Get rid of liver damage

Did you know that liver disease is the only major cause of death that still increases astonishingly from year to year to the point that twice as much people die of liver disease today than they did twenty years ago?

If liver disease is so important, why don't we hear more about it? Because liver damage is a silent killer. You can have your liver damaged to the point of disturbing your entire metabolism and yet nothing shows up on standard liver tests.

In fact, the liver plays a key role in the prevention and generation of diseases such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, any form of toxic disease, and metabolic diseases. If you take care of your liver you can prevent and reverse these conditions, but if you treat it recklessly, you will find it hard controlling any of them.

Why you should care about your liver
What causes liver damage
How can your liver help you lose weight
How to know if your liver is damaged
Liver detox
Cure liver disease
What to do next

Why should you care about your liver?

Your liver performs two main functions: coordinating your metabolism and detoxifying your body. The two are essential for a healthy life and weight loss.

Coordinating Metabolism

The liver is responsible for turning sugar into fat and for turning fat into sugar.

To get the fat that it needs to burn, it uses HDL, good cholesterol, which goes around collecting fat from your bloodstream and fat cells and delivers it to your liver. Once there, it is stored inside the liver cells and is converted to glucose, which is then released into the blood for other organs to use. Part of the cholesterol is also sent to the gut to aid in fat and vitamin absorption.

In the reverse path, it receives glucose coming from the gut (blood from the intestines actually passes first to the liver and only then to the heart) and converts it into fat. It then stores that fat in LDL, bad cholesterol, and releases it into the bloodstream and it piles up in the arteries, causing atherosclerosis, or is stored in fat cells, causing obesity.

Metabolism in the Liver

Detoxing the Body

The other main function of the liver is taking up toxic waste and converting it into neutral components. These neutral components are then cleared by several organs, the most important of which are the kidneys and the liver itself.

Toxic waste comes through two main pathways: ingested, and created in your own body. Because what you ingest always has some sort of toxic products (even natural organic products - other living beings produce toxic waste themselves), blood from the intestines converges into the liver and only then does it proceed to the heart and is distributed.

Detoxing the body

Consequences of a Damaged Liver

When your liver is damaged both functions are compromised because they are performed by the same cells (hepatocytes).

A damaged liver leads to greater exposure to toxic damage. And toxic substances come from all over the place (your body, your food, drugs, the air you breathe, even water), especially nowadays.

Liver damage also leads to an impaired metabolism. Neither will it be able to clear fat in the blood, nor burn fat stored in fat cells. Which means you get hard to hit obesity (in fact, it is estimated that the majority of people who find it hard to lose weight have liver problems), more atherosclerosis, and, ultimately, brain and heart damage.

Also take note that liver damage eventually leads to liver cell death and replacement by fibrotic tissue. This is called cirrhosis. This condition is hard (though not impossible) to reverse and is associated with death from malabsorption, metabolic impairment, brain damage, and liver cancer.

If you suffer from cirrhosis, the information in this article will help reverse it. However, a fully fledged liver care program is beyond the scope of this article and you will benefit the most of reading this eBook.

What causes liver damage

Since liver handles metabolism and toxic waste, these are also the main causes of liver damage.

Metabolic-wise, obesity is the primary culprit. When you eat excess sugar, more fat gets stored in the liver than it can handle (fatty liver, or steatosis). The same happens when you have too much fat floating in your bloodstream. Fat stored in the liver cells robs it of precious resources and may cause death.

The primary toxic damage comes from alcohol and even modest amounts of it cause liver damage. Contrary to popular belief, alcohol doesn't even protect against heart disease - early studies shown that it did because they joined in the same group people who had never drink alcohol and people who stopped drinking because of disease. Obviously, people who already had a disease died first than people who didn't, so the group of people not drinking alcohol had higher death rates than the group which had moderate intake.

