The liver is not only the main laboratory, but also the biggest organ of our body. Despite its big role and hard work, it is not always treated by us with respect and care. We know that we have it, we sometimes feel it, but most of all we neglect it. We often remember about it after “joyful” holidays, happy Christmas or big parties.

In order to understand the liver and become friends with it, we must get to know it better, accept its habits and rules of hard work. Liver fills the bigger part of our abdomen. It is conical, weights from 1 to 1,5 kg. it is made of two parts – left and right. The right one is six times bigger than the left one and is divided into three smaller ones. This particular organ of the human body is as the only one supplied by two separate blood sources – the liver artery supplies fresh blood from the heart and the portal vein transports the blood full of nutrients from the stomach and guts.

The liver artery and the portal vein go into the liver and are divided into smaller blood vessels. The smallest veins and arteries go into the microscopic sinus spaces covered with rows of highly specializes liver cells. Those structures create the “microscopic lakes” in which the dead and cancerous cells, yeasts, viruses, bacteria, parasites are “absorbed”. What is more, they neutralize the artificial chemical compounds, indigested proteins and foreign organisms.

This very précised structure has a strategic role in liver functioning. This central laboratory identifies all the compounds that get into the organism, it neutralizes toxins and creates the blood compounds that condition the metabolic processes and body immunity.

Of the key role of the liver states the fact that this organ produces over 1000 different enzymes necessary for the digestion process and absorption of nutrients. It manages also some of the hormones. It is a massive blood vessel. On average about 1,4 liter of blood flows through it. When body rests, about 1 liter of blood is collected inside and at the moment of hard work almost everything is disposed in the body. We should remember that the liver is the main organ responsible for the balance and proper burning of fat in our body. One of the key functions is the production of bile, about 800-1000 ml of which is produced inside the body. This bitter-sweet fluid created by the liver cells has a bit alkaline pH and temporarily stays in the gall bladder or goes straight to the duodenum where it partially neutralizes the acid food remains going from the stomach and it creates the emulsion with the particles of fat.

Without the bile we wouldn’t digest fats present in our food. The composition of bile, its density and way of its removal from the body depends greatly on the type of food. Fat meals rich in proteins and refined sugar cause the emission of denser bile that enable creation of stones. The scale of problem is shown by the research conducted in the 90s that prove that in the developed countries one man out of nine produces kidneys already at the age of 16-20 and at the age of 65 every third person has them.

Liver also produces urea that, as a final product of the protein changes, is removed by the kidneys. Also this organ supplies the body in lymph in 30-50 percent. In order to understand how hard our liver works, we should remember that every year we eat about 8 kg of different chemical compounds, our diet is rich in the highly purified carbohydrates, a lot of sugar and improper fat. Additionally, we take more and more medicines and different stimulants that damage our liver tissues.

The products that regularly burden our liver include: fried meals, canned food, cold meat, large amounts of cheese, powdered milk, dried eggs, highly processed plant oils, butter-like products, margarine and large amounts of animal fats. Also harmful are great amounts of fizzy drinks containing sweeteners and preservatives, cold snacks with vinegar and highly processed food. Food with high content of starch, especially white flour, pastry, puffy white rolls, “enhanced” bread or different ice-cream, bars, chips, breadsticks, cookies and other ready snacks.

The black list also contains food eaten in great amounts: alcohol, strong tea, coffee, cocoa, pepper, ketchup, mustard, etc. Now it is easier to understand why the cleaning properties of our bodies end so quickly. Most of popular foods in our modern diet are the products that decrease the functionality of the liver. If the amount of the toxic compounds absorbed from the environment and food is to high, the liver cells will be overcharged with toxins after some time. Then the liver is not able to properly clean the blood and the toxins begin to accumulate inside the body causing the metabolic processes and homeostasis (balance) disorders.

For centuries the Chinese medicine has regarded the liver as the harmony. Indeed, when we look closer at the environment we can notice e.g. a strong correlation between the emotional state and condition and state of this organ. Even the temporary poisoning of the liver causes the excess excitement, agitation, anger, irrational irritation, sleeping troubles, dizziness and constant headaches. A longer state caused by poisoning or improper diet additionally deepens the irritability, tensions, troubles with memory and logical thinking, it “grows” depression. The state of “constant poisoning” may be also the reason of higher blood pressure, storing water in the body, hypoglycemia or the varying sugar level in blood. Excessive using of pharmacotherapy usually removes those temporary symptoms without removing the main reason.

