Liver Loving Lifestyle

Feeling sluggish? Trouble detoxing and digesting? Or maybe you are just in need of a reset. Supporting a healthy functioning liver may be the answer to get your health back on track. By incorporating lifestyle principles and foods suggested in the below, the liver will be supported into an easeful and efficient flow into its full healing potential.

The Liver, an overlooked aspect of health and wellbeing that was once only related to heavy consumption of alcohol, maybe you have previously underestimated this clever organ so firstly let’s begin by explaining the important role the liver plays.

The Role Of The Liver

Our liver’s number one job is to help us detox. While the liver works hard at this crucial task, we don’t make it easy, with processed food and alcohol consumption at the forefront of the western lifestyle, the liver is working overtime.

The liver is responsible for body processes from producing proteins, cholesterol, and bile to storing vitamins, minerals, and even carbohydrates. It also breaks down toxins like alcohol, medications and natural by products of metabolism. The liver is also the storage location for fat-soluble vitamins and handles cholesterol homeostasis. It stores iron and copper and works hard to help fight infections. On top of this, the liver cleans your blood by getting rid of your body’s natural waste products and other harmful substances, including alcohol and drugs.

Why The Liver’s Important

Keeping your liver in good shape is important for general detoxing of the body and maintaining overall health. As part of the digestive system, the liver must process everything that the stomach and intestines digest and absorb. For nutrition, one of its main jobs is to produce bile, a chemical that converts fat into fuel the body can use. This digestive fluid is called bile that helps us digest fats and some vitamins. Bile ducts carry bile from your liver to your gallbladder for storage, or to the small intestine for use, your gallbladder stores bile between meals.

 Without a well functioning liver, digestion and detoxing becomes very hard for the body and can cause a back log of un-metabolised by products from food, this can be stored as gallstones. Gallstones are thought to develop because of an imbalance in the chemical make-up of bile inside the gallbladder. In most cases the levels of cholesterol in bile become too high and the excess cholesterol can form into stones.

An Dysfunctional Liver

What are the first signs of a bad liver?

Early symptoms can include

• generally feeling unwell
• feeling tired all the time.
• loss of appetite.
• feeling nauseous.
• disturbed sleep patterns.

Ways To Begin To Live A Liver Loving Lifestyle

• Add In Herbs and Spices. Herbs like ginger and turmeric, black pepper, chilis, and other spices will heat you from the inside out, getting your energy flowing as well as blood and lymph. You can add them to food or drink easily such as a simple soup or by adding them to teas.
• Amp Up Leafy Greens. Most green Veggies are highly beneficial for your liver, including spinach and cabbage, and they are suitable to encourage bile production. 
• Take A Little Milk Thistle. Studies have shown improvements in liver function in people with liver diseases who have taken a milk thistle supplement, suggesting it could help reduce liver inflammation and liver damage.
• Incorporating Citrus. Citrus fruits stimulate the liver and help it turns toxic materials into substances that can be absorbed by water. Grapefruit is especially good as it contains naringin and naringenin, which are antioxidants that reduce inflammation to protect the liver from injury.
• Have A Helping Hand From Digestive Enzymes. Enzymes are essential for digestion and liver function, digestive enzymes may indirectly support liver function by promoting efficient digestion and reducing the workload on the liver.

On Conclusion

The liver will look after us if we look after it, it may need a lighter load from our western lifestyle. By incorporating some of the tips shared above, the liver can begin to work to its optimal function and do what it is designed to do, to digest and detox. Lifestyle factors can play a huge role in maintance and should not be looked over when looking to support the liver.