10 Ways to Keep Your Liver Healthy

When I was a medical student at UCLA, I happened to be on the liver transplant team. In those days, there were only a couple of surgeons who could transplant a liver so we would fly all over California to remove livers from bodies on life support. We would then fly back to UCLA and put the livers into needy recipients. It struck me as funny that the wonder of our noble cause was diminished when we wrapped the livers in saline-soaked cloths, and put them on ice in an Igloo ice chest for transportation. They even let me, the lowest man on the team, carry the precious cargo!

Those who received the livers were so grateful for the gift of life. To date, we have no way to replace the function of the liver, so those in failure were slowly dying. It was sad to see so many people who were barely hanging on to life because of liver failure.

Your liver is vital to so many aspects of your health. For example, everything you ingest has to go through the liver before it gets into the body. In this way, the liver is the primary protection for your body from toxins.

The liver is the second largest organ in the body (the skin is the largest). It is the only organ able to regenerate itself. We can lose 50% of our liver and within 2 weeks, we would have another complete liver.

The liver is an amazing organ that is essential for our body to function. Most liver specialists believe there are over 500 different functions of the liver. Besides detoxifying the things we eat, the liver also is necessary for:

Storing nutrients
Detoxifying and recycling waste
Regulating and storing energy
Regulating hormones
Digestion of fats
Making proteins
Making cholesterol
Regulating blood sugar

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Primary detoxification

The primary function of the liver is detoxification. Without this vital organ, we become overloaded with toxins and die.

It’s the liver’s job to cope with chemicals as they travel from the environment via food or drink into your body. The liver acts like a filter through which the blood flows. It removes toxic substances from the bloodstream. Some of these toxins include:

Bilirubin from the turnover of red blood cells from the spleen
Ammonia from all the proteins in the body
Drugs and medications
Alcohol
Toxins from the intestines such as pesticides, food additives, and bacterial toxins

The most common cause of acute liver failure from toxicity is ACETAMINOPHEN (Tylenol). The medication itself is not toxic, but the liver makes it into another chemical, NAPQI, which causes immediate death of liver cells. Thankfully, we don’t collapse and die every time we take Tylenol because the liver has a way to detox the NAPQI by combining it with GLUTATHIONE. Glutathione is one of the most important anti-oxidants in the body. As long as we maintain enough glutathione we will be protected from acetaminophen toxicity, but ingesting more than the liver can handle causes liver damage, and death.

Fatty Liver Disease

Besides acetaminophen, alcohol, and food additives, the liver must break down nutrients from regular food. Some foods are very toxic and damage your liver. In fact, the most common cause of liver damage is not alcohol or acetaminophen, as one of my patients, Daniel, found out.

Daniel came in to my office because his liver enzymes were slightly elevated and his life insurance company refused to give him a policy. Elevated liver enzymes means that inflamed or injured liver cells are leaking certain enzymes, into the bloodstream. Higher enzyme levels indicate more liver cells are dying. Since his disease was mild, Daniel had none of the symptoms of liver disease:

Pain
Bloating
Enlargement of the liver
Changes in stool
Turning yellow (jaundice)

We needed to find out why he had so many dying liver cells. There are several things that can cause elevated enzymes, including toxins and infections. Tests showed Daniel to have “fatty liver,” a condition created by dying liver cells.

Until recently, alcohol was the primary cause of fatty liver disease because every drop of alcohol damages the liver. One drink can cause the enzymes to be elevated on a blood test. However, because liver cells regenerate quickly, limited alcohol intake doesn’t create any permanent damage. Only people that have a slow detoxification system are more likely to get cirrhosis, or scaring of the liver, with alcohol. Less common causes include protein malnutrition, hypertension, cell toxins, and anoxia (lack of oxygen) including sleep apnea. However, now alcohol has been surpassed by a more insidious toxin.

The Worst Liver Toxin

One of the most common substances we eat has become the primary liver toxin. We give it to children, adults, old people, and even sick people. Most people don’t even know they are eating liver toxins, but what was once completely unknown has become an epidemic today. It’s sugar!

Daniel was a victim of this epidemic. Over the years, he didn’t know that sugar was building up in his liver cells. Sugar is naturally stored in the liver for use when there is no food. However, eating it every day causes sugar to fill up the cells until they can contain no more. When the cells are overloaded with sugar, they start to die, and the excess sugar is made into fat. Over time, the liver becomes riddled with fat, which is known as fatty liver disease.

The insurance company didn’t care what caused Daniel’s liver to fill with fat, whatever the toxin is, they know that fatty liver is a sign of damage, which can be deadly, so they wouldn’t insure him.

Viral Hepatitis Infections

Toxins are just one way that the liver can be damaged. When I was on the transplant team, we transplanted livers into people with all sorts of liver disease. Some of these were toxic problems, but many had infectious diseases. There are a number of infections that can damage the liver. Most of these are viruses that will only grow in liver cells.

Viral hepatitis is inflammation of the liver caused by viruses that attack liver cells. Sometimes these are very mild infections that people hardly even know they have, but other times they can cause a great deal of damage. There are several different viruses that do this, the most common being Hepatitis A, B, and C.

