Weighing in at 1.5 kilos your liver is the largest organ of your body. It is like a busy chemical-processing factory that performs over 500 functions for the body.
The healthy functioning of your liver is vital to the continued life of your physical body.
The Liver is responsible for over 250 functions including:
The list goes on, and truly testifies to the benefits of maintaining a healthy liver.
There is much you can do to improve your health, simply by giving a little TLC to your liver.
If you have high cholesterol, then rather than taking a harmful statin drug, nurture your liver!
For a sluggish bowel, acne, poor immune system, bloating or menopause supporting liver function is key.
Let’s say you eat a healthy balanced diet with only occasional alcohol but suffer from frequent chest infections, headaches or skin irritations. Nothing to do with your liver you think until you connect to dots.
You stay up too late at night then perhaps wake in the middle of the night. This is the time your liver is the most active, dumping toxins and producing such things as natural killer cells for your immune system.
However, an active liver requires you to be resting at this particular time so it can get to work.
If you wake during the nights sweating or feeling uncomfortable, tossing and turning or getting hot feet then these are signs pointing to a disturbed liver function.
Many substances including medicinal drugs commonly thought to be safe, are bombarding the liver with extra workload, acidity, inflammation and tissue damage.
For example, thousands of people around the world think nothing of taking painkillers on a regular basis yet acetominaphen (paracetemol) toxicity is common.
It is so dangerous it can completely destroy the liver function if taken only slightly above the dose stated on label. Known by various names in different countries this is panadol, tylenol and other over-the-counter cold and flu, fever and pain remedies.
Experience shows that even when prescribed appropriately at the usual therapeutic dosage, paracetamol can be toxic to the liver (hepatotoxic). (7)
Drug-induced liver injury has become a leading cause of severe liver disease in Western countries and therefore poses a major clinical and regulatory challenge. (18)
According to recent reports oxidative stress plays a pivotal role in the initiation and progression of hepatic (liver) damage following insult to a variety of hepatotoxins. The role of oxidative stress in viral hepatitis and autoimmune related liver diseases has been extensively documented. Moreover hepatotoxic chemicals damage liver cells. (1)
The liver is the largest and most vital organ of the human body. Besides its crucial role in the metabolism of nutrients, liver is responsible for bio-transformation of drugs and chemicals thereby protecting body against toxic foreign materials. In this process the liver is exposed to high concentration of toxic chemicals and their metabolites which may cause liver injury.
There are more than a hundred well known liver diseases with diversified pathology. The most frequent causes of hepatic disease include infectious agents (especially hepatitis viral A, B, and C), obesity related fatty liver disease, xenobiotics (alcohol, drugs, and chemicals) induced liver injury, inherited and genetic defects related liver diseases, autoimmune hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and primary or secondary liver cancer. (1)
So what can we do to detoxify, protect and heal our liver?
You are about to find a whole world of answers.