Signs Your Liver Isn’t working properly

Your liver is a vital organ that is essential for keeping you healthy. Our liver works constantly to detoxify our bodies. The liver helps to metabolise drugs and remove toxins from the body. It also helps with absorbing nutrients and much more. If we don’t look after our liver it can lead to it failing. However, there are some signs that you can keep a look out for, and if you have these you should get your liver checked..

Signs of a struggling liver

One sign that could mean you have a struggling liver is dark urine. If you have dark urine but your stools are lighter than normal it could mean that your liver is in trouble. Pain in your right shoulder can also be coming from liver problems. If this is the case it could be that there is a tumour growing and you need to get it checked. The reason sometimes for the pain is because as the tumour grows it creates a lot of pressure on the nerves around it. If the pain is coming from your liver, you might notice that you are getting hiccups more easily as it also puts pressure on your stomach. If there is pain coming from only your right ribs it could be coming from your liver. Also, if throwing up becomes a regular thing it could be because your liver isn’t working properly. It becomes difficult for our bodies to process foods and liquids when the liver is failing. Protein is needed for our body to produce blood clots, which are made in the liver. When the liver is in trouble it will cause your protein levels decrease. This causes frequent bruising and bleeding.

 

If you find that you are feeling drained every day, more than you should, it may also mean that you have liver issues. If the liver isn’t functioning properly it leads to a waste build up in the liver, this causes lower oxygen levels making us feel tired all the time. Another symptom is if your appetite has changed, although this could be for many reasons, it could mean that your liver is suffering. If this is the case you may find that you lose your appetite almost completely. If you are still eating the same amount of food a day but find you are losing weight it could also mean that there is a problem with your liver. When your liver fails the toxins build up in our bloodstream and flow to your brain. This makes it difficult to concentrate and causes memory issues. Rapid changes in sleeping habits could also mean liver issues. Jaundice occurs when waste builds up in your body and bile pigment flows into your bloodstream. This condition should be taken as a serious warning that something is wrong with your liver. Problems with the liver, heart or kidney, can cause fluid to build up in the lower parts of your body.

What is the remedy?

You need to check in with your doctor and natural therapist. Both because your doctor will do the correct medical tests, blood tests, ultrasounds etc. that are needed. Your natural therapist will be able to give you the right supplements, find out your deficiencies, build up your immunity and detox you and your liver. It is important to do these as liver damage can have serious repercussions and it is easy to over work a liver in today’s fast food society. The liver is a regenerative organ so if you do this within time and with care you will be feeling better. This is not an illness to let go though. Take care of it now.

 

The importance of your Liver

The liver is the largest internal organ in your body and it is something you cannot live without. Your liver has important jobs to do and one of these is to help remove toxins and harmful substances. However, when it comes to the liver it can be very difficult to tell how well it is working. The reason for this is it doesn’t have the capabilities to skip beats like your heart or produce a cough to let you know that it is not working properly until it falls to around 10% capacity of its normal working abilities.

Roles your liver plays

Your liver is made up of two main lobes which are located beneath your diaphragm and on top of your stomach, your right kidney, and your intestines. When your liver is healthy it produces bile which helps remove waste and break down fats. It helps to regulate the levels of protein, sugar, and fat entering your bloodstream and it cleans drugs and alcohol from your blood. The liver also processes the nutrients absorbed by your intestines during digestion, helps to ensure your blood clots when you hurt yourself by producing proteins, cholesterol and clotting factors. It also regulates a lot of your hormones and neutralises free radicals.

The impact of being overweight on your liver

There is new research that suggests that the liver may age faster than the rest of your body if there is excess weight around your waist. This research showed that for a 10-unit increase in BMI the physiological age of the liver increased by 3.3 years. They also found that this increase in years on your liver cannot be reversed by losing weight. Alcohol is also harmful to your liver but there is something that can cause more damage and that is fructose, the most damaging form of sugar when it comes to your liver. This is found in some form in nearly every processed food in your supermarket. Your liver needs to 100% break down the fructose unlike glucose which only needs to be partially broken down before the body uses it. Fructose is metabolised straight into fat which then gets stored in your liver and other internal organs and tissues as body fat. This can lead to mitochondrial malfunction. Fructose produces toxins and free radicals when it is metabolised which can lead to liver inflammation.