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Hepatitis A – is found in unsanitary water or food. It is a common infection where there are no water treatment facilities. There is a vaccine for Hepatitis A that gives lifetime immunity.

Hepatitis B – is everywhere. But in some places, such as Southeast Asia, it is more common. It is transmitted by direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of a carrier. About half of the cases have an unknown cause because no risk factors are found. It can cause chronic hepatitis and lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Hepatitis B also has a vaccine.

Hepatitis C – is the most common blood-born illness in the United States. There is no vaccine against it, and it is transmitted in the same way as hepatitis B. It also leads to liver failure and cancer.

Hope

The most wonderful thing about the liver is that it is very forgiving. If damaged, the liver regenerates itself – that is, until it gets scarred (cirrhosis). For example, people who abuse their livers with alcohol can quit drinking and return to normal, as long as there is no cirrhosis. Those that get infected with a virus can take antibiotics to clear the infection, and often return to normal as well. By decreasing inflammation and improving the immune system, liver damage can be minimal.

Keeping a healthy liver

The best way to keep your liver healthy is to avoid all things that may cause damage. Don’t engage in risky behaviors that may bring on an infection, and avoid toxins that damage the liver. This also includes daily maintenance, and periodic cleansing.

1. Eat organic food

People who eat organic have a lower body burden of toxins. This includes organic meat, as well as vegetables. Remember, the chicken is what it eats, too! Choose from the organic section of the store. Or, better yet, grow your own and eat your own vegetables fresh from the garden.

2. Avoid alcohol

3. Avoid sugar

Especially avoid added fructose. Fructose found in sugar and juice is made into fat and contributes to inflammation and fatty liver, as well as hypertension.

4. Avoid trans fats

Hydrogenated oils contain trans fats, which are toxic to the liver, causing fatty liver and inflammation.

5. Eat raw foods

Raw foods such as fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds contain the nutrients needed for the liver to detoxify our metabolism.

6. Use natural household products

This includes bug sprays, cleaning solutions, soaps and personal products. The general rule is, if you can’t eat it (safely), then don’t bring it home.

7. Avoid medications

Every medication has an effect on the liver; we talked about some of these earlier. Blood pressure medications, antibiotics, cholesterol medications, and even diabetes medications can damage the liver. They have their place, but limit their use as much as possible.

8. Exercise

While the liver is the second-biggest detoxification organ, the skin is the largest. There is a great deal of benefit with exercise to get the blood moving, to open up the blood vessels, and to sweat out toxins. Many go in to a sauna to sweat, but a workout produces more benefit.

9. Do a liver cleanse

There are many different liver cleanses, such as the Master cleanse, the bone broth cleanse and herbal tea cleanse, which are all modified fasts. Fasting helps get the excess toxins out of the liver since we are not eating anything that puts more toxins in. I have patients who perform liver cleanses monthly, quarterly, or annually. Your frequency depends on your need for detox.

10. Supplements

There are several supplements that help keep your liver detox mechanisms up to par. The liver produces glutathione, and there is no good direct way of supplementing it. But, we can make more of it by taking Cysteine, an amino acid, and making sure we have adequate selenium, a trace mineral.

There are also herbs that help the liver with toxins. These include:

Milk thistle extract
Turmeric
Grape seed extract
And green tea

Another useful supplement is Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA). ALA helps to regenerate anti-oxidant potential in the liver.

I am not advocating taking these supplements all the time, but everyone could benefit from a periodic (monthly) liver cleanse for a week’s time.

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Do the following for one week every month:

Cysteine – 500 mg twice per day
Selenium – 200 mcg daily
Milk Thistle extract – twice per day
Alpha Lipoic Acid – 300 mg per day

Daniel’s problem was an overload of sugar, especially fructose, as well as trans fats. He lived on Danish Pastries, since his wife loved to bake these tasty treats. It was very difficult for him to give up sugar and fatty foods. But, he was able to do so long enough to lose weight, have a more fit body, and normal liver functions so he could get insurance.

Stress Relief

Until we have a problem, we often think more about the maintenance of our cars than our own bodies. We change the oil in the car every 3,000 miles to keep it running smoothly. Plus, we would never put dirty gas in the tank, or re-use our old motor oil.

Why not keep our livers going with daily maintenance?

When we avoid toxins, eat healthy food, perform periodic liver cleanses and take supplements this brings tremendous benefits. Most of all, your stress tolerance will increase. Stress tolerance is not a yes/no question, but rather on a scale as illustrated in the diagram.

Life is hard. It is stressful. Stress is all around us. There is no way to avoid all kinds of stress – it’s an integral part of life. When we try to de-stress, we merely choose a different set of stressors.

In one way or another, all of the stress in our bodies is handled by the liver, including:

Energy production problems
Toxic insults
Emotional stress
Hormonal changes
Infections

For this reason, the healthier the liver, the better we are able to handle stress. If our liver health is very low, stress may cause us to become incapacitated or sick, but when we have a healthy or vigorous liver, we can take whatever life throws at us. This is one reason why the same stressors cause widely differing symptoms in people. A well-maintained car can handle the extra stress of pulling a trailer, for example, and in the same way, we can handle the extra stress of life if we keep our liver healthy and vigorous.