Detoxifying Your Liver

The liver is the key organ responsible for a great percentage of our detoxification. Over-consumption of alcohol, food additives, prescription drugs, pesticides on our foods, and fatty foods as well as water treatment chemicals, industrial chemicals, and exhaust fumes all pollute our bodies and abuse the liver.

To enhance your body’s performance, cleansing and detoxifying your liver is one of the most important things you can do. A liver cleanse greatly improves regularity, digestion, energy levels and transit times.

The liver is a very busy organ with approximately three pints of blood passing through it every minute. The liver’s jobs include extracting nutrients, oxygen, toxins and waste products from the blood. In order for the liver to do this, it is dependent on a generous supply of nutrients in order for detoxing to take place. That’s why it’s important to eat a variety of whole live foods in your daily diet, such as fresh fruits and vegetables.

Your liver function becomes sluggish when it is overloaded and this can lead to serious fatigue, weight gain, water retention, and a host of other health problems. A liver cleansing can help with a fatty liver or cirrhosis of the liver, and save you needless surgery for gallstones. Liver cleansing diets and liver support supplements can help you avoid possible subsequent complications from liver disease, and the development of other afflictions related to an unhealthy liver.

Important point to remember: Do a colon cleanse before your liver cleanse. A major function of the liver is to clean your blood, and the best way to make it as easy as possible for the liver to do this is to cleanse the colon first, so the blood that comes to your liver is as toxin-free as possible.

When one has had a poor diet and poor elimination for years, the colon has become obstructed with accumulated debris. If your colon is blocked, the massive amounts of toxins to be eliminated from a liver cleansing are not easily evacuated from your body. Therefore, it is very important to cleanse the colon before beginning your liver cleanse.

Our Toxic World
In our modern world, our liver – and all other organs – are at great risk of contamination from environmental toxins and over-processed foods infused with many unnatural chemicals. If your liver is not functioning well, a hazardous buildup of toxins may occur. When this happens, the liver can’t function properly to regulate, synthesize, store and secrete important proteins and nutrients. It can’t properly make enzymes and bile to help digest our food, which are substances needed for life and growth.

The Liver and Gallstones

An estimated one billion people in the world will suffer gall bladder disease at some stage in their life. In the US, 20 million adults suffer from attacks of gallstones every year. Most people assume that gallstones occur only in the gallbladder, but most gallstones are actually formed in the liver. A liver congested with gallstones may be one of the most common, yet rarely recognized causes of illness today. These non-calcified hardened bile deposits (gallstones) congesting the liver bile ducts are invisible to X-rays and rarely show up in ultrasound scans. In alternative and complementary medicine, the health practitioner who knows the signs and indications of gallstones in the liver and gall bladder can easily determine the degree of gallstone formation in these organs.

Being porous, gallstones can collect bacteria, cysts, viruses, and parasites that are passing through the liver. In a snowball effect, this then forms pockets of infection and supplies the body with more bacteria in a vicious cycle. This kind of congestion overworks the liver, and these trapped deposits of hardened bile prevent pollutants from being flushed out of the body and can back up in your bloodstream.

By removing the stones through a series of liver cleanses, and consequently maintaining a reasonably healthy diet and lifestyle, the liver returns to its natural efficiency, and most, if not all, symptoms of discomfort begin to subside. Energy and well-being notably increase with cleansing.

Sweeping the liver clean eliminates thousands of bits of poisonous substances that have helped form the stones and block thousands of liver bile ducts. By re-opening the bile ducts, the body’s energy circuits become restored and healing can take place on all levels of body, mind and spirit.

How Do You Know You Need To Cleanse?

There are several ailments that indicate you may need a liver cleanse, and they include:

• Chronic indigestion
• Allergies
• PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome)
• Chemical sensitivities
• Constipation
• Bloating
• Obesity
• Low metabolism
• Low energy
• Feelings of irritability, frustration and anger
• Muscle pain
• Inability to relax

Precautions

If possible, do not take any pharmaceuticals during your liver flush. If you are under a physician’s care, consult with him or her prior to your cleanse, and follow your doctor’s instructions concerning your medications. Remember, when you are detoxifying your liver, you will not receive full benefit from any medication because they may be flushed out with the cleanse, reducing their effectiveness.

When You Should Not Liver Cleanse:

• A colon cleanse should be done before your liver cleanse.
• When ill
• During pregnancy or lactation
• Keep away from young children
• If you have a medical concern, consult with your healthcare professional.

Final Step

After you have completed liver cleansing, it is important to cleanse the colon again. Some of the toxins and waste products removed from the liver may remain in the colon. If not re-cleansed, the colon may reabsorb these toxins and re-toxify your blood and body.

Your liver has the marvelous ability to recover and regenerate. All it needs is a good cleanse to help jump-start the miracle. The liver is capable of regenerating itself, and is able to recreate lost tissue in order to help maintain its essential functions, even in the face of moderate damage. When part of the liver is removed, a healthy organ may grow back to its original size. But its capacity to repair itself only happens by keeping your liver as healthy and cleansed as possible.

There are many options for colon and liver cleanses at health food stores as well as on the internet. It is best to choose products from proven reputable companies to get the best quality and value