Additionally each factor decreasing the efficiency of the liver and damaging its tissues causes the weakening of the immune system.

At the moment of large contaminations, a part of nutritive received from food omits the liver and goes through other veins (without the possibility of changing into more absorbable form which is necessary for the organism). Then we most often suffer from the deficiency of the nutrients and the unprocessed particles, foreign for our organism, become strong allergens.

In this way the new list of metabolic disorders appears. As a result, the “toxic internal environment” still weakens other organs burdening and exhausting the immune system and gradually leading to a long list of illnesses that are not always associated with their real cause. Among them there are the persistent headaches, itchy and burning cornea, chronic exhaustion, lungs irritation, asthma attacks, recurring anemia, problems with muscles, chronic guts inflammations, gallstones, fatty liver, liver inflammation, persistent immune disorders, autoimmunological diseases and cancers. Those problems do not appear when the liver is healthy and when it has a supply of energy thanks to which it can regenerate and work properly.

According to the newest researches, this organ has a large ability to regenerate, thanks to which, despite high loading, can still renew quickly on the condition that we will give it a chance with a proper diet and conscious cleansing of the body.

The first step to improve the liver functioning is the elimination of the highly processes plant fats, the excess of animal fats, the generally available “industrial” food, artificial additions, colorants, preservatives, refined sugar, alcohol and overused medicines. The diet should be full of: proteins with a low fat content, mainly: natural semi-fat cottage cheese, kefir, beans, peas, chickpea, lentils, wheat germs, free-range eggs, low-fat fish and meat.

The fats that are used always in small amounts and the preferred ones are the cold-pressed plant oils, especially the flaxseed, pumpkin and olive oils. The animal fats include occasionally the clarified butter. Very helpful are green vegetables, especially: broccoli, parsley, zucchini, tomatoes, garden cabbage, different kinds of lettuces, celery, beetroot and carrot. The beneficial is also eating small amounts of mild natural pickles (may be of cabbage, cucumber and other pickled vegetables), salads as well as the steamed horseradish and  garlic.

The helpful fruit are dried plums, strawberries, cherries, grapes, grapefruits, lemons and cooked or baked apples. Valuable is the graham bread, sourdough rye bread, groats (millet, expanded millet, popping, non-roasted buckwheat), dark, wild, red rice. Depending on the gravity of the problem, at the beginning the meals should be cooked, boiled or parboiled. After some time the diet can be varied by adding fresh vegetables, vegetable juices and fruit. When we have problems with liver we should be careful when it comes to mushrooms, raw radish, kohlrabi, onion or garlic, because they sometimes may seem too heavy. Necessity is the removal of the rancid fats, rotten meals and dead food from the microwave oven.

We should remember that the liver is the weakest in late autumn and in winter. That is why in those seasons we don’t clean it too intensively, however we can improve its condition and enable its functioning. Of utmost importance is removing the constipations and improving the functioning of the large intestine. Also necessary is drinking proper amounts of clean, highly energetic water that enables rinsing toxins out of the whole body.

In this part of the year beneficial is drinking fresh beetroot and carrot juice (2:1) 1-2 x a day. A few times a week we can eat a salad made of wheat germ or sunflower, grated carrot and beetroot with the addition of a lemon and flaxseed oil. The salad can be enriched with different herbal spices, chopped parsley or dill. A valuable addition is also the mixture of minced flaxseed, almonds, sesame and sunflower seeds. The sour and a bit salty taste stimulates the liver and the gall bladder, however the spicy, hot meals weaken those organs. The gall bladder and liver reach their energetic minimum between 11.00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. They have the most energy between 11:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m., that is why it should be the time of resting.

In the horizontal position those organs are cleaned faster. Additionally, we can enable their regeneration by drinking a mixture of freshly squeezed juice with ½ of grapefruit and two spoons of flaxseed or olive oil before going to sleep. As the liver “loves warmth”, the whole process will be accelerated by the hot water bottle laid on the right side of the stomach.

In diet we should also remember about complementing the beta-carotene (provitamin A), the natural vitamins of group B, vitamin C with flavonoids, Omega 3 acids. Helpful may be also young nettle, dandelion, pansy and tutsan tea (that can be drunk by people that do not have “0” type blood). The end of March and April are the best months to clean those organs. That is why each beneficial change of diet and used cleaning treatment will improve our physical and mental mood.

The liver decides greatly about the biochemistry of our body, so if we give it a chance, we can quickly feel the difference in our attitude and general state of health and the world is more colorful when we take the liver into consideration.

Author : dr Grażyna Pająk