LIVE RIGHT WITH LIVER CARE!
Lisa Meller, CMP, CITP, CED
Owner | Senior Event Director | Event Consultant
By Lisa Meller, Student of Holistic Nutrition - Posted May 20, 2024
Your liver is an amazing organ, and it’s surprisingly resilient when we consider the stress we put it through in our daily lives. Day in and day out it is capable of cleaning your blood up to 409 times per day. It performs over 500 functions to keep our bodies at optimal performance, which makes it essential for life that we keep it clean and functioning at a high level for optimum health.? Let’s explore an overview of what the liver does, how you can keep it healthy, what foods you can eat to support it, and what the heck a thing called Glutathione does to support liver function.
Where is your liver?
The bulk of your liver is hiding out just under your ribcage on the right side of your body. Think “LIVE RIGHT” to remember what side it’s on. ?Live right to keep it in good health. Eat clean, organic, plant-based foods with high enzyme activity, drink clean (I mean really clean, not municipal tap!) water, breathe clean air, avoid over-exposure to electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs), exercise regularly, and THINK positively.? With these foundations, you will help your liver and help every other bodily function. Everything is related energetically!
How can you check for liver inflammation?
You can do a little self-test to check for inflammation.? To do so, inhale deeply, then exhale fully, and bend forward. Repeat. On the second exhale, reach with your right hand to put your fingers deep under your right ribcage. If you can get your fingers all the way around to fully “cup” your ribs, your liver is probably in GOOD shape! If you cannot, it’s likely that your liver is inflamed and is overtaxed. It’s time to detox!
You can also look at your EYES. Red eyes are a sign of an inflamed liver. Have you ever noticed that after going out for drinks (perhaps a few too many), your eyes are red?? If so, it’s because you are putting a ton of strain on your liver. But this can also happen with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease! Yes, that’s a thing! Pesticides, heavy metals, environmental pollutants, drugs, and other chemicals are harmful to your body, and your liver works HARD to clean it all up.
What does the liver do?
Our livers are pretty incredible. It is primarily responsible for removing waste products and foreign invaders from our blood, for regulating blood sugar levels, and for creating some essential nutrients. Some of its most important functions include:
·?????? Filters the blood – all of our blood runs through the stomach and small intestines, and then through the liver, which removes toxins, byproducts, and other substances we don’t want to hang around
·?????? Produces bile – a fluid critical to fat digestion and processing, including excretion.
·?????? Resists infections – by filtering out bacteria from the bloodstream
·?????? Stores vitamins and minerals – especially Vitamins A, D, E, K and B12, as well as Iron and Copper
·?????? Regulates blood sugar – by storing glucose as glycogen so that it can be converted back to glucose when needed for energy
·?????? Plays a role in regulating blood clotting – because Vitamin K, which can only be absorbed with the help of bile, is required for blood clotting
·?????? Supports amino acid regulation – by monitoring amino acid levels in the bloodstream so that we can continually produce complex proteins
·?????? Produces albumin – a protein that prevents fluids in the bloodstream from leaking into surrounding tissue and which carries hormones, vitamins and enzymes throughout the body
·?????? Among other amazing, interrelated functions as a pure powerhouse for life
The liver performs over 500 functions and is critical for systemic detox
How can we keep it running strong?
To keep the liver functioning at a high level, we must start with preventing OVERWORK. If we tax the liver, we see it in other organ functions, in our mood and disposition, and in our energy levels. A diseased liver means disease in many other places, like a Domino cascade.? Start with keeping your blood clean so that your liver (and kidneys) aren’t overstrained or are in a state of cell death. When hepatocytes (liver cells) die and cannot be replenished quickly enough, eventually so do you.
What is glutathione, and why should you care?