Fructose isn’t the only thing that harm your liver though. There are toxins in your home, water, and the air. These are the chemicals in plastics like phthalates and BPA/BPS, flame-retardants, and formaldehyde. These could be in your furniture, carpeting and vinyl floor coverings, building materials, paint, mattresses, vinyl shower curtains, children’s toys, plastic water bottles and containers and scented beauty products.

Time to detox

The good thing is that you can detox your liver from all these harmful substances. There are many

great ways to detox the liver however you need to talk to a naturopath or nutritionist before you do this because if you do it the wrong way you will actually increase the toxins in your body. To ensure your liver detoxes you need to make sure your bowel is functioning properly and you are going to the toilet on a regular basis. If not then the detox, whatever you use, will only go into your bowel and then cycle back into your liver making your body even more toxic. This is a very simplistic explanation of how it works but you need to be aware of this. So don’t rush off to the shop to buy a detox that could be wrong for you. Speak to a trained professional about it. Here at our clinic we carefully investigate your digestive processes before we find a detox that is right for you. Give us a call or email us today to book either an online or face to face session so we can get things moving for you in the right direction.

Detoxing and Your Liver

Your liver, brain and heart are all important organs in your body. The liver is also the largest organ in the body and is located in the upper abdomen below the diaphragm, to the right of the stomach.

The liver does a number of things for your body to help keep you healthy. It helps to fight infection and disease, cleanses the blood, processes and eliminates toxins and unwanted substances from the body. The liver also helps to process digested foods and nutrients, it produces the bile that your body uses to break down fats, and helps to produce and regulate cholesterol. Your liver stores vitamin B12, copper, iron, and glycogen which is the body’s glucose storage. This is why it is very important that you make sure you are taking good care of your liver.

Taking care of your liver can be easily done by making some small changes to your diet and lifestyle.

Herbs

Herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion root, artichoke and liquorice can help to protect your liver. They do this by stimulating bile flow and can also help the liver to regenerate itself. 

Eat Your Greens

Green foods such as vegetables, salad, chlorophyll, spirulina and chlorella, sea vegetables and barley grass are all good for your liver. They help eliminate toxins, reduce excess fat and fluid, help balance acid/alkaline levels and strengthen the immune system. Always try to buy organic fruits and vegetables to keep your toxin levels low – free from poisons, insecticides, hormones and antibiotics which will build up and stop the liver functioning properly.

Flush Your Liver and Drink Plenty of Water

Flushing your liver removes toxins, cholesterol build up and gallstones, while freeing the way for bile flow. To flush the liver, drink a mixture of olive oil, Epsom salts and grapefruit juice before bed. Another way to help remove toxins is to drink lots of water - two litres of filtered water a day. Small and frequent sips are best. It is recommended to avoid a lot of water with meals as this may cause the gastric juices in the stomach to dilute making your digestion slower and increasing the load on the liver.

Medications

Residues of drugs and medications build up in the liver and cause toxicity. It is good to give your liver a break from medications such as painkillers, anti-inflammatory, antibiotics, HRT and the pill however never do this without the consent of your doctor and consult with your natural practitioner also.

Alcohol

The liver is responsible for metabolising alcohol which, if you drink too much, can cause cellular malformations, scarring and inflammation. These affect your liver function. Caffeine can also cause the body to release glycogen stores into the blood which slows the organs ability to cleanse the blood. On the other hand coffee enemas have been proven to be good as a detoxifier as it relaxes the muscles of the small intestine and anus helping to dilate the bile ducts and blood vessels.

Sleep

Sleep helps by releasing melatonin into the body which shares the body’s toxic load with the liver and helps neutralise free radicals and regenerates the body.

If you need to do a liver detox because you feel toxic and bloated why not give us a call? Never do a liver detox til you have done a bowel detox as it will create a toxic cycle if you do it the wrong way round. We are open again shortly after the New Year and can make a detox plan just for you and your lifestyle. In our clinic or online.