Hey all!
Apologies I have not written in a while, it has been busy.
I wanted to talk a little bit about that workhorse of an organ, the liver; and let’s not forget its hardworking sidekick, the gallbladder. Moving as we are now from the winter towards the spring (I hope! There was a bit of sunshine this morning!) – this is an ideal time to “invest” a bit in your liver. Why now? The indulgence of the party season is over, and in many cultures spring is traditionally the time to clean out and rejuvenate for the year ahead. Think “spring clean”, “new life”, etc.
The liver as I’m sure you know is such a hard-working organ. The jobs it does are too many to list here, but among them are:
Metabolism – the liver stores glucose as glycogen, and releases this back into the bloodstream when needed. It also metabolises fats and proteins so that they too can be used for energy production;
Detoxification – the metabolism of hormones, drugs and the many other substances that make their way in from the outside, so that these can be safely escorted out of the body;
Bile production – many toxins exit the body via the bile – but bile in itself is super important for digestion. It is made in the liver but stored and concentrated ready for use in the gallbladder;
Cholesterol production – don’t forget, cholesterol is not the enemy it is made out to be. Cholesterol is needed for cell membranes, to produce hormones, as an “ingredient” in the production of bile, as a “fixative” for the body;
Iron transport and storage – the liver makes the haemoglobin to carry oxygen around the body, and it also stores iron. It also stores other vitamins/nutrients for when they are needed; and
Clearing out bilirubin, a toxic by-product of the breakdown of red blood cells. When we don’t clear bilirubin, we get the yellowing of the skin and eyeballs of jaundice, a sure sign that the liver is struggling.
The liver shows up in nutrition and homeopathy consultations in oh so many ways. Common issues are fatty degeneration of the liver – alcoholic or non; gallbladder and fat digestion problems, including gallstones; blood sugar issues; hormone imbalances; detoxification issues, including heavy metals, mould, Lyme, and all the other substances floating around in our food, water and air that the body has to deal with.
So how can you give your liver a bit of love? How can you help it? I’ll talk through this in 4 parts:
The booze, the booze
What are you eating?
Everything else that’s making its way into your body
Support in the form of herbs, infusions, homeopathy
Ok, so:
The booze, the booze
This subject is quite big with me and is my own personal challenge. I grew up in a household in the north of England where booze was everywhere, all the time (still is). Why is alcohol so bad? You may notice that your blood sugar plummets whenever you have a little glass (or two) of something. This is because your body finds alcohol so toxic that your liver will literally put all of its other jobs on hold, and focus primarily on metabolising the alcohol out of your body when you drink. One of the jobs it puts on hold is converting glycogen back to glucose for release in to the blood – so our blood sugar sinks low. That’s why you get cravings for snacks as soon as you have a tipple.
The good news is that the liver is an amazing organ and its cells can and will regenerate, given half the chance. A dry month will do wonders for your liver – I know many people find that really hard; I think half of it is mindset. The way I get through it is to find something else dry and refreshing to drink (I like lime juice and sparkling water), to watch for the habitual drinking times (as I’m preparing dinner is a killer), and to reframe my mindset to “I’m doing this out of self-love” instead of “ugh, why am I punishing myself?”. I'm not religious bu Lent is round the corner, another traditional time to give something up...maybe the booze?
The food
NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) - recently been renamed as metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) - is one of the fastest growing disease states on the planet. I can’t be bothered to look up the statistics, but it’s shocking, go see for yourself. MASLD simply means that the liver is degenerating into fat – liver cells literally becoming fat cells, and therefore no longer able to do those amazing jobs listed above.
The culprit in the diet though is not fat – it’s sugar, or its next door
neighbour, refined carbohydrate. The MASLD crisis has grown with the obesity crisis – our livers were simply not designed to cope with the amount of sugar and refined carbs the modern western diet asks it to handle. And those foods – the cakes, pastas, biscuits, the Doritos, the cereals marketed at kids, the pot noodles, etc etc, come hand in hand with a glut of unrecognisable ingredients that the liver also has to handle. Disodium inosinate anyone? A flavour enhancer found in pot noodles. Diacetyl tartaric acid ester of mono- and diglycerides? An emulsifier used in bread products. Don’t think our ancestors were eating this stuff. And then there’s the high fructose corn syrup, this stuff is everywhere (check the label of your tonic water) - don’t even get me started…
Everything else
So, unless you move to the mountains of Switzerland (and even then, who knows anymore), there’s not a lot you can do about what’s in the air that you breathe. But you can do something about all the other stuff that makes its way into your body. Think carefully about what you put on your skin – everything you put on there gets into your bloodstream (how else do you think nicotine and HRT patches work?). Use minimal ingredient, natural skin products, shampoos, shower gels, etc. You don’t need perfumed toilet paper. In fact you don’t need perfume full stop – in your washing detergent, in whatever you use to clean your house, in your dishwasher tablets, in your candles, etc etc. it’s amazing, actually, once you cut this stuff out, the laundry aisle of the supermarket becomes unbearable. Strange but true.
Don’t forget what you cook on and what you store food in – chuck out that Teflon now, today, it’s full of PFAS (also known as forever chemicals). Plastic is a toughie, it’s everywhere, but do what you can and store food at home in glass or ceramic containers, not plastic. Never, ever buy or store fat (oil, peanut butter etc) in plastic.
Lovely things to support your liver
There are some wonderful and regenerative natural herbs and homeopathic remedies out there to support your liver. As a starter for 10, dandelions are one of the very best. The original dandelion and burdock wasn’t a Ben Shaws fizzy brown drink (was that just up north?), it was a herbal infusion of dandelion leaves and burdock roots. I drink it on a regular basis, it's lovely. Some other marvellous powerhouse herbs include milk thistle (known homeopathically as carduus marianus), and artichoke.
If you are looking for other ways to support you liver please do book in to see me and I will tailor a programme to support you. If you don’t have any current liver issues you can book the short 30 minute liver and gallbladder consultation, and I will talk you through what you can do personally to support your liver – it may be that a cleanse is appropriate, it may not. If you do have liver and gallbladder issues, you may need a longer / full consultation. You can book a free 15 minute discovery call to find out which consultation is best for you.
Become a liver lover!
Marie
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