The liver is a mighty and hard-working organ; it performs over 500 functions to keep us healthy. Being as big as a football, it is the second-largest organ in our body after the skin.
Our liver plays a critical role in our digestive system. Everything we eat or drink, or take in, including the medicine passes through it.
This body organ is wonderfully resilient and complex. It nurtures and protects our body day after day, year after year. It helps clean our blood by disposing of harmful chemicals and toxins. It feeds our body with energy and fights off viruses and infections. The liver regulates sex hormones, cholesterol levels, and vitamin and mineral supplies in our body.
It makes bile, the liquid that helps to break down fat from food. Through liver function, sugar or glucose is stored, which gives us a quick energy boost when we need it.
The liver is unique as it is the only organ that can regenerate itself, making it possible to donate its parts from person to person.
Top Benefits of a Healthy Liver
- Processes nutrients from the food we eat!
Minutes after we eat a meal, our liver begins to sort out the breakdown of fats and sugars. Firstly, our liver processes vitamins and minerals from our food. Secondly, stores them for future use, and lastly, it converts them into quick energy (glucose) supply that keeps our mind alert and our body active.
- Cleanses blood
Our mighty liver filters all of our blood and pulls out the things that may harm our body, such as old toxins, pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol, antibiotics, and chemicals. Other substances like old hormones, damaged cells, and proteins are neutralized and safely flushed out through the liver.
Our liver is a blood-recycling factory. It continually renews our blood cells by breaking down the ones that are old or damaged. It’s the central organ of red blood cell removal and iron recycling.
- Regulates the supply of body fuel
Our body contains proteins that build our muscles, skin, and bones. The liver is in charge of the manufacturing of many essential proteins and transporting them through the blood to different body parts.
Besides, the liver produces some of the proteins that are responsible for blood clotting. Our liver also provides resistance to infection.
- Regulates the balance of many hormones and cholesterol
The liver significantly regulates the balance of sex hormones, thyroid hormones, cortisol, and other adrenal hormones. It is in charge of removing any excess hormones from the body.
Moreover, this powerful organ produces cholesterol excretes and converts it to other essential substances.
- Supplies you with energy
Another immense liver’s job is to balance the sugar in our bloodstream. All people need to maintain their blood glucose at specific levels, which vary over short periods (hours) and extended periods (days to weeks).
After our digestive system finished processing a meal, our liver removes sugars from blood and stores them in the form of glycogen, a quick-release energy reserve.
If blood sugar drops, the body converts this stored glycogen into glucose and sends it to our muscles to fuel your cells.
Consequences of an Ill-functioning Liver
A healthy liver is central for overall health and wellbeing. If the liver is overburdened or slow-moving or affected by inflammatory conditions such as fatty liver disease or hepatitis, the whole body suffers.
Liver failure may cause nutritional deficiencies that lead to severe illnesses such as brain damage and coma. The shortage in bile production brings to indigestion problems and a decrease in fatty acid production. The impaired liver may not produce enough proteins for our blood to clot effectively, which can result in severe bleeding or bruising in the event of injury.
Symptoms of the underperforming liver include fatigue, nausea, itchy skin, and brain fog.
How To Boost Liver Health
It is possible and not even too difficult to keep our liver in good condition. It’s all about a healthy lifestyle and avoiding things that are damaging and harming this beautiful organ.
You can support your liver with the following natural supplements that are scientifically proven to be good liver health:
- Artichoke Leaf
- Turmeric Root
- Dandelion Root
- Yellow Dock Root
- Beetroot
- Ginger
- Choline
- Molybdenum
- Selenium
These elements will boost your energy, eliminate brain fog, and more.
But like it is said earlier: taking care of your liver is not only about taking things to yourselves that are nourishing and supporting, but it is more importantly about avoiding what’s bad for this organ.
Here is some advice on how to keep your liver in a healthy condition:
– Don’t consume a lot of alcohol. Too much alcohol damage liver cells and leads to its swelling that becomes a which can be deadly.
How much alcohol is too much? While some warn against excessive consumption, others recommend not drinking alcohol at all. But in general, men shouldn’t consume more than two drinks a day, and women have only one.
– It’s essential to know how the food we eat affects our liver. A well-balanced diet is suitable for most people, and those with an existing liver condition should consider a disease-specific diet. If you have advanced liver disease, you would need to select a therapeutic nutritional dietary. As well as eating well and keeping a balanced diet, it is vital to maintain strength and a healthy weight through regular exercise. As a result, your liver will thank you, and your weight will be under control. All of these together will help to prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a condition that leads to cirrhosis. Learn more about the impact of organic food here.
– Generally, if you take vitamin preparations, you want to do something good for your body. But you should never use supplements and vitamins as a substitute for a healthy, balanced diet with fresh foods. It could come to some as a surprise, but a high vitamin A dose could lead to liver problems, headaches, and skin irritations. In the same way, vitamin B3 (niacin) could also damage the liver.
– Various studies suggest that fruit sugar, also known as fructose, increases the risk of fatty liver. Only very few pay attention to the fructose content of the food. Yet there is more fructose in 100 grams of apples than sugar in 100 milliliters of cola.
– Those who take particularly frequent or intense medication can damage the liver. Watch out for specific medicines like paracetamol. High doses of this drug and the painkiller acetaminophen (Tylenol) can harm the liver. Some take more acetaminophen than they realize as it is found in hundreds of drugs like cold medicines and prescription pain medicines.
Several cholesterol drugs can also occasionally have a side effect on liver functions. Never take medication lightly and never take it longer or more often than recommended.
– Learn how to prevent viral hepatitis, a severe disease that hurts the liver. You can get hepatitis A from eating or drinking water that has the virus that causes the disease. You cut the risk of catching hepatitis B and C by not sharing toothbrushes, razors, and needles and using latex condoms as they are passed through blood and body fluids, and sex.
– Unfortunately, some cleaning products, aerosol products, and insecticides contain chemicals and toxins that can damage your liver. Could you avoid direct contact with chemicals? Additives in cigarettes are also damaging to your liver, so don’t smoke.
By educating yourself about your liver and how to keep it healthy, you not only reduce the risk of developing the liver disease but also preventing some other health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease.
In conclusion, keep your liver healthy, follow a healthy lifestyle, and keep a close eye on medicines and toxins. Support your liver with healthy foods, exercise, and moderate intake of alcohol.
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