Haven, Connecticut.
For example, when you have hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), signals to the brain are apparently not interpreted as “pain” but rather as fatigue as well as attention and memory deficits.
If pain and other noticeable liver disease symptoms do occur, it’s typically not until later disease stages, says Christopher M. Moore, MD, an assistant professor of medicine in gastroenterology and hepatology at Northwestern University in Chicago.
This lack of symptoms makes prevention and early intervention essential. “If you were to wait to seek care until you felt something was wrong, it could be too late,” Dr. Moore says. “The body accommodates so much until it doesn't, and you think that liver damage has just happened, when in fact it was building for many years or decades.”
Physical Signs of a Healthy Versus Struggling Liver
A well-functioning liver doesn’t necessarily draw obvious attention to itself. But there are a few subtle everyday clues that suggest your liver is working properly, including experiencing good digestion, stable energy levels, and skin and whites of the eyes that maintain their normal color.
While it may not be immediately noticeable that something is off with your liver, there are some possible red flags to look for:
- Jaundice Because the liver manages bile secretion to keep your skin and eyes clear, if it isn’t functioning properly, you may develop jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes). The yellow hue comes from a buildup of a bilirubin, an orange-yellow pigment found in bile.
- Fatigue You may feel more fatigued than usual if your liver function isn’t up to par — likely due to inflammation from disease and interference with the liver’s key role in metabolism. But this may be a symptom of many other types of conditions.
- Unusual Looking Poop Healthy bile production in the liver also helps keep your stool looking brown, instead of pale or clay-colored — which is what it may appear like if bile production is blocked or reduced due to liver infection.
- Frequent Bruising A damaged liver can affect blood and vascular health. The liver produces proteins that support blood clotting. But when the organ is damaged, it may not create enough of them — leading to easy bruising.
- Stomach Swelling When liver damage blocks the regulation of blood flow and pressure in the abdominal cavity, the result is an increase in pressure and fluid that can spill over — leading to noticeable stomach swelling.
Clinical Markers of Liver Health
Liver function tests (blood tests ordered by your physician and completed in a laboratory) can help assess how well your liver is working by measuring certain substances produced by the organ.
There isn’t a set age where certain liver function tests are recommended. But they can take place as part of a routine checkup to screen for liver and other diseases, or they can be ordered if you’re experiencing liver-related symptoms or are at a higher risk for liver damage based on family history, lifestyle factors, and underlying health conditions.
The tests measure:
- Alanine Transaminase (ALT) ALT is a protein produced by the liver that’s responsible for accelerating certain metabolic processes in the body that help convert food into energy. When the liver is stressed, it may release additional ALT into the bloodstream.
- Aspartate Transaminase (AST) AST is another protein produced by the liver. It’s involved in converting amino acids (the building blocks of protein) into energy for liver cells. AST can be released into the bloodstream with liver damage.
- Bilirubin Found as a component of bile, bilirubin is produced by the body during the breakdown of old red blood cells. Because the liver removes most bilirubin from your body through the bile ducts, any blockages or damage can cause the pigment to leak into the bloodstream.
- Albumin Another protein produced by the liver, albumin keeps the fluid in your blood from leaking out of the blood vessels and building up in other parts of the body. This test can be ordered to check liver and kidney function if you’re experiencing symptoms.
Lifestyle Factors That Affect Liver Health
An honest look at lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and substance use can be the key to a clear picture of your liver health. “The good news is that people don’t have to do anything ‘special’ for liver health in terms of lifestyle. Having a healthy liver is basically following a healthy lifestyle,” Dr. Mehal says.
Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol can cause direct damage to liver cells and worsen fat accumulation in the liver. That’s because the liver is only able to process small amounts of alcohol.
Generally speaking, the more you drink, the higher your risk for alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD). Studies have shown that having more than two drinks per day if you’re a man, or having more than one drink per day if you’re a woman, can increase your risk. Some research has suggested that even moderate alcohol consumption — typically two drinks a day or less for men and one drink a day or less for women — can harm the liver over time.