Another important toxic substance is drugs. This means drugs you take from your doctor, caffeine, smoking, illegal drugs, and even homeopathic remedies, such as herbs and oils. Note that in both physician prescribed drugs and in "natural" remedies there are exceptions to this rule, namely the herbs and drugs used in healing liver disease itself.

Finally, your food is another important source of toxics. Not only does it damage the liver if you eat too much sugar and fat, but most food contains some form of toxic substance, and not just pesticide and human-added substances - keep in mind that toxic waste is a part of life, so even organic materials are toxic to some degree, except that their toxicity is lower and, thus, the liver can easily handle them.

How can your liver help lose weight

Your liver plays a key role in weight loss. As you already know, it handles the conversion between fat and sugar. If the liver has problems, less fat is converted to sugar, which means that less fat is burnt and, ultimately, more fat accumulates in your fat cells.

A damaged liver is, ultimately, the responsible for a slow metabolism. So, if you find it hard to lose weight even when you stick to a diet, it is likely that the problem is in your liver.

However, once your liver is healed, it will handle fat easily. The first few days you may not notice much difference, because the liver will be burning the fat it had accumulated inside its cells, however, once that is over fast weight loss really kicks in.

Healing your liver is the best way to increase your metabolism.

The Liver in Weight Loss

What about metabolic syndrome? This disease is often considered the origin of obesity, but is it? Metabolic syndrome starts with insulin resistance which leads to diabetes, hypertension, obesity and high cholesterol. The pancreas is often accused of being the origin, but in truth there is no lack of insulin, there is even overproduction, to make sure that tissues respond to it.

Which tissues? There are insulin receptors on fat cells, muscle cells and, you've guessed it, liver cells. The ones in the liver are responsible for insulin resistance - they don't convert sugar and fat properly, leading to the modern world's problems. Hence why healing the liver can relieve so many of today's diseases.

How to know if your liver is damaged

The next logical question is: is my liver damaged? However, before answering that, let me tell you that even if you don't have you should take steps to protect it, because 30% of Westerners presently have steatosis (a number that rises among people who are overweight).

Obviously, if you have a serious condition, like cirrhosis, advanced steatosis, hepatitis, or even liver cancer, you already know you have liver disease. Signs in these diseases cannot be ignored. In that case, you can skip this section.

Fortunately, most of the people with liver damage don't have any of those serious conditions. Instead, they have what is known as subclinical liver disease, that is, liver damage that is not detected by standard liver tests nor does it produce strong signs and symptoms.

Check if you have any of the following. Each item you check adds to the possibility of liver disease and metabolic syndrome:

Liver detoxification

Now lets see what you can do to reverse or prevent liver damage. The first step is detoxing. Though it realy is only necessary when trying to reverse liver disease, it can be helpful to anyone and I recommend you do it at least once per year.

Detoxification signals your liver to start healing itself. During this process the liver starts burning the fat inside its cells and shifting focus from pilling up more fat to healing its cells.

The process is very simple: for a couple days to a week eat only fruit and vegetable juices. You can try different juices; just don't add sugar nor milk - plain fruit and vegetables (carrot works great).

If you have diabetes you may want to limit this to a day and then continue protecting your liver. Your diabetes will eventually go away and then you can complete a full liver detox.

During these weeks you will first feel hungry and maybe even malaise, but eventually these feelings will go away and you will feel fresh and renewed. Try it.

If you are taking any drugs that can be halted, you should also do so (but consult your physician first). Stop the intake of caffeine and alcohol, and, if you can, stop smoking.

If you are taking any liver protecting homeopathic remedy, you should continue taking it during this time, but any other remedy that can be halted should be. There are also some supplements, like Liver Active, that when taken during this phase speed the process, but more about that in the next section.

Cure liver disease

Healing liver damage is a simple four step program. You should start with step one and then proceed through each step, continuing to follow the points from the previous step. You can also start all four steps at the same time. Some people find it easier to start step by step, others take them all at once. You need to find what's better for you.

