The six best ways to keep your liver strong and healthy
Most of us take our liver for granted. We trust that it is working correctly, and we usually only worry about it if we begin to feel aches and pains above our abdomen or notice a jaundiced look in the colour of our skin.
The fact is, we need to appreciate our liver much more than we do. It is the largest glandular organ in our body, it’s the only organ we have that can regenerate itself, and it performs more than five hundred different functions. Our liver is vital to our health and wellbeing.
What does our liver do?
Our liver supports our metabolism by synthesising proteins and cholesterol and breaking down fatty acids so that our body can use them for storage and convert them into energy. It plays a major role in detoxifying our body and preventing impurities (called ‘ama’ in Ayurveda) from entering our bloodstream. It is also the place where our body keeps essential trace elements like Vitamins A, D, B12, iron and copper.
Throughout the day, our body is exposed to a vast range of potential toxins, including chemicals in food, pollutants in the atmosphere, synthetic drugs and alcohol, and mental and emotional stress. It is our liver’s job to filter out all those influences to keep our immune system strong and our body protected.
In Ayurveda, the liver is where the Pitta dosha is located.The pitta governs the fires (‘agni’) of the body) and it is key to good health, longevity, and clear and balanced thinking. It controls how we digest our food and oversees all heat, metabolism and transformation in our mind and body. An imbalance of pitta leaves us vulnerable to disease, inflammation, gastric problems, anger, irritability, and many other physical and mental ailments.
Six essential lifestyle tips for keeping your liver in balance
Drink plenty of water
Keeping your body hydrated is the foundation of a healthy liver. When you drink water, you’re adding to the fluid content of your blood and preventing it from thickening. When your blood thickens because your body is dehydrated, it is harder for your liver to detoxify it and filter out poisons. Among many other benefits, water aids collagen production and helps to prevent our skin from ageing and improves cognitive function.
Begin your day with warm lemon water
Starting your day by drinking a lukewarm glass of water with a few drops of lemon helps flush out the toxins that might have accumulated in your digestive tract overnight and gives your body an important Vitamin C antioxidant boost. It also encourages digestion, assists with weight loss, and energises mood.
Exercise regularly
Daily exercise burns triglycerides, which helps to reduce liver fat. Although it is normal to have a tiny amount of fat in liver cells, a build-up of fat can lead to a wide range of health problems, including liver fibrosis. One of the major causes of fatty liver disease is drinking a lot of alcohol, although non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects up to twenty-five to thirty per cent of people in the United States and Europe according to the World Journal of Gastroenterology.
The exercise you choose does not have to be rigorous. Ten to fifteen minutes daily practice can be enough to make significant positive changes.
From an Ayurvedic standpoint, a combination of yoga and pranayama breathing makes the perfect exercise routine. It burns fat, strengthens the body, quiets the mind, and stimulates wellbeing in the entire mind-body.
Eat healthily
Because our liver is so inextricably linked to our digestive process, the quality of the food we put inside our body has a tremendous impact on how well (or not) our liver can filter and eliminate toxins. Choose cleansing foods like fruits and vegetables, and add digestive spices such as cumin, turmeric, and coriander. Reduce or completely cut out caffeine and alcohol, and limit foods that are hot, spicy, fermented, salty, oily, or fried.A pitta-pacifying diet will help you to support and cleanse your liver and maintain a healthy weight.
Get good quality sleep
I cannot put enough emphasis on the importance of good quality sleep. Sleep enables our body to rest and repair. It improves our concentration, productivity, and emotional wellbeing. It reduces the risk of heart disease, lowers the risk of weight gain, and strengthens our immune system.
Adequate sleep for adults is between seven to nine uninterrupted hours a night, eight to ten hours for teenagers, and nine to twelve hours for school-age children.
As far as the liver is concerned, detoxification takes place between 11 pm and 3 am. That’s when the majority of our blood circulation concentrates in the liver, and the liver gets larger, allowing it to perform detoxification most smoothly. If you don’t sleep during this time, the less the body detoxifies, and the more toxins accumulate. It is one of the main reasons why, when you go to bed too late, you usually feel tired, sluggish and unwell the following day.
Panchakarma
Panchakarma is a holistic, periodic detoxification which has incredible benefits for your liver and helps to prevent disease by removing any deep-seated imbalances in the body. Its health benefits are long-lasting and rejuvenating, and it comprises five treatments that are vital to the ayurvedic purification process (in Sanskrit, panchakarma means ‘five actions.’)
You should only undertake panchakarma after consulting with a recognised ayurvedic practitioner, and it is one of the services I offer at my clinic. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch.
Until next time, to your enduring health and happiness in Ayurveda.
