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Taking care of your liver is an important step to regaining and maintaining health. For a more in-depth detoxification program, or to schedule an appointment, contact Dr. Hanson at drjaredhanson@gmail.com or call 917-607-5035.

April 2009 Newsletter From Dr. Jared Hanson ND, LAc

Love Your Liver

What the Liver Does & Why You Should Care

Ancient Babylonians considered the liver the seat of the soul. In fact they even practiced hepatoscopy or haruspicy, which is the interpretation of the livers of sacrificed animals for signs of the will of the gods. Even today, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Liver is said to house the Ethereal Soul.

In modern physiology, it is more appropriate to say the liver is the center of your metabolism. It may have been this role in metabolism, creating a large portion of body heat, that explains its association with the soul. The liver also plays a key role in digestion and in detoxification. It deserves a little appreciation.

Snugly nestled under your diaphragm on the right side of your body, with its highest point just under the nipple, the liver is well-protected by the ribcage and in a living and healthy person it is quite delicate and smooth. The liver has a unique relationship to the other organs in the digestive system. Whereas other organs in the body receive oxygen-rich blood from the heart and return oxygen-poor blood directly back to it, blood from the stomach, spleen, pancreas, large and small intestines makes an extra stop at the liver before returning to the heart. This gives the liver, your body’s primary organ of detoxification, a chance to separate out and neutralize toxins from the nutrition absorbed from food you’ve eaten. This is a very intelligent design and allows your liver to protect more vulnerable organs, such as your brain or heart, from an overload of toxicity.

After being neutralized by the liver, toxins are secreted out of the liver with the bile, while nutrients are processed and stored or released into the general circulation to be used by the cells of the body. The liver is constantly producing bile, about a liter per day, but it is only used during digestion. In the meantime, bile is stored and concentrated in the gallbladder, which empties into the small intestines as food from the stomach enters. Bile is responsible for the liver’s vital role in digestion. What does bile do? It plays a role in neutralizing stomach acid and deterring microbes that have been ingested, but its major function is to emulsify fats so they can be absorbed.

So you see that your liver is central to digestion and detoxification, but that is not all. The liver plays an important role in blood sugar control: when blood sugar is high after a meal the liver stores the excess or converts it to fat, and when you haven’t eaten for a while and blood sugar is low the liver releases stored sugar and can even convert fats and proteins into available energy.

The liver is like a chemical factory, producing a variety of important biochemicals including blood constituents and immune system components. The liver produces a large part of the cholesterol your body makes, this cholesterol is used by other organs to create hormones such as cortisol, estrogen, testosterone and vitamin D (we call it a vitamin, but really it’s a hormone). After they are released, it is the liver’s job to dispose of these hormones, including insulin, before they build up to unhealthy levels. The liver is also the storage site for the fat soluble vitamins, that’s vitamins A, D, E and K as well as minerals such as copper and iron.

So why is this important to you?

Because the liver plays an important role in so many physiological processes, it also plays an important role when those processes become imbalanced and we become ill. Surely the liver needs to be addressed in liver diseases such as hepatitis, but due to its role in blood sugar metabolism it is also important to address the liver in type II diabetes. Due to the liver’s role in hormone metabolism, treatment for hormone-related conditions, such as PMS, PCOS, fibroids or acne must in part be directed at the liver. Because the liver is so important in cholesterol balance, as well as other cardiovascular disease markers, such as fibrinogen or triglycerides, the liver must be attended to when cholesterol is high, artherosclerosis is present, or there is a history of heart disease. If you are regularly exposed to toxins at work or recreationally, or if you are taking pharmaceutical drugs, you need to take care of your liver as it is the liver that protects you from being damaged by these chemicals.

So, if you suffer from chronic illness, or if you’d like to avoid chronic illness, it pays to give your liver a little love.

What are some steps we can take?

First, minimize, as much as possible, your toxic burden. If you work around chemicals, use the appropriate safety procedures. Eat organic and use organic cleaning products and cosmetics. Use pharmaceutical medication only when absolutely necessary. Limit alcohol intake. Keep a lot of houseplants to filter toxins from the air, make your home a jungle.

Support your liver’s ability to detox. Detoxification is done by a multitude of enzymes in your liver and each type of those enzymes needs particular nutrients to work properly. These include the B vitamins, vitamins A, C & E, magnesium, selenium, iron, manganese, zinc as well as a number of essential amino acids. To put this another way: you should take a good multivitamin to ensure adequate amounts of these important nutrients. Other supplements known to help the liver are N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), l-carnitine, SAMe, inositol and choline.

Herbal medicines play an important role in improving liver health. One of my favorites is the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), the root is known to improve bile production and flow. The kitchen spice turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a potent anti-oxidant which protects the liver from damage by toxins. And, perhaps the most famous liver herb, milk thistle (Silybum marianum) has even been shown to prevent the fibrosis that characterizes cirrhosis in advanced cases.

In addition to these herbs, certain foods are known to improve liver health. Beets, radishes, bitter leafy greens (dandelion greens, broccoli rabe), and artichokes are all great liver foods.