If your memory and vision aren’t as sharp, you often feel tired and sluggish, or just can’t seem to lose weight no matter how hard you try, it may be a fatigued liver, and worth seeing a doctor to have checked out.
The liver is the hardest working organ in the body, each and every day it performs over 500 essential functions such as:
- Balancing sex hormones
- Producing over 13,000 chemicals
- Regulating over 50,000 enzymes
- Producing bile to break down fat and help food digestion
- Maintaining healthy blood sugar, amino acids, and cholesterol
- Storing essential nutrients
- Converting glucose into energy
- detoxifying waste products and pollutants for elimination
With age the liver becomes less efficient and can have trouble carrying out all its many functions, to add to that decades of exposure to heavy metals, chemicals, pesticides and air pollution can cause the liver to age faster. If the liver is not able to keep up with its heavy workload it may not be able to heal itself and regenerate as well, causing it to deteriorate and shrink. Worse yet, it starts to develop shorter telomeres at faster rates, as telomeres shorten, you age at an escalating rate.
Fatigued liver can lead to many symptoms such as age spots, joint and back pain, high cholesterol, poor immunity, poor sex drive, hormone imbalances, skin discolouration, memory issues, vision problems, muscle loss, indigestion, constipation, tiredness, mood swings, weight gain, cellulite, and the liver become clogged with fat deposits among other things.
There are steps you can take to help support liver health such as being physically active, maintaining a healthy balanced diet, and taking supplements such as milk thistle, licorice root, the mushroom royal agaricus, phosphatidylcholine nutrients, quercetin, NAC, alpha-lipoic acid, and selenium.
Licorice roots helps to boost the liver and adrenal glands, it contains glycyrrhizin that slows the breakdown of adrenal hormones such as cortisol, progesterone, and aldosterone which takes a lot of stress off and enhances liver function, defends against liver inflammation and injury, and helps to prevent drug toxicity.
The mushroom royal agaricus is the highest known beta-1-3 of any mushroom. Beta-glucans help to stimulate the immune system and help to fight off viruses, bacteria, inflammation, and other pathogens and toxins.
The nutrient phosphatidylcholine helps to remove fat deposits and cholesterol in the liver, reduces damage caused by alcohol, viruses, and toxins while helping the liver to regenerate.
Quercetin has been shown to protect the liver from free radical attacks and DNA damage. In lab tests it has been shown to extend cell lifespan by up to 60%. Quercetin helps to improve cholesterol, guards against inflammatory damage, prevent fat accumulation in the liver, and helps to reduce abdominal fat.
NAC is a precursor to glutathione and is a powerful antioxidant, it helps to neutralize free radical, protect from oxidative damage, and helps the liver to detoxify. It is also a vasodilator and helps to boost blood flow to the liver which carries nutrients to it.
Alpha-lipoic acid is an antioxidant that fends off harmful free radicals, recharges vitamins C and E, binds with free radicals and fat deposits, prevents triglyceride build up, and help with weight control.
Selenium stimulates production of the enzyme glutathione peroxidase that protects the liver against oxidative injury, and help to preserve tissues and keeps them elastic. Selenium also prevents some heavy metals from damaging cells and tissues in the body.
Milk thistle has been studied heavily, it helps to protect the liver from drugs, toxins, alcohol, inflammation, regulated cholesterol, improves blood sugar, neutralizes free radicals, and helps the liver repair itself by growing new cells, among other things.
Having a healthy liver means more energy, you will feel stronger, healthier, and happier. Your body will be able to digest food better, convert glucose to energy, burn fat more effectively, rid the body of toxins, fight off inflammation and infections, and strengthen the immune system. The liver is hard working, and is worth making an effort to take care of.
