How do I make my liver healthy again?
Whilst bad habits can temporarily hinder your liver, by putting helpful habits back into place, such as eating a diet rich in fibre, bitter vegetables and antioxidants, drinking enough water, moving more and improving your circulation, managing your body weight, plus, addressing any underlying hormone imbalances, you can help to make your liver healthy again.
What signs could suggest your liver is unhappy
Your liver is responsible for a number of functions, as follows:
- Digesting your food properly, particularly supporting the breakdown of fats with the help of bile.
- Manufacturing and balancing cholesterol levels in the body.
- Controlling fat and carbohydrate metabolism which then directly impacts your energy levels.
- Regulating the balance of sex hormones, thyroid hormones, cortisone and other adrenal hormones.
Therefore, if your liver functions are sluggish, you may notice symptoms including:
- Inadequate digestion, particularly of fats, which may lead to altered bowel movements
- Unbalanced cholesterol levels
- Low energy
- Weight loss, or weight gain around the abdomen
- Hormone imbalance, including sex, thyroid or stress hormones.
- Mood swings, including feeling angrier than normal.
So, if you suspect your liver isn't working optimally, how can you bring this important organ back to life?
How do I make my liver healthy again?
My advice for rejuvenating your liver is as follows:
1. Eat well
Eat well to ensure your liver is happy. Your liver has to process everything you eat, as it enters your bloodstream and hepatic circulation from your digestive tract. So, you could help keep your liver happier by eating more of the following foods:
- Foods rich in fibre. These include fruit, vegetables and wholegrains. These will help to eliminate any extra cholesterol and keep your main exit routes open, taking the weight off your liver.
- Foods rich in antioxidants. These include vibrantly-coloured fruit and veg such as berries and beetroots, citrus fruits, and phytonutrient-rich green tea. These antioxidants help to keep your liver cells happy and working optimally.
- Bitter foods. These include green leaves, including dandelion greens, nettles, artichoke, rocket, chicory, and olives. These help to support the functions of your liver and prevent stagnation.
Plus, less of the unhelpful kinds of foods, such as:
- Foods high in refined sugars. These include your beige foods, which often contain little fibre, and aren't so kind to your blood sugar, meaning your liver needs to work harder to process the extra influx of sugars. In excess, many of these can end up being converted into triglycerides or glycogen, the storage forms of sugar and fats, some of which can actually end up being stored around the liver itself – this state being known as fatty liver.
- Bad fats. Much like refined sugars, the excess fats which can be found in fried foods, processed items and cheap, highly refined vegetable oils make your liver work harder whilst providing very little in the way of nutrients to compensate for these functions.
- Alcohol. Your liver is responsible for filtering out toxins such as alcohol. Reduce alcohol consumption and aim to only have smaller amounts of good quality alcoholic products, if any, alongside food rather than on an empty stomach.
2. Move more
Living a sedentary lifestyle can be detrimental for your liver. A strong and healthy circulation helps to keep your liver and digestive system more generally healthy (which is why drinking adequate water is so important too), as this helps to take a continuous supply of nutrients to your liver, and carry any waste products away more efficiently.
As well as improving your circulation, practicing deep breathing is also thought to be especially nourishing for the liver and the hepatic vein that serves it.
Moving more also helps to mobilise more of your energy stores, turning excess glycogen back into glucose, where it can be put to good use to energise you.
3. Poo more
Arguably before you do much else, if you want to really support your liver, you need to ensure that your liver's waste removal channels are open, and this involves opening your key elimination pathways – the main one being your bowel - before we even really focus on getting the liver working optimally.
Remember, if the liver is working well but your elimination channels haven't been adequately cleared yet, you could end up with toxins that have been broken down correctly, but then with no way for them to efficiently leave the body! Constipation and a bunged-up bowel will only mean that old toxins are recirculating and putting unwanted, additional pressure on your liver.
Therefore, by simply drinking more water and going to the loo more regularly, you are helping to perfectly start the process of reducing the pressure on your liver.
4. Address hormone imbalance
Interestingly, it works both ways when it comes to your liver and hormones. Not only is your liver responsible for balancing many of your hormones, but if your hormones are really out of balance, there's only so much your liver can do to help to restore this balance.
So, if your hormones are off balance in the first place, for example, in the case of menopause or PMS, it makes sense to target the underlying problem first, rather than simply relying on your poor liver to pick up all the slack.
Supporting your system with a herb such as Agnus castus first, for example, may be helpful in some cases of underlying PMS; or options including fermented soy isoflavones or the herb milk thistle, (1) during menopause.
5. Consider what else you are putting in
We often associate alcohol with liver health, but actually, anything you put into your system as well as food or drinks, could be having an effect on your liver. This could mean medications, and even supplements. Everything you consume should be considered carefully in terms of why you need it, how you take it, how much you take, and if there are any liver-supporting alternatives.
6. Sleep more
Much like the rest of your digestive system, sleep is a time for your liver to restore and rejuvenate.