Glutathione is one of the body’s most incredible antioxidants. We can manufacture it within our own bodies, but it’s also essential that we provide through diet the critical nutrients our bodies need to make it. We can also supplement with additional foods that are already naturally rich in forms of and precursors (building blocks) of Glutathione.? Glutathione is important for fighting back when toxins are metabolized and turn into reactive oxygen species (ROS), or “free radicals”.? Free radicals are like out-of-control super bouncy balls pinging around your grandma’s house of fancy glass trinkets and dinner china! GET THE NET! That’s what Glutathione does – calms them down so that the liver stays protected. It also binds directly to toxins and heavy metals to help make them more water-soluble so that they can be carried out of the bloodstream and into our waste.
What is Glutathione Peroxidase, and why is it important?
·?????? Glutathione Peroxidase (GPx) is actually a family of over 50 enzymes. A few are exceptionally prevalent in high levels in liver cells. Glutathione is clearly a critical component of these enzyme complexes.? GPx reduces hydrogen peroxide into water and peroxide, and it reduces lipid hyperperoxides (products of lipid, or fat, metabolism) into more stable species. It’s like bouncing a wet, soggy old tennis ball with a flat on one side in the house rather than a superball. (The dog can easily catch the soggy ball and carry it outdoors, where it belongs!)
What foods are good for getting glutathione into the diet?
Start with nourishing your body with precursors to making your own Glutathione. You will need:
·?????? Energy in the form of ATP (so feed your mitochondria!)
·?????? Amino acids Cysteine, Glycine, and Glutamate
·?????? Vitamin B6
·?????? Zinc
And add into your diet foods that are naturally rich in Glutathione Peroxidase (living enzymes), as well as the precursor vitamins and minerals. Eating Glutathione-rich plant foods provide a form of GPx that the body can convert to replenish its supply. These foods include sulfur-rich cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, kale, spinach, and especially avocado! You will also want Selenium-rich foods like Brazil nuts and seeds.
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What other foods help to heal the liver?
Other foods that are great for liver health and for its detox include:
·?????? Healthy fats such as Olive oil
·?????? Garlic – especially for its antimicrobial, multi-faceted allicin
·?????? Vitamin C rich foods such as bell peppers and citrus, (including the limonene in the peels!)
·?????? Avocado – a great source of glutathione and of fiber!
·?????? Legumes
·?????? Almonds and pumpkin seeds
·?????? Beta-carotene rich foods such as carrots
(This is why a great crudité platter of veggies is so awesome with a healthy guacamole dip! Skip the chips, and spoon it out with veggie sticks!)
If you also eat a diet high in fiber, you will help the liver heal by allowing bile to be excreted, with its bound toxins, in your poop. If bile has to keep recycling, which it will in an attempt to detox the body, your liver will be forced to repeat rinsing the same polluted bile over and over again. With a high fiber diet, you relieve stress and can clean the blood much more quickly and effectively!
Wrapping it up . . .
Your liver is critical to your ability to LIVE RIGHT. It’s on the right side of your body, under the rib. It cleans the blood, removes toxins, regulates sugars and amino acid levels, stores hormones, and works to keep systems in check. Eat foods that support liver health and the building blocks it needs to properly function. If you keep your liver running well, you’ll have energy, clear whites of your eyes, and will avoid a whole host of diseases related to cardiovascular health, diabetes, cancer and other ailments of inflammation.
May 2024 - Lisa Meller is a student of Energetic Health Institute and is pursuing her board certification as a Holistic Nutritionist.
A few highlight articles and resources are listed below, in addition to texts and materials used in course education.
Mitochondrial damage and hepatocyte cell death - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0098299708000629
Role of Glutathione redox status in liver injury
Drug metabolism and the Cytochrome p450 phase I & II interactions https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4093435/
Cytochrome p450 and drug interaction https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2007/0801/p391.html
Role of Glutathione in liver detox
Role of glutathione
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Board Certified in Holistic Nutrition?
4 个月Great article, EHI sister! ?? I love the analogies used. ??
Regional Sales Representative | Destination Marketing | Contractor and Free-Lance Travel Staff
6 个月Great article Lisa!! I learned a lot! thank you for sharing