Is Your Liver Causing Your Gut Problems?

If your digestion’s feeling a bit ‘off’, you’ve got hormone problems or your immunity is not what it could be, perhaps your liver could do with some TLC. Let’s take a quick look at some of the main jobs the liver does, and how we can support it. If you have a congested, or sluggish liver you’ll definitely feel the effects around the body, so is your liver causing your gut problems? Read on to discover more.

• What does your liver do?

  It’s perhaps not the first thing that springs to mind when you think about your gut problems, but your liver is definitely a key player in your digestive system. Everything you eat, drink and consume in other ways – breathing in toxins for example – passes through it. Therefore you definitely need to treat it right so it can do its job effectively.

   

  • Your liver helps to clean your blood, literally filtering it and ridding the body of anything harmful.
  • It makes bile, which helps you break down fats from food.
  • And stores glucose, giving you a boost of energy when it’s needed.

   

  A lot of women don’t realise that their livers are a vital part of their hormones staying balanced. While the liver is filtering out toxins we don’t need, it’s also breaking down and escorting oestrogen to the door, when is no longer needed.

   

  The liver operates in two phases to do its detoxification work, and it needs specific vitamins and minerals to do this optimally. If it’s not functioning as it should be, or if you’ve got excess toxins circulating, then your liver gets all clogged up and can’t get rid of all that excess oestrogen. When oestrogen isn’t metabolised properly it simply ends up circulating through the body again.

   

  With an optimally functioning liver you can look forward to – 

  • Less problems with your digestion
  • Regular hormone cycles with less PMS, perimenopause and menopause symptoms
  • Increased energy
  • A more efficient immune system
  • A brighter mood and focussed concentration

   

  Is your liver causing your gut problems? Here’s what to avoid

  • Excessive alcohol
  • Packaged, processed and refined foods
  • Heavily sprayed fruits and vegetables
  • Processed meats
  • Refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils
  • Sugary snacks and drinks

   

  All these types of foods cause the liver to work extra hard to remove toxins instead of allowing it to do its main jobs in the body.

  Aside from all that, what’s also really bad for your liver is high levels of ongoing stress.

  Research has demonstrated that consistently high stress levels contribute to increased inflammation throughout the body and exacerbates liver damage.

• Eat an anti-inflammatory diet, and choose organic where possible to reduce the level of pesticides you’re consuming. Your diet has a huge impact on how your liver works. Because the liver is so busy processing the foods you eat it can become overwhelmed when it has too much to do.

• Avoid breathing in toxins, or absorbing them through your skin. Cleaning products, aerosols, cosmetics and toiletries, and insecticides typically contain toxins which damage your liver. It’s always preferable to opt for organic, natural household products where possible as these are much kinder to your liver and your health in general.