Author Worman is a professor of medicine and attending physician at Columbia, specializing in liver disorders, and is currently doing research in hepatitis. He is uniquely qualified to write a book on the liver and the things that go wrong with it.

The first section is a description on how the healthy liver works and all the things it does. Next is the difference between chronic and acute liver problems and what tests are done and what those tests mean. Then the book goes into all the different things that can go wrong- fulminant liver failure, cirrhosis (it’s not just a complication of alcohol consumption), the many types of hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, medications that affect the liver, autoimmune and inherited disorders. With each disease he gives the process of the disease and current treatments. And, since you can’t live without a functioning liver – there is no equivalent to using dialysis when one’s kidneys fail- there is a chapter on liver transplantation. There is also a chapter on living with liver disease. Most people with liver disease will not die from it and will live normal lives. There is no ‘liver cleansing diet’ or herbs that help. In fact, most liver disorders do not preclude a small drink of alcohol on occasion- a fact which surprised me a great deal.

I found the book very helpful in explaining test results- it really helped me understand what my husband’s test results probably mean. The author is the kind of doctor we all hope we’ll get- he explains things in detail using terms the average reader can understand without ever talking down to the reader. Recommended if you or someone you know has concerns about their liver. ( )