There are a lot of talks these days about the importance of a healthy liver – and for good reason. The liver is essential for balanced living, performing hundreds of functions that keep our bodies running smoothly. So if you’re looking to support your liver health, read on for some tips on how to do just that. Thanks for reading!
An overburdened liver can’t do its job well
Having a healthy liver is key to many things you may be interested in. For example, de-stressing your life, anti-aging, and protecting yourself from chronic disease are all attributed back to having an active one.
These days, our livers are up against a lot of negative factors. People aren’t talking much about this organ, but the truth is, the liver is an essential organ you cannot live without. It has over 2000 jobs and is the general contractor of your body. Its main job is to keep us balanced, which is a pretty tall order, especially with the way stress, food, environment, and lifestyle factors have a way of just pushing us right off balance.
The liver is the largest organ in our body and when it becomes overburdened with work, we cannot do what needs to get done. This results in brain fog, low energy levels, and weight gain, or loss depending on your dieting habits at this time. These can lead, not only emotionally, but physically to be exhausted too. You’ll experience irritability anger mood swings etcetera down below – all part of being stuck under pressure from an overload situation. Ultimately, this makes me so sad because when we’re not feeling well, we make less of a difference in the world. Just the sea of health issues takes up more of our time.
The excess fat and toxin problems
The main job of the liver is to process fat. It scrubs the blood coming in from the digestive tract as it extracts vitamins and minerals, and sends clean, “fat-free” blood back to the heart for circulation. In today’s way of living, it’s a difficult job. Trendy and fast food diets are unhealthy. They have a lot of fat in them.
Even in alternative medicine, we have the keto diet, the paleo diet, intermittent fasting, and low sugar carb-free diets: all of these end up increasing the amount of protein and fat we eat. By simply becoming aware of your fat intake and focusing on reducing it, you will help your liver be healthier. Natural sugars and carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables are not enemies. It is the excess fat that is the main problem.
Another important job of the liver is to neutralize toxins and make them safer for the body to eliminate. If toxins are coming in faster than the liver can handle, it has to put them somewhere. The liver stores them deep down inside itself, waiting for the day it can get a break from its daily jobs and slowly work on neutralizing those toxins and then releasing them to be excreted.
Unfortunately, that day rarely comes. So the liver itself becomes more burdened with toxins, and becomes more inflamed, leading to a backlog deep within the liver. The toxin stored deep in the liver can cause liver cells to harden and scar tissue to form leading to the diagnosis of fatty liver and hardening of the liver, which was talked about in a previous post.
Liver Fire Rising
Stress has its own part to play in liver health. Your liver is tied to your emotional well-being.
When your liver is in balance, you are more likely to be calm and composed. The Chinese term “liver fire rising” refers to an overheated condition that results in anger because of its fiery nature. When this happens, there’s no room for other emotions like tranquility or happiness. The emotion associated with liver and liver issues is anger. Maybe you are familiar with having a short temper, feeling impatient, and being quick to snap. Stop and think for a while.
The more stress we are under, the more adrenaline surges through our system. Adrenaline pickles the liver just like vinegar does to a jar of cucumbers. This hormone washes over the liver. When we have a lot of stress for a long time, the liver loses its ability to balance things out. It slows down, overheats, and goes into survival mode.
Liver Support
There are many things you can do to support your liver.
Reduce your overall fat intake.
If you’re eating animal protein every day, why not try switching to every other day? You might be surprised at how good you feel. To improve your liver health, adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet is a great place to start. And for added benefits, don’t forget the legumes. Just a few extra servings of these nutritious foods each day can make a big difference in your health.
Eat cleaner.
Make it a rule that if something has more than 10 ingredients, you won’t put it in your body. The more natural and closer to nature something is, the fewer ingredients it will have. When you’re looking at the list of ingredients, one way to tell if they are too long is by checking how much space they take up. If it’s more than half an inch then chances are this product has been processed and doesn’t contain any natural substances (or minimal amounts).
Beware of alcohol intake.
Women process alcohol differently than men. After age 40, many of us can’t drink wine or other alcoholic beverages without feeling bad effects, like not being able to sleep, getting headaches, feeling sick after drinking, and feeling depressed. As the liver tries to neutralize the alcohol, the alcohol itself causes inflammation and oxidative stress to the gland.
Fact: Women who have more than two drinks a night are increasing their risk of breast cancer.
However, by making small changes to their alcohol consumption habits, they can help lower that risk.
Your liver is one of the most important organs in your body. When it’s overburdened, it can impact every other system, leading to an overall feeling of unwellness and imbalance. The good news is, you can take steps to support your liver and keep it functioning well. In this post, we’ve outlined some ways to reduce the load on your liver so you can feel better and be healthier. We hope you will find these tips helpful and put them into practice for a balanced life. If you have any questions about how to support your liver health or want help implementing these principles, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for advice. Thank you for reading!
If you’re experiencing physical, mental, or emotional manifestations of an unhealthy, heavily burdened liver, reach out for help getting to the bottom of it. We’d be happy to schedule a discovery call with you. During this call, we can discuss your symptoms in more detail and come up with a plan tailored specifically for you.
If you haven’t joined our Private Facebook Group, please go HERE.
DISCLAIMER: The information in this email is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All content is for general informational purposes only and does not replace a consultation with your own doctor/health professional
