Hepatologists like to say you can't spell “liver” without “live,” and Dr. Joseph Galati, medical director of the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at Methodist Hospital, is no different.

“Think of the liver as a chemical plant,” Galati said. “It's the largest organ in the body and performs more than 200 functions ranging from forming cholesterol to detoxifying the blood. It's the only major organ that cannot be artificially reproduced. It's impossible due to the complexity of it.”

That's why you've got to be careful with it...read more