Does Your Liver Need Cleansing?

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Dr Sandra Cabot believes it is an excellent strategy to cleanse your liver if you have symptoms of liver dysfunction which can include –

Difficulty losing weight
Indigestion or irritable bowel syndrome
Allergies
Gallbladder problems
Bloating
Fatigue
Overheating
Bad breath
Itchy skin or rashes
High cholesterol and /or triglycerides
Excess inflammation

The liver is amazing –

It can totally regenerate itself provided 25% of the healthy liver remains
A healthy liver filters about 1.7 litres of blood per minute
It contains 300 billion specialized cells.
It produces one litre of bile in 24 hours, and bile is an excellent route to eliminate toxins and heavy metals

Your liver is a physical filter, and all filters need periodical cleansing. The filters in your car engine need maintenance or they clog up, and the engine eventually fails.

Your liver receives all the blood from your gut, and this can contain bacteria, parasites, chemicals, microplastics, unhealthy cells and incompletely digested food, especially if you have a leaky gut. The liver filter traps all these unwanted things before they can get deeper into your body. The detoxification pathways inside the liver cells then turn these dangerous toxins into water-soluble safer substances that can then be excreted from the body in watery fluids such as the urine, bile, sweat and saliva. If your liver does not do this, they stay in your body and overload your immune system causing inflammation. The liver filter also contains special cells (macrophages) which engulf and destroy unwanted rubbish trapped by the liver filter.

Your body is a combustion engine and creates waste products of metabolism which build up in blood stream. The liver breaks down these internally produced waste products and also all the environmental toxins we are now exposed to.

I have recently seen the benefits of a liver cleansing and low carbohydrate diet in two of my patients.

Beverly is a woman in her late 70s and over 5 months has lost 16 kilograms in weight – this was loss of body fat and not muscle. She also cured her reflux and asthma and now she no longer needs to be dependent on strong antacid drugs and inhalers.

Michelle is in her 60s and has lost 14 kilograms over 4 months – this was loss of body fat and not muscle. She had very elevated liver enzymes indicating severe liver inflammation and also suffered with chronic fungal infection of her toenails. Her liver enzymes have come down dramatically, and her toenails are no longer infected. She has been able to reduce the amount of medication she was taking.

Both these patients took a liver formula and N-Acetyl-Cysteine.

Both Beverly and Michelle had a fatty liver and insulin resistance which were damaging their health in many ways.

Things you can do to cleanse your liver

The 12-week Liver Cleansing Diet or the 15-day Dr Cabot Cleanse.

Boost your liver’s production of glutathione by taking a supplement of N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC).

Take a comprehensive liver formula containing milk thistle, turmeric, selenium, B vitamins, and taurine to support the several detoxification pathways inside your liver cells. For more information call 0246554666.

Increase the number of polyphenols you consume from brightly coloured vegetables and fruits – good colours to eat are yellow, orange, red, purple, blue and green.

Increase the production of sulforaphane in your liver by eating foods high in sulphur such as cruciferous vegetable, shallots, onion, garlic. Sprouting broccoli seeds boosts sulforaphane and they are nice in salads.

Eggs are high in the sulphur bearing amino acid methionine which the liver requires to detoxify.

Make sure you consume adequate amounts of omega 3 essential fatty acids as they are vital for healthy liver cell membranes.

So, if you are struggling with excess weight, fatigue and inflammation, or some mystery illness, and your doctor cannot pinpoint the cause, think about your liver. I often find that patients who feel “stuck” with their health problems forget to think about their liver, and it is often the missing part of the jig saw puzzle.

Chinese traditional medicine calls the liver “The General of the Army of the body” and they are right, the liver directs and balances other organs, and it needs to be working efficiently.