Is your liver toxic? Oh probably. With all the pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, POPs aka persistent organic pollutants, toxins in our foods, hygiene products, cleaning products, air pollutants, heavy metal toxicities, pharmaceutical drugs, etc etc, our livers are usually loaded with toxins.
Historically, it was predominantly due to numerous glutathione processes, that our bodies cleaned out the toxins. But the last few decades have played havoc with our glutathione levels. For example, just the graphene oxide you have heard so much about in the last couple of years significantly reduces our glutathione levels – more about that later.
And where do we find graphene oxide? In annual flu injections, in the covid jab, in hair dyes, electronic devices, storage unit devices, water filtration devices, in pharmaceutical drugs, in food wrappings, and so much more.
Every cell in our body has a detox mechanism but the liver is the major detox organ. So a huge amount of detoxification is done in the liver. And there are a number of different processes the liver uses to help us detox.
But that isn’t all the liver does. The liver is the largest internal organ in the body. A healthy liver performs over 500 functions and supports every other organ and system in the body.
Think about it. the nutrients that get broken down in your digestive system by either your enzymes, the bile made from the liver, or the probiotics, crosses the mucosal membrane of the intestines into the portal blood and flows up to the liver. The liver then has to metabolize, breakdown, store or create compounds from those nutrients. The liver also makes many of the enzymes that our gut uses. It also makes many of the blood transport compounds that carry nutrients to the rest of the body. It makes about 80% of the body’s cholesterol. It regulates hormones; metabolizes drugs; regulates sugar in the blood; and much more.
We said we would talk about glutathione. Every cell in the body makes glutathione. If there is insufficient glutathione, the cell will go into apoptosis – preprogrammed cellular death. Glutathione does more in the body than any other compound and the highest concentration is found in the liver. One of the more important functions glutathione does in the liver is major detoxification.
So…when we overwhelm the system with toxins, and our glutathione levels are reduced, the liver suffers.
Many people are aware of this and will do detoxification programs. The challenge with that is if their gut is not healthy, detoxing the liver just adds stress to the gut and everything backs up. Consequently, many people who think they are doing their liver a good service by detoxing the liver are actually making things worse.
So while it is a good thing to detox the liver, make sure you do it in the right sequence.
Another mistake many people make when detoxing the liver is thinking that milk thistle is a detoxing herb. It isn’t really. What milk thistle does is provoke the liver to renew itself faster. So I always tell people to follow the general guidelines:
- Detox the gut first
- Then rebuild it – NAC (for glutathione; gut enzymes, pre/probiotics, and hugely important are the transfer molecules – most of the ones I have researched are crap – if you want the best – email me at ho***@ch**************.ca
- Next detox the liver
- Then rebuild the liver
Some good herbs for the liver include:
- Burdock
- Wormwood
- Dandelion
Of course there are other liver issues as well to take into consideration
- Cirrhosis of the liver
- Non alcoholic fatty liver syndrome
- Various types of infections from bacterial, virual, hepatitis A, B, C
- Nutrient deficiencies,
- Heavy metal toxicities
- Drug induced hepatitis
- Pain killer drug can cause liver damage but so can other drugs such as:
- Amiodarone
- Anabolic steroids
- Birth control pills
- Chlorpromazine
- Erythromycin
- Halothane (a type of anesthesia)
- Methyldopa
- Isoniazid
- Methotrexate
- Statins
- Sulfa drugs
- Tetracyclines
- Amoxicillin-clavulanate
- Some anti-seizure medicines
- Disulfiram
- Niacin
- Azathoaprine
- Ketoconazole
If you want more information on what the liver does; the impact diet and other compounds have on the liver and what you can do to support your liver, you can get my book on the liver.
Whatever you decide to do, I hope you decide to support a healthy liver.
Dr Holly