Supporting your Liver

The Liver is an extremely hard working organ, as evidenced by the huge blood flow through the liver at a rate of 1.4 litres per minute. The primary function of the liver is to detoxify the blood, preventing toxins from getting into the blood stream.

Relatively frequently the liver may be ‘overloaded’ by gut toxins or it may be sluggish for other reasons and find it difficult to cope with its work of detoxification. Consequently IBS suffers may feel somewhat weak and fuzzy-headed.

Sluggish liver detoxification also contributes to chemical sensitivity. As one client told me “I constantly feel as if I’m on the morning after the night before – except there was no night before. I constantly feel fuzzy-headed, as if I had a skinful last night, except that I didn’t”.

Symptoms of mild liver toxicity may occur, even though all blood tests of liver function are ‘normal’. The routine liver function tests check for liver damage rather than toxicity. This is important in that it excludes any serious or life-threatening liver disease.

However, the liver may be somewhat sluggish in its normal work of breaking down toxins/old red blood cells/old hormone molecules that are past their sell-by date.

As a result of sluggish liver detoxification people may notice food sensitivities and sensitivities to perfumes, inhalants, alcohol, chemicals and also processed foods.

Common symptoms of a sluggish liver include poor digestion, abdominal bloating, and nausea especially after fatty foods, weight gain especially around the abdomen, constipation, and fluctuating bowel motions. Improving your digestion and including a greater variety of foods and essential fats in your diet, avoiding or at least reducing your alcohol intake will help maintain a healthy liver.

Herbs such as Dandelion, Milk Thistle, and Globe Artichoke are excellent liver tonics to help support your liver and improve the gall bladders ability to produce fat digestive enzymes.

If you have gallstones you definitely need to address your diet to correct the imbalance in your bile that is leading to the gallstones.  In many cases it is even possible to dissolve them, providing that you change your dietary habits on a long-term basis.

People who have had their gall bladder removed often start to develop Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms, due to the fact that their capacity to digest fats has been compromised severely. The imbalance that caused the gallstones in the first place will still exist with or without you gall bladder, so it is even more important for you to maintain a low fat healthy diet and support your liver.

Basic Principals for a healthy Liver:

  1. Drink at least two litres of plain water per day.
  2. Avoid eating large amounts of sugars.
  3. Avoid foods that you may react to or that you know from past experience upset you.
  4. Reduce your alcohol intake. Have at least two consecutive alcohol free days per week.
  5. Increase your intake of vegetable proteins, such as pulses.
  6. Avoid constipation, by eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
  7. Avoid saturated or hydrogenated fats.
  8. Make time to eat at a relaxed pace.