How to protect your Liver ? Depends on your Lifestyle

Healthy Liver... Healthy You...!

How to protect your Liver ? Depends on your Lifestyle

What does the liver do?

The liver is in the upper right part of the abdomen. The functions of the liver include: storing glycogen (fuel for the body) which is made from sugars; helping to process fats and proteins from digested food; making proteins that are essential for blood to clot (clotting factors); processing many medicines which you may take; helping to remove poisons and toxins from the body.

The liver also makes bile. This is a greenish-yellow fluid that contains bile acids, bile pigments and waste products such as bilirubin. Liver cells pass bile into bile ducts inside the liver. The bile flows down these ducts into larger and larger ducts, eventually leading to the common bile duct. The gallbladder is like a 'cul-de-sac' reservoir of bile which comes off the common bile duct. After you eat, the gallbladder squeezes bile back into the common bile duct and down into the duodenum (the first part of the gut after the stomach). Bile in the gut helps to digest fats.

Here are few waysto keep your liver healthy

1. The liver requires high amounts of vitamins and minerals to perform its many functions.  Your diet should be high in fruits and vegetables and fibrer-rich foods.
2. Your liver must filter food additives.  Eliminate processed foods, artificial food additives, colors, and preservatives from your diet to give your liver a break.
3. There are many great herbs that help strengthen the liver, including: milk thistle, dandelion root, globe artichoke, turmeric, slippery elm, greater celandine, balmony, barberry, black root, blue flag, boldo, fringetree bark, vervain, and wahoo.  I regularly use turmeric and milk thistle to help strengthen the liver.  If you are pregnant, have a serious health condition, or are taking medication, consult a qualified health practitioner before using herbs.
4. Significantly reduce refined sugar and avoid synthetic sweeteners altogether.
5. Lecithin helps the liver metabolize fats and reduce cholesterol.  It contains a substance called phosphatidylcholine and essential fatty acids that help keep liver cells healthy and help prevent fatty deposits from building up in the liver.  Lecithin also helps reduce high blood pressure by allowing the blood vessels to relax to allow better blood flow. You can get lecithin in organic soyfoods like soy milk, tofu, and miso, as well as organic eggs.  Alternatively, take 4000 mg of lecithin in capsule form daily.
6. Take a high quality multivitamin and mineral supplement to avoid any deficiencies.  The liver depends on many nutrients to detoxify properly.  Even a single nutrient deficiency can be harmful.
7. In addition, take 1000 to 2000 mg of vitamin C daily, even if there is vitamin C in your multivitamin.
8. Eat plenty of fresh carrots and beets, both of which are powerful liver cleansing and rebuilding foods.  In addition, eat plenty of green foods.  The chlorophyll, which gives plants their green color, helps cleanse the liver.
9. Try to eat two heaping tablespoons of ground flaxseeds.  They bind to hormone receptor sites, preventing excess hormones including synthetic xenoestrogens from plastics and other chemicals, from floating around your bloodstream.  One of the liver’s five hundred jobs is to filter excess hormones.  By eating flaxseeds and flax oil you are helping it function more effectively.  Flaxseeds can be sprinkled on cereal, toast, salads, or blended into smoothies.