First some questions:
–Do you have a tendency to be fatigued?
–Do you have high blood pressure?
–Do you have high cholesterol?
–Do you have arthritis or any other auto-immune disease?
–Are you overweight?
–Have you had cancer?
–Have you had an injury to tendons in your shoulder or knees even though the trauma was actually not that substantial?
If you answer yes to any of the above, be suspicious that your liver is not working well. Even if you answered no to the above, be suspicious that your liver is not working well.
Many problems in our physical, and even, emotional health, can stem from a sluggish, toxic liver. The liver is like our internal processing plant. It metabolizes and transforms our food into different forms. It alters toxins into non-toxic forms or into a form that can be easily eliminated from the body. Anything that involves taking one substance and changing it to another substance likely involves the liver. It is the largest organ in our body, and it is like a giant factory where millions of chemical reactions take place.
When our liver is unhealthy, our internal processing plant gets sluggish. Toxins do not get processed efficiently. Hormones and blood sugar get out of balance. Food we ingest causes us to bloat instead of smoothly being digested and processed. This can set up lots of problems.
At this point in my career, I give a lot of respect to the liver. This is in contrast to when I was in medical school. At that point, if a patient did not have hepatitis, did not drink to excess, and did not overdose on Tylenol, I assumed everything was just fine. Now I think differently. To give an idea of the depth of the problem, consider these words from a professor of anatomy, Richard Schulze.
Often in bodies of people over 60 the internal organs are in such a mess it is difficult for students to identify things. They smell so bad students would run from the room and even vomit. One time…almost every student started to vomit all over the laboratory. After that incident I always tried to get the bodies of younger people killed prematurely due to an accident so the internal organs would be more normal.
…What was surprising to me was how many young individuals would have fairly normal looking internal organs, but when you got to the liver and gallbladder, well, it was like an alien encounter. Often the liver was shaped drastically different swollen much larger than normal, filled with bloody fluids, pus, tumors, scar tissue and parasites. Every student was shocked to see such advanced degeneration in such young, supposedly healthy people.
[From Dr. Schulze's Bi-Monthly Newsletter Natural Healing Publications, May 2002, with thanks to author Paul Pitchford for finding and quoting it in his book Healing with Whole Foods.]
Dr. Schulze’s comment may make you a bit queasy, but it makes you ask, what is going on? Why are the livers of young people so toxic? We can sum up the answer in two words: the “American diet.” Our diet, rich in meats, processed carbohydrates, and refined oils wreaks havoc on the liver. This is before we factor in the pesticides we spray on plants and the toxic pharmaceuticals products we ingest.
What Dr. Schulze does not make clear is the consequences of having advanced degeneration in our liver. After all, not everyone is running around with hepatitis. Teasing out the consequences of why this is such a problem is complex, and I plan to begin putting into words you can understand in future entries. For now, here’s some initial advice on how to protect your liver:
–Avoid all processed carbohydrates, especially sugar.
–Avoid all refined oils. The clearer, the better-looking the oil, the more toxic it is likely to be to the liver. Look for “organic” and “unfiltered” oils. I stick to olive oil, flax seed oil, preferably from freshly ground flax seeds, and organic ghee. Trans-fats, a subject of much media attention, are especially toxic and difficult for the liver to process, but most other processed oils are close behind.
–As a rule, anything created in the laboratory, such as splenda and nutrasweet, is especially toxic for the liver. Stay as close to natural food sources as you can.
–Avoid Tylenol, especially if you are over 50.
–If you were not breast fed a minimum of 6 months, your potential for a toxic, poorly functioning liver, are greatly increased. If you are in poor health and were not breast fed, your liver is highly suspicious for being the cause. This deserves a consult for a deeper look and advice. Email me.
–Be careful with taking multiple supplements in pill form, particularly if you are in ill health. A lot of these vitamins and supplements stress the liver, which is in charge of processing these and can cause more harm than good. Good guidance can be essential.
