Hyvin
A Natural Health and Wellness Blog

Personal Spring Cleaning… on the Inside!
Detox the Detox Organ… Keep your Liver Healthy!

The liver plays many crucial roles in normal metabolism, including detoxification. This important internal organ may need some spring cleaning, and here’s why:

There is a wide range of foreign compounds the liver may be called upon to detoxify, including:

• Benzopyrenes (from tobacco smoke or smoke from grilling foods)
• Acetone (from nail polish remover, paints, varnishes, thinners)
• Heterocyclic amines (from lighter fluid, hydrocarbon solvents, barbecued or broiled meats)
• Nitrosamines (from processed foods)
• Polycyclic hydrocarbons (from car exhaust, fumes from burning fossil fuels)
• Insecticides, herbicides, and fertilizers
• Ammonia and other household chemicals
• Alcoholic beverages
• Some over-the-counter and prescription drugs: antiulcer, analgesic, antiflammatory, anticonvulsant, antihyperlipidemic, etc.

When the structure of these compounds is changed in the liver, free radicals are released. Free radicals then attack the cell membranes of liver cells. If their attack is successful, the integrity of the cell is impaired leading to cell damage and even cell death. Despite the liver’s amazing ability to regenerate itself, if too many liver cells are destroyed or damaged by free radical-induced oxidation, the liver’s ability to perform important functions may be decreased.

And what, besides detoxification, are those important functions? Well, you could think of the liver as a kind of industrial processing plant for the body, performing a wide range of critical functions for physical maintenance and repair.

Let’s take a look at some of the different departmental functions of the amazing liver.

• Warehouse and Shipping Depot for Nutrients. When you eat, foods are broken down into component nutrients by the process of digestion, absorbed, and transported by the blood to the liver. The liver receives the nutrients and assigns some to the storage while others are “packaged” and shipped to parts of the body to fill their needs.

  As another kind of “shipping and receiving” function, the liver helps to regulate normal blood sugar levels in response to the action of hormones produced by the pancreas.

• Protein Manufacturing Plant. The liver assembles amino acids into essential proteins needed for the immune system’s antibodies, blood clotting, and many other bodily functions.
• Waste Treatment Plant. When blood enters the liver, it carries not only nutrients, but also a wide range of other substances absorbed through our skin, through our lungs, and through our digestive systems. Any compound the body doesn’t need for nutritional supplies is identified as “foreign” and targeted for “disassembly” and disposal. Specialized liver enzymes perform the function of changing the chemical structure of foreign compounds so they can be excreted.
• Hazardous Waste Transport and Disposal. Once the liver has broken down toxic substances, they can be excreted by the kidneys in urine or transported to the intestines in bile, which is manufactured by the liver and stored in the gallbladder. When needed, bile is released into the intestines where it works along with dietary fiber to bind toxins and facilitate their elimination from the body as part of fecal waste.

So, in order to ensure that all these functions are done to the best of the liver’s ability, we need to do our part in optimizing our liver function. Many natural health professionals recommend a periodic cleansing of the liver as a part of this. There are two primary strategies we can use to optimize liver function:

1. Antioxidant Protection. Research continues to identify nutrients that protect various cells and tissues in the body against the oxidation damage caused by free radicals. By supplying the body with herbal compounds that have antioxidant properties, the liver’s natural ability to regenerate itself after exposure to damaging oxidation reactions can be supported.
2. Improving Bile Flow. The longer toxic substances and their oxidative by-products are present in the liver and the gastrointestinal tract, the more damage they can do. By providing the body with compounds that help maintain normal bile flow, the body’s natural ability to eliminate toxins from the body can be supported.

What substances best provide these strategies?

• Milk thistle seed extract – supports the body’s normal ability to make proteins that help regenerate liver cells
• Schizandra and reishi mushrooms – herbs with antioxidant properties; schizandra has also been associated with the stimulation of protein synthesis, increasing the amount of detoxifying enzymes in the liver, and inhibiting the binding of toxins to cell membranes.
• Extracts of dandelion, turmeric, and artichoke – herbs that help maintain normal bile flow.

You can get all of these herbs in one formulation for a spring cleaning of your liver!