Binge drinking — or consuming four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men in a two- to three-hour period — can also raise your risk of ARLD.
With this in mind, guidelines generally recommend not exceeding the set moderate drinking amounts — and preferably, drinking less or not drinking at all to protect liver health. People with existing liver disease are advised to avoid alcohol altogether.
Weight Management
Maintaining a healthy weight decreases fat buildup in the liver and reduces liver inflammation, particularly if you have metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which is a liver condition (formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD) that involves liver fat accumulation linked to metabolic issues like obesity. That’s why weight loss is often recommended as part of a treatment plan for MASLD if you are overweight or have obesity.
Experts recommend losing weight through diet and exercise. For example, a nutritious eating pattern for liver health typically includes limiting fat intake, monitoring food portion sizes, and incorporating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
According to one population-based study of 4,834 people, a diagnosis of MASLD with normal body mass index or BMI (defined here as less than 25 and less than 23 for Asian and Pacific Islanders), is associated with a possibly lower risk of liver disease progression.
If you are overweight and have MASLD, studies have shown that losing at least 3 to 5 percent of your body weight can improve symptoms of fatty liver disease, and losing 7 to 10 percent of your body weight can improve symptoms of metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a severe form of MASLD.
Exercise
Getting enough physical activity is beneficial for liver health.
Research suggests that engaging in regular exercise can improve insulin sensitivity and liver function in people with liver disease. Experts think that because physical movement boosts metabolism, it also enhances the liver’s ability to metabolize or break down fats — decreasing inflammation and reducing fat accumulation in the liver.
According to one review, at least 150 minutes each week of moderate intensity exercise of any type can improve MASLD.
Other Risk Factors
Data suggests that having high blood sugar levels over a period of time — like with type 2 diabetes— can lead to liver damage.Some types of liver disease, in turn, can increase your risk of developing prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, as a buildup of fat and damage in your liver can increase your blood sugar levels.
In fact, it’s estimated that up to 70 percent of people with type 2 diabetes also have liver disease, says Sammy Saab, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, the medical director of the adult liver transplant program, the chief of transplant hepatology, and the head of outcomes research in hepatology at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles.
“With obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure, we're seeing an increase in liver disease — and a large cohort of young individuals with alcohol-related liver disease,” explains Dr. Saab. Data suggests that ARLD death rates have gone up significantly from 2001 to 2020, particularly among adults 25 to 34 years old and people without a college degree.
When to See a Doctor
While liver disease is often asymptomatic, it’s a good idea to see a healthcare provider if you’re experiencing symptoms that are unusual for you, such as fatigue or abdominal pain.
People who are at a higher risk of liver damage — like those who have obesity, diabetes, alcohol use disorder, or a family history of liver disease — should ask their healthcare provider about routine liver function testing, even without symptoms. They’ll be able to determine whether additional screening is needed to diagnose liver disease or assess for liver damage.
“Biopsy is the goal standard, but we try not to biopsy people because obviously it's invasive,” says Mehal. “So there are various imaging tests that we can use, including a test called FibroScan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) — and they’re both effective.”
And the sooner liver issues are detected, the better, Moore says. “The later you detect an issue, complications are going to be worse — not just for the organ individually, but they can start to spread into the rest of the body, because the liver serves as a fundamental ‘factory detoxification center.’ So when the liver goes south, the rest of the body goes south, too.”
The Takeaway
- Liver disease often develops silently over time. However, jaundice, fatigue, unusual-looking poop, frequent bruising, and stomach swelling may be red flags that something is wrong with your liver.
- While you usually can’t confirm liver health status at home, you can reduce your risk of liver disease by committing to healthy lifestyle tactics — such as reducing or eliminating alcohol, managing your weight through a nutritious diet and exercise, and addressing any metabolic health issues such as diabetes.
- Experts recommend talking to a healthcare provider about your individual liver disease risk factors, and seeking medical care if you have symptoms like jaundice.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
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