Liver burden before the age of 30, what gives?
The common health topic and buzz words lately are surrounding gut health and the gut microbiome. This is great and your gut health is extremely important, but we are missing a key organ that works right alongside the gut and that is the Liver.
Where do I even begin? I guess I will start by saying that although I am sharing my knowledge and the education I have surrounding this topic, I want you to know that I am working on my liver health every single day. I’m still figuring it out and navigating the world of detox. This isn’t medical advice and I highly recommend getting in touch with your provider if you feel that you may have some liver burden.
When I share that I am not only working on my liver health but helping my clients do the same, the common response I receive is “why? you’re young and healthy, the liver can detox on its own” and while that's true, the reality is that the liver can no longer keep up with the standard American diet and lifestyle.
Gosh, I have so much to say about this topic I’m going to try to keep it short and sweet!
I could argue that the liver is one of THE most important organs in the body. When I was working as a nurse, taking care of a liver diseased patient was extremely difficult for me. The suffering, the medications, the color of their skin, and the complete distention of their abdomen, it’s horrible and I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. This opened my eyes to chronic health and the importance of supporting your body BEFORE symptoms or disease takes over.
About a year ago I started working with a functional medicine doctor, taking a naturopathic root to health and healing. At the start, I was solely focused on my gut health but after running several lab tests, I was shocked to discover my liver was burdened and struggling to detox. I want to mention that I was 27 at the time and drank alcohol MAYBE 2x a week and rarely more than 4 drinks in one sitting.
Alcohol is not the only chemical and substance that the liver has to process and that is important to remember. After seeing my lab work and having a small fright, the next step was to eliminate the burden that was in my control and support my liver detox pathways naturally and holistically.
Here is what can burden the liver, brace yourself:
Amalgam (mercury) fillings
Mold
Tattoos
Hormonal birth control
Conventional cleaning products
Toxic beauty products
Processed packaged foods with chemicals
Seed oils
BPA found in plastics
Sugar
High fructose corn syrup
Artificial sweeteners
Hydrogenated fats = trans-fatty acids
Refined grains
BHA- endocrine disruptor found as food preservatives
MSG- excitotoxin that makes processed food taste better
Excessive caffeine
Alcohol
Pesticides
Tap water
I’m sure there are more but these are some major offenders. Just by reading this list can you see how the liver needs extra support?!
When I look at my history it makes sense that I was experiencing burden and having trouble detoxing. I have many tattoos, I had multiple mercury fillings, I was on hormonal birth control, I drank excessive caffeine, didn’t filter my water, ate processed foods and refined grains, and didn’t pay any attention to my commonly used products.
It’s scary to think that small amounts of exposure from many different sources truly add up.
Now I want you to remember that you cannot be perfect but the more you know the better you can do moving forward! It takes a long time to get sick or experience symptoms and it will take just as long to heal and thrive.
Once I started to look into the symptoms I was experiencing it made sense that it was all tied to my gut and liver! For example, my hormones were unbalanced, I was experiencing horrible acne and menstrual cycles, allergies, brain fog, depression and anxiety, fatigue, and embarrassing body odor.
Okay, that was a lot, let’s take a few deep breaths. Inhale for a count of 4, hold at the top, and exhale for a count of 7.
Managing stress is helpful to the central nervous system AND liver!! We will get into that another time. These topics can be overwhelming, but just remember to breathe, minimize overthinking, and trust that you’re on the right path.
I said I was going to keep this short and sweet, so let’s jump into some ways that we can reduce the toxic load. In my next blog, we’ll say part 2, I will dive deeper into supporting your liver and gut holistically.
For now, common ways to reduce your toxic load can look like improving your excretion of toxins that the liver is already filtering. You don’t want to reabsorb the toxins that the liver worked so hard to process! This can look like bowel movements 1-3 times a day, sweating, optimizing nutrients for liver and kidney excretion, avoiding toxins in the home, cosmetics, and sunscreens, removing food allergens and harmful additives from your diet, reducing sugar and alcohol intake, and reducing exposure to harmful substances.
These changes can be overwhelming and I encourage you to take them day by day.
First, start by becoming aware of your lifestyle and what could be causing a burden on your liver and gut health! Then head back here for part 2- we will work on this together!