Detoxify Your Liver

Why the Liver is key to your health

We live in a world now where obesity and diabetes are more commonplace than ever and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Our bodies have been exposed to around 87000 chemicals via our food and water supply in the last 60 years with more than 700 contaminants being present in our bodies at any one time. Our liver was simply not designed for that kind of bombardment, no matter how good it is. We need to give it every chance to keep us healthy.

One of the widest misconceptions in fitness and exercise is that if you continually flog yourself in the gym you will get that six pack, or at least trim the tyre from your middle to a size you are happy with.

Unfortunately this is 100% incorrect!

You simply cannot out train a bad diet, no matter how much you want it to work.

And this leads me to the second misconception about fat loss, that if you eat less calories than you consume then you will get the desired result. If that was the case then everyone would be slim. But it just doesn’t work that way.

100 calories of a mars bar does not equal 100 calories of Broccoli. So what else is in the mix? What other factors exist that can be preventing you from getting lean and looking great?

I am going to stick one more thing in here for you to think about.

You can be lean and UNHEALTHY.

I have seen plenty fighters from UFC to Sport Karate who may have a 6 pack but their stomachs are so distended that you have to look twice to see if they actually drew the 6 pack on.

People have placed so much importance on fat loss that they forget about their health. They do anything they can to look great, sometimes to the detriment of themselves. Being unhealthy is a sure fire way to low energy, lethargy and illness. Not something you want when you want to be the best you can be to compete or even just be a great ‘recreational’ fighter.

The crazy thing is, is that if you just have a paradigm shift and focus on your health first, fat loss takes care of itself!
After years of studying health I have found that the quickest and most effective way of losing the spare tyre and decreasing body fat is LIVER DETOXIFICATION.

That’s right. You have to think about your liver first!

The Liver is one of the largest organs in the body and located in the upper right quadrant of you ‘belly’, under the ribs.  The Liver literally is the key to everything that we do as it is responsible for functions vital to our lives.

Liver Functions

So what does the liver do for us?

• It processes nutrients from the food we consume

• It produces Bile, which helps with the digestion of food especially fats. Without it cholesterol levels rise, causing digestive disorders and stomach bloating, IBS, nausea, food allergies and poor vitamin absorption (particularly A, D, K and E).

• Blood sugar levels are balanced by the liver and if this function fails the result is chronic fatigue, sugar cravings, weight gain and ultimately diabetes.

• Removal of toxins from the body

• Detoxification of the blood

• Breaks down fats for energy (lipogenesis)

• Production of sex hormone binding globulins, which are used to soak up and remove excess sex hormones like oestrogen and testosterone.

• Converts amino Acids into proteins

• The storage of vitamins, minerals (Vitamin A, D, B12, Copper & iron) and energy (glycogen)

• Highest producer of serotonin (the feel good hormone), so if the liver is overburdened, we won’t feel great at all!

With so many functions it’s easy to see how any disruption to the Liver can have a massive impact on how well we function and can lead to poor health.

If the Liver is stressed/overly taxed then our ability to use the nutrients from the food we eat, remove toxins, repair, recover and regenerate are severely impaired. It follows then that our ability to produce energy is greatly affected by how well our liver functions.

Fat Burning

The liver is also the major fat burning organ in the body and regulates fat metabolism which is very dependent on various nutrients that are sadly lacking in most modern diets.

When the liver becomes overwhelmed with the incredible amount of toxins that we are subjected to daily, the body will end up storing the toxins as body fat. What is also interesting is that when the liver becomes dysfunctional we lose our ability to convert inactive thyroid hormones into active thyroid hormones which is crucial for fat loss.

Signs of poor Liver health

There are many signs of poor liver health. See how many you can identify from the list below:

• Poor metabolism of fats: Excessive weight gain, high cholesterol, inability to lose weight even when dieting. Sluggish metabolism, Pot Belly and roll of fat around upper abdomen.

• Digestive Problems: Indigestion, abdominal bloating, alcohol intolerance, flatulence, constipation, IBS, sugar cravings, passing stools less than 2 times a day, pale or yellow stool.

• Nervous System Problems: low mood / depression, mood changes especially anger and irritability (usually due to excess sex hormones), poor concentration, body ‘overheating’ especially face and torso.

• Immune System Problems: Allergies, food & chemical sensitivities, skin rashes and inflammation, chronic fatigue, recurrent viral, bacterial and parasitic infections.

• Energy Problems: Problems waking up and getting started in the morning, feeling the need for stimulants such as coffee/tea to kick start you, sugar cravings, energy fluctuations especially after eating.

• Pain:  General joint aches and pains, regular headaches and migraines, shortness of breath, regular use of painkillers.

