The liver is a large, meaty organ that is located on the right side of the body, just above the stomach. 
Weighing approximately 3 lbs., it is the largest organ in your body. It is also one of the most important organs—acting as your body’s personal toxic waste plant.
The Liver’s Role
Your liver chemically breaks down anything that you consume. It is your liver’s job to distinguish between the nutrients you need to absorb (like vitamins and minerals), and the dangerous or unnecessary substances that must be filtered out of your bloodstream (like drugs or alcohol).
Unfortunately, maintaining the health of your liver is easier said than done. Pollution, processed foods, medication and alcohol consumption; all clog and overwhelm the liver.
Making it difficult for it to process the nutrients and fats your body needs. This causes a buildup of toxins in the body, which drastically affects your overall health and wellbeing.
Symptoms of Liver Toxicity
An example of some of the symptoms of liver toxicity include:
• Acne
• Dry, brittle hair
• Nightmares
• Difficulty losing weight
• Insomnia
• Exhaustion
• Flu-like feelings
• Difficulty thinking or focusing
• Pain under right rib
• Blood sugar imbalances
Keeping an eye out for some of these symptoms and monitoring your liver every once-in-a-while is very important and detoxifying the liver is very beneficial to maintaining good health.
7 Ways to Support Healthy Liver Function
Here are a few ways that you can detoxify your liver:
1. Eat Clean. Eat a well-balanced, nutritionally adequate diet. Focus on consuming as much natural, organic food as possible. Reduce intake of salt and fatty foods, which contribute to fatty liver disease, by avoiding deep-fried or highly processed food. Avoid sugars, especially processed sugars (white sugar, glucose-fructose, corn syrup) that promote fat deposits in the liver.
2. Avoid drugs and alcohol. Processing alcohol and drugs (including prescription drugs) is very taxing on the liver.
3. Eat More Fibre. Get more into you; a diet high in fibre (both soluble and non-soluble) helps the liver to function effectively.
4. Drink more water! Staying hydrated improves the flow of nutrients to, and waste products from, this liver. Dehydration can increase the risk of gallstones.
5. Spice Up Your Meals with Turmeric. Turmeric has impressive anti-inflammatory effect throughout the body, including the liver. It is excellent against a liver virus or infection. (Cinnamon and licorice are also great to support liver detoxification.)
6. Cleanse. Using herbs, such as dandelion root, milk thistle and burdock, along with green tea are a great way to cleanse and protect the liver.
7. Visit your wellness chiropractor. The liver works and stays healthy, because of the nerves controlling it. These nerves come from the spine. If the spine is misaligned, the nerves do not work as they should. The liver can become sick. Removal of subluxations is a chiropractor’s specialty. Book a consultation with one of our chiropractors to determine if a spinal misalignment could be putting your liver at risk.
By supporting our liver, we are improving so many aspects of our health and allowing our body to be able to detoxify itself through the liver.