The same steps used to cure liver disease can also be used to prevent it, so even after you have healed, you should continue this four step program.

Step 1 - Causes

The first step is removing the causes. You should halt intake of as many toxics as possible. Avoid food with pesticides and if possible eat raw. This is because all food contains toxic substances, but raw fruit also contains enzymes responsible for neutralizing these substances (after all, they are also toxic for the bearer, and it must protect itself). Enzymes are destroyed by heating (but not freezing), so cooked food is not as healthy.

Other important toxics to stop are tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol. If you are on drugs you should consult with your physician to make sure you are taking the least amount possible. Many of the drugs, especially for headaches, diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol, you will eventually be able to stop, but until then, just work with your doctor to see if it is possible to reduce them.

Some homeopathic remedies are also damaging for the liver. In this area you are on your own, because most physicians don't know much about herbs and homeopathic healers will swear that they don't hurt at all despite evidence that they sometimes do. The web won't be of much help either, because of the contradicting information. I recommend you check Wikipedia, but also read the discussion page there, where any problem with the information of the page might be discussed. You will find more guidelines about this in this eBook, if you interested.

Step 2 - Intake

Your next step should be changing your lifestyle. You probably heard it before: eat more fruit and vegetables and try to cut down on fat and processed sugar. Did you know that a recent study showed that even modest amounts of animal products (milk, cheese, meat, fish...) increase the likelihood of cancer and heart and brain disease? If you can, becoming a vegetarian is the next step in health tuning, but if you just can't picture a life without meat, just follow the guidelines to reduce fat and sugar.

Food you want to eat are fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, raisins... On the other hand, avoid beef, pork, meat in general and milk and its derivates. You can get enough calcium with a vegetarian diet or, to stay on the safe side, taking a calcium supplement.

Step 3 - Exercise

Another important factor in your lifestyle is exercise. Exercise signals your liver to start burning fat. When you exercise the liver starts burning the fat accumulated inside itself first and then the one stored on your fat cells. Not only will this step heal your liver but help you lose weight. If you don't increase your activity, diet alone may even worsen the condition, because liver won't burn the fat inside it - it will take fat from fat cells and store part of it inside its cells while only a minimal portion is burnt.

Step 4 - Supplements

Finally come supplements. These have shown amazing results that MDs first denied, because they were so strong that the medical community thought that the studies must have been biased. But then more studies were made that proved them and shown that supplements can not only reverse steatosis, but also cirrhosis, hepatitis, and even mild forms of liver cancer.

The most important herbs in these supplements are turmeric, milk thistle, and artichoke, but there are many others, such as linen, ginger, and dandelion. In fact, there are so many herbs that have shown a strong effect that it becomes impractical to use them all if you don't try readymade combinations.

Nonetheless, these herbs show amazing results that worked even when people didn't follow a specific diet (though results are more impressive when the herbs are included in a holistic approach to health following this four step program).

As for which supplement to chose, I recommend Liver Active. From what people tell me, the results of this preparation as as strong as that of others but it is much easier to take than pills or liquid preparations (it's a spray). So, for great results and ease of use, I recommend Liver Active (as for price, all working liver supplements cost about the same, if you find cheaper it usually means it doesn't have such great results), but if you prefer pills you can look for another supplement that you will be well served.

What to do next

Now that you are armed with information, you can start protecting your liver and reversing any damage it might have had. The information on this page is enough to reverse mild disease, if, however, you think you have a more severe problem or if you simply want faster results, I recommend you check this book.

As for supplements, like I said, it is best that you take combined formulas. My favorite is Liver Active, not only because it works but because it is much easier to take (it is a spray) than pills. If you follow this link you will get free bottles in each order. Give it a try.

Help change the frightning liver statistics and protect your liver and health. You can help us spread the word by stumbling us using the buttom below. Thank you and good luck on your journey!