The liver is our primary detox organ. It is in charge of making toxins less dangerous through biochemical processing (filtering) inside liver cells. The liver processes every substance that enters the body, including food, drugs, and chemicals. To get lasting results and support your body’s natural detoxification organs like the skin, liver, and kidneys, you need to make lifestyle changes you can maintain. (Not just for three days per a fad gimmick). Our bodies are exposed to toxins daily. These toxins come from many environmental sources, including pollution, toxic ingredients in household cleaning products, beauty products, and processed foods. We can’t always avoid toxins, but you can reduce your toxin exposure and help your liver eliminate toxins.
The science: There are two steps to the liver’s daily task – Phase 1 and Phase 2. A toxin enters Phase 1 in the liver and is reduced to smaller metabolites, which then move onto Phase 2, where they are bound to glutathione, glycine, and sulfate. This new non-toxic metabolite can be excreted in the bile, urine, or stool.
So knowing our bodies are programmed to eliminate toxins through metabolic pathways, the question is: how do we optimize our body’s everyday functions? The truth is that detoxifying your body does not have to mean following unsustainable juice cleanses.
Practical tips on how to love up your liver and will help improve your liver's ability to detoxify your body:
Plant foods Research confirms that plant foods are more protective against chronic liver disease than animal foods.
Reduce alcohol Out of all the toxins that the liver is busy processing; alcohol moves to the front of the toxin line, no matter what. By reducing alcohol consumption to a minimum, you free up your liver to focus on other toxins.
Drink Water Any activity that keeps water-soluble compounds moving through the body helps the liver remove toxins. There is no better way to achieve this than drinking plenty of water daily. Shoot for half your body weight in ounces each day to stay well-hydrated.
Choose organic when possible The first step is to rid your diet of the obvious toxins from pesticides found in fruits and vegetables and hormones and antibiotics found in meat. If feasible, choose non-GMO foods, organic fruits and veggies, and hormone-free meat.
Eat your broccoli Certain vegetables help with liver detoxification, like the cruciferous family of vegetables that include broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. Crucifers contain sulforaphane, which helps to improve detoxification pathways. The same receptor on cells that environmental toxins use for their harmful effects is also used by cruciferous vegetables. That means when you eat more of them, you crowd out the nasty environmental toxins and strengthen your mitochondria. Mitochondria is the energy powerhouse of our cells. So for an extra boost of liver support, eat more broccoli sprouts. Research on nutritional interventions has shown them to be especially powerful.
Boost your glutathione Glutathione is the queen of detoxifiers in the body. It protects cells by cleaning up excess free radicals, the enemy agents with unpaired electrons that damage DNA, cell membranes, and proteins. Protect your cells from damage by raising your body's internal glutathione:
Add allium vegetables (onions, garlic, leeks) to your diet. Alliums are another class of vegetables that helps you make glutathione. They also contain prebiotic fibers which provide support for your gut microbiome and digestive health.
Drinking more green tea has been shown to induce glutathione production and help liver enzymes involved in detoxification.
Detox with yoga Exercising mildly and moderately, with calm breathing, helps glutathione levels.
Lemon juice Although lemon juice gets a lot of accolades, it's not magic. However, studies with results showed that lemon juice might be a potential dietary supplement for preventing and treating liver injury. So, no harm in adding a squeeze to some of your filtered water.
Soak in An Epsom-Salts Bath Although there is little direct research on the effectiveness of Epsom-salts baths for detoxification, the salts' main ingredients, magnesium and sulfate are both reputed to support detox processes, drawing toxins from the body. Plus, the stress-relieving benefits of a relaxing bath are hard to overestimate.
Exercise To move toxins out of your body, move your body! Sweat removes potentially harmful molecules through the pores, and studies report that some toxins, like heavy metals, are even more concentrated in sweat than in blood or urine.
Supplement
Take 1,000 to 1,500 mg daily of N-acetyl L-cysteine, a direct glutathione precursor.
300 to 600 mg daily Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA). This antioxidant may be extra beneficial to the liver because it increases glutathione levels.
Milk thistle: The active compounds in milk thistle are collectively called silymarin. Research shows that silymarin provides powerful antioxidant protection to the liver by inhibiting free–radical production during alcohol and acetaminophen metabolism, among other substances.
Check with your health care practitioner before taking any supplements that might interact with medications.
P.S. Non-Alcoholic Hepatic Steatosis (or fatty liver disease) is a condition in which your body stores fat in the liver and causes it to enlarge. Fatty liver disease can be caused by a bad diet and is more common in people with obesity and diabetes, but it also occurs in lean people. A liver enzyme level (ALT) higher than 19 in women or 30 in men may indicate a fatty liver, even though this is within the normal reference range.
Christina Wilson
Author