If you want to be impressed by your body’s abilities, you only have to look to the liver to discover what your body is doing behind the scenes all the time to support you! This organ, that’s about the size of a football, performs over 500 functions. It is one of the hardest-working organs in the human body.
The Liver’s Main Functions
The liver is responsible for helping to support the immune system, blood sugar regulation, nutrient absorption, energy levels, hormones, managing protein and fat metabolism, storing vitamins and minerals, filtering toxins, and so much more. It’s an essential organ that we cannot survive without.
The Gut-Liver Axis
The liver is very important in supporting digestion and gut health. Everything we consume, including food, alcohol, medicine, or toxins, must be filtered by the liver. When we eat food, it gets digested by the stomach and intestine, then gets absorbed by the blood, and then goes to the liver. The liver processes the nutrients so they can be used by the rest of the body.
The liver is responsible for creating bile, a digestive secretion that is vital for digestion. Bile gets stored in the gallbladder until it needs to be released into the small intestine to help with breaking down fats. You can think of bile like soap on a greasy dish pan, breaking down fats. Without bile, we miss out on important fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. These fats can then be utilized as energy for your body.
With that impressive resume, it’s not surprising that if the liver gets stressed or congested, a slew of dysfunctions and issues can arise in the body.
Signs of Liver Stress
- Acne and skin issues
- Allergies
- Blood sugar imbalances
- Brain fog
- Chemical sensitivity
- Dark circles under the eyes
- Difficulty digesting fat
- Dry and itchy skin
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Joint pain
- Mood swings
- Sleep difficulties
Our Main Detox Organ
The liver is our main detoxification organ. When a toxin enters the body it is typically sent to the liver to be processed. It is then brought back into circulation to be removed through the kidneys, or the intestine with the use of bile, and then is removed via pooping.
The more toxins that the liver has to process, the harder it has to work to remove them. With repeated exposure, the liver can become stressed or congested which can decrease its ability to function and detox well.
Causes of Liver Stress
Today, we are exposed to many kinds of toxins, including internal, environmental, and lifestyle. Root causes of liver congestion include gut dysbiosis, poor diet, high alcohol intake, chronic stress, toxic exposures, environmental toxins, insulin resistance, medications, and chronic constipation.
How to Support Your Liver
With the large amount of toxins that surround us today, our liver could use a hand each day to lower its burden. While it’s not realistic to lead a totally nontoxic life, there are a lot of things we can do to reduce our toxic load and powerfully boost the health of our liver and overall wellness. By freeing up our liver, we allow it to do its job much more effectively.
- Get 7-8 hours of good quality sleep each night. 1
- Avoid a diet high in refined carbohydrates and refined sugar.
- Balance your meals and snacks with healthy proteins, fats, and whole-food carbohydrates.
- Include plenty of bioavailable animal proteins and fats in your diet.
- Include soluble and insoluble fibers in your diet, if tolerated. This will help bind and eliminate toxins more easily.
- Incorporate herbs to support liver function, i.e. dandelion root, milk thistle, turmeric, artichoke, and licorice root.
- Include bitters in your diet such as arugula, dill, ginger, dandelion greens, grapefruit, lemon, and lime. You can also take a bitter supplement to support digestion and liver health. I like Digest Support from Earthley.
- Try to eat an organic diet as much as you can. The Environmental Working Group publishes an annual list of the “Clean Fifteen” and “Dirty Dozen” produce based on their pesticide residue amounts. Avoiding the dirty dozen is a great way to prioritize buying organic foods. These veggies and fruits are sprayed with large amounts of pesticides and chemicals. The clean fifteen are veggies and fruit that would be ideal to consider skipping getting organic if you are on a budget. They were found to have the lowest levels of pesticide residue.
- Avoid drinking tap water and prioritize drinking plenty of quality filtered water. Some of the most common things found in tap water include pesticides/herbicides, heavy metals, fluoride, and chlorine.
- Drink a glass of warm water with fresh lemon juice first thing in the morning. This helps to stimulate bile flow and support digestion and bowel movements.
- Work to reduce toxins in skin care and other self-care items, cleaning products, cookware, water, and the air inside your home. If this sounds a bit overwhelming, I understand. I’ve been there! Start with changing those things that you use the most. Replace things that you use up with something less toxic. Soon there will be so much progress.
- Manage stress. Daily movement is powerful in helping mediate stress. Other powerful ways to help manage stress are meditation and prayer, spending time in nature, journaling, Epsom salt baths, castor oil packs, and spending time with loved ones.
Recap
Your liver is one of the largest supporters of your body. It works tirelessly to keep you healthy and flourishing. With more than 500 vital functions, it’s a true multitasking hero that plays a crucial role in maintaining your overall well-being. It supports so many functions in your body from digestion to detoxification.
However, when the liver becomes stressed due to a variety of factors, it can lead to health issues like acne, fatigue, and sleep difficulties to name only a few. With the large amount of toxins that we encounter and the stressful lives we often live, our liver could use a hand to lower its burden.
While it’s not realistic to lead a totally nontoxic life, there are a lot of things we can do to reduce our toxic load and powerfully boost the health of our liver and overall wellness. By freeing up our liver, we allow it to do its job much more effectively.
Fortunately, you can support your liver’s detoxification efforts by making some diet and lifestyle changes. Prioritizing quality sleep, incorporating a nutrient-dense diet with bioavailable animal foods, soluble and insoluble foods, liver-supporting herbs, and bitters, as well as reducing toxins in your life are just some of the strategies that can be utilized. Start wherever you are able and know that you are making a difference in your body’s health!
References:
- Marjot, T., Ray, D. W., Williams, F. R., Tomlinson, J. W., & Armstrong, M. J. (2021). Sleep and liver disease: a bidirectional relationship. The Lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology, 6(10), 850–863.
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