Research suggests that even losing just one night's sleep can majorly alter how your liver functions. The research, although done in an animal model, showed that sleep deprivation altered the liver's ability to process insulin, which majorly altered glucose and triglyceride levels in the body. (2)
Over time, these states could be major precursors for the symptoms associated with metabolic syndrome, such as altered blood sugar levels and pre-diabetes.
Include bitter foods and herbs
If you want to go above and beyond for your liver, this is where bitter herbs come in. Bitter foods are thought to be some of the best for your liver, and the very taste of bitterness in your mouth can help to spur many of your digestive organs into action. Beyond the taste themselves, these foods are also often extremely nutrient-dense, and eating more foods like these will also leave less room for more unhelpful picks.
If, realistically, you struggle to include a source of bitterness at the start of every meal, a bitter-tasting digestive remedy such as A.Vogel's Milk Thistle Complex could make a suitable substitute.
Milk Thistle herbal drops
- Made from milk thistle seeds (fruit).
- Also contains fresh plant extracts of Artichoke, Dandelion & Peppermint
2. Oily fish
Oily fish is the next ingredient on my list if you're keen to join the quest in healing your gut. Oily fish is beneficial for a number of reasons. Firstly, omega-3 is extremely anti-inflammatory and can, therefore, help to heal and ward off the damaging effects of excess inflammation.
Oily fish are also a good source of vitamin D, another anti-inflammatory agent. Plus, if you opt for small fish with the bones still in them, you'll get an extra dose of calcium plus collagen – all extra-nourishing!
Finally, human and animal studies have highlighted the ability of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) to positively influence the balance of bacteria in your gut. These bacteria produce beneficial short-chain fatty acids, such as butyrate, which helps to inhibit the growth of damaging pathogens. They also maintain the health of the intestinal lining and can help to repair existing damage in this area. (2)
3. Bitter herbs
Nowadays, in a typical Western-style diet many of the bitter elements of our diet have been lost and instead, there are more copious sweet or salty elements. However, bitter tastes, including bitter herbs such as dandelion, for example, have an important role in helping to stimulate your own natural balance of gastric secretions. In turn, sufficient gastric secretions help to support the balance of bacteria throughout the gut and help to prevent bad bacteria such as H.pylori from damaging the lining of the stomach and beyond.
4. Healthy fats
I've already touched on the health benefits of omega-3 but healthy fats, in general, are important! People are often scared of fats when in actual fact, if choosing the right ones they can be hugely beneficial as a result of their anti-inflammatory properties.
Many plant-based sources of healthy fats can include nuts, seeds, avocados, olives or coconuts. Nuts and other plant-based fat sources, which are found in high amounts in dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean-style diet, are rich in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. In some cases, healthy fats also contain naturally occurring polyphenols, and other phytochemicals, and have been associated with increased bacterial diversity, as well being heavy in beneficial butyrate-producing bacteria that can impart a positive whole-body, metabolic influence. (3)
A diverse range of good gut bacteria certainly seems to be the key to good health so the more varied your diet, the better. Just watch out for processed foods including highly refined vegetable oils that can activate more pro-inflammatory pathways in the body.
5. Dark leafy greens
Dark leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables are particularly helpful for your gut. These provide food for your good gut bacteria in order for them to keep exerting their beneficial effects on their surroundings – your digestive tract! (4)
As a rule of thumb, I try and encourage people to eat 30 different fresh foods per week. This can include good quality wholegrains, protein, plus healthy fats. Try not to repeat the same foods the next week for even more variety!
6. Healthy carbs
Carbohydrates also shouldn't be shunned, we just need to opt for the right types. 'White carbs' tend to be white because they've been stripped back and refined. Unfortunately, this processing takes with it much of their key nutrient content, plus the all-important fibre content.
Carbs that are left in their whole form, including brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, lentils or beans, to name a few, are more nutrient-rich and fibre-dense – the recipe for a happy gut.
Please note, if you find you're a little intolerant to certain fibres such as FODMAPs, you may need to employ some repair work at an earlier stage in your digestion, such as focussing on steps like chewing, and supporting your stomach with bitter herbs, as mentioned above.
7. Fermented foods
Last but not least, fermented foods could arguably be the number one food for your gut but, just like anything, too much of a good thing isn't the way to go. Instead, you should incorporate these in moderation and as part of a healthy, balanced diet.
Fermented foods often contain both pre- and probiotic elements. Prebiotics help to set the correct internal environment of the gut to enable good gut bacteria to survive, such as with a good dose of L+ lactic acid.
On the other hand, probiotics contain some of the bacteria themselves. Watch out for probiotic foods with added extras in them, though, such as sugar (a common feature in commercial yoghurts, for example), so instead opt for options such as sauerkraut or kimchi, or even better, why not try making your own?
Once again, a happy microbiome will help to keep the gut in which they live happy and healthy.