• External Signs: There are many external signs that can indicate an over stressed liver. They include: Coated tongue, bad breath, itchy skin, body odour, excessive sweating, dark circles under eyes, itchy ears or ear infections, excessive nasal mucus, acne, brown spots on skin (Liver spots), flushed facial appearance, rapid intoxication with alcohol, easy bruising, PMS/Heavy periods.

If you have ever done any kind of detox, you may recognise these symptoms. When you stop consuming toxic foods and your liver begins to function more normally, the first thing it does is signal your cells to dispose of the toxins they contain. This results in a “toxic dump” where the body releases all the toxins it has stored at the same time.

If you have ever given up coffee for example, you will most likely have had the mother of all headaches for a few days!

“When the Liver does not function properly, toxins that we are exposed to accumulate in the body and are stored as fat”

So what do we do?

There are 3 rules that I follow

• Remove
• Replenish
• Reinforce

Remove the Toxic Load

The key to a healthy liver is to remove the burden placed on it that you place on it, namely:

• Wheat
• Dairy
• Caffeine
• Alcohol
• Processed Foods
• Sugar
• Chemical additives
• Xenoestrogens
• Plastics
• Heavy metals
• Medications

You can have an immediate impact, by removing these things from your system. You stop ingesting them. When the liver is under stress, the last thing you want to do is to give it more to do. So get the liver healthy first before leaning up and avoid the following:

• Any kind of stimulants, coffee, energy drinks etc
• Eating too much
• Reactive foods, anything that are potentially allergenic (wheat, dairy, yeast)
• Eating too often (shoot for 3 nutrient dense meals per day)

Replenish the Liver

• Start with a micronutrient dense diet. Make sure you get as many vitamins and minerals into your body as possible. Magnesium and B vitamins especially.
• Cut down on nuts and seeds and remove soya and any grains. These can be high in Phytic acid, which binds with magnesium, calcium, zinc and other minerals. This removes them from our system before our body can use them. This causes deficiencies, which means the liver cannot function properly.
• Choose foods that are easily digestible.
• Drink more filtered water, aim for 1 litre per 50lb of bodyweight, more if you are training.

Reinforce the liver

There are plenty of things you can do to make sure the liver is healthy by adding the following things to your diet:

Beetroot is a high-antioxidant vegetable that contains a number of important substances, including: betaine, which promotes the flow of bile from the liver and also protects the liver from the toxic effect of alcohol.

Apples contain Pectin, which is helps to bind and excrete heavy metals through the intestines.

Garlic contains allicin and selenium, both antioxidants that assist in the removal of heavy metals

Carrots are the richest source of vitamin A that the body can assimilate. It also contains an ample supply of vitamins B, C, D, E, G, and K.

Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, radishes, bok choy, turnips and kale help the liver produce enzymes for detoxification.

Eggs, brown rice, broccoli and spinach are rich in B vitamins, which improve liver function and promote liver decongestion

Tomatoes are a rich source of lycopene. The antioxidants in lycopene protect the liver from free radical damage. This allows the liver to function optimally, metabolizing and removing toxins from the body.

Taurine is the major amino acid required by the liver for the removal of toxic chemicals.

Dandelion root & beet leaf are a natural herbs used to help stimulate bile production while also promoting healthy liver detoxification.

Artichoke helps contribute to the maintenance of normal liver function and normal digestion.

Lecithin contains healthy fats, which are required for the functional and structural integrity of cell membranes. It thins the bile so that toxins and chemicals can flow out of the liver more readily.

Ginger is a powerful antioxidant that attacks dangerous free radicals and can boost your body’s production of detoxifying enzymes.

Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant for the liver and reduces toxic damage to the liver cells from chemical over load.

Take Detoxifying Supplements

With the best will in the world even the cleanest diets can be found lacking in nutrients. This is due in part to intensive farming methods, where fertilisers designed to make plants grow quickly instead of replenishing the soil with vital minerals are used. If it isn’t in the soil it isn’t in the plant.

So to cover all bases, make sure you get in quality supplements. To aid with the detox use a multi vitamin or better yet a detoxifying greens drink (I use lean greens – www.lean-greans.co.uk ), fish oils and magnesium as well as getting in as many of the foods mentioned above.

Lets Sum this up…

We can do our liver a massive favour and instead of trying to ‘fix’ the symptoms (effect), look at the cause and sort them out first.

There is not clear definitive time period for how long it takes an over stressed dysfunctional liver to get back to being fully functional. What is great though is that the liver is remarkable in that given the ‘tools’ it needs it can regenerate given the time to do so.

Follow the Remove, replenish reinforce rules, allow the liver to regenerate, give your body health and see what you get in return!

To your strength and Health

Dean Coulson

(Reproduced from My Nutrition Article in Martial Arts Illustrated http://www.martialartsunltd.co.uk/martial-arts-illustrated/magazines/764-martial-arts-illustrated-june-2014)