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I hope you’ve had a great break over Christmas and the New Year and are not feeling too hungover from too much chocolate, alcohol, heavy foods etc?
If yes, then read on, I’ve got some tips for you on how to get over the holiday “hangover” ;-)
Well, you actually just need to do ONE thing: give your liver some love!
These can be signs that your liver needs some support:
Feeling tired or sluggish
Nausea
Gas
Hot flashes
Trouble sleeping (typically wake up around 3 AM)
Hormonal imbalance
Weight gain
Irritability
Pain on right hand shoulder and/or underneath right-hand rib cage
Unclear skin
Your liver is already working hard each day just eliminating the usual toxins that you are getting exposed to on a daily basis… and that may also impact your immune system and its ability to heal after an infection.
These toxins are hiding in non-organic food as pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. They are in our air and hiding in our homes as mold, air pollution, and cigarette smoke. They are in our tap water, plastic packaging, dental fillings, conventional body, beauty, cleaning, and other household products, and clothing.
So one thing you can do to support your liver is to minimize the number of toxins coming in. I’m not asking you to throw away all your containers and beauty products, but maybe just not use them for the coming weeks and pay attention to gradually replacing them when you shop for something new.
Shop organic for the coming weeks and eat whole and fresh foods vs packaged stuff that usually comes not only with BPA but also a ton of preservatives, sugars, sodium etc.
Your liver loves anything bitter, so eating foods that your liver loves like artichoke, arugula, dandelion, turmeric, chicoree and all green veggies are a great way to support it and do its job! At the same time, you’d want to avoid sugars, alcohol, fried foods. If you’re looking for more guidance, consider following the diet instructions in my hormone and blood sugar balancing cookbook.
Your liver performs over 500 vital functions in your body, amongst others it:
Filters your blood
Detoxifies chemicals, hormones, histamine, drugs, pesticides
Converts vitamins to their active form and stores them for later use
Controls blood sugar levels
Converts fructose to glucose and stores in fat cells
Stimulates bile production in your gallbladder which is necessary to break down fats and to expel toxins via your feces
Supports your immune system
Now, what can you do to support your liver?
Cut out the crap: remove refined flours, gluten, alcohol and other sugars, also reduce all industrial and packaged foods (especially non cold pressed vegetable oils - go back to my previous article here to read more), heavy meals, dairy, and also watch out for toxic body care products, cosmetics or cleaning products – your liver will thank you!
Start your day with a big glass of water with 1TBSP apple cider vinegar and a pinch of Celtic sea salt
Get in a cold/warm shower in the morning or step out in the cold when you wake up: this will get your metabolism and mitochondria going - a great way to start your day with better energy
Nourish your liver with bitter herbs and foods: dandelion, arugula, broccoli sprouts, cilantro, cruciferous vegetables, Swiss chard, turmeric, desmodium, milk thistle or black radish. This is a great product that you could use for a month to give your liver some support in clearing out the toxins
Castor oil packs Since you place the pack directly on your liver, you are exerting an anti-inflammatory effect on your liver that improves its action. It can even help reduce cholesterol and elevated liver enzymes. Lowering systemic inflammation is also a key strategy for reducing estrogen dominance, PCOS and adrenal issues. Read more about castor oil packs and how to do them here
Infrared sauna uses Infrared light which goes deeper into your body allowing it to release fat-soluble toxins. Infrared sauna therapy heats your muscle tissues and internal organs without heating the surrounding air. This heat helps your organs and tissues to detoxify by pushing toxins out of your bloodstream to be eliminated by sweating. The infrared wavelengths help to enhance liver detoxification, improve the immune system, kill pathogenic organisms, stimulate metabolism, optimize kidney filtration, aid elimination, reduce stress, and enhance healthy weight loss.
Coffee enemas have an added benefit over typical water based colonic therapies because the palmitates in coffee stimulate the liver to produce more glutathione (your master antioxidant). The caffeine, theobromine and theophylline dilate your bile duct and increase your bile flow for increased detoxification. They basically not only help remove toxic mucoid plaque around the colon walls and the elimination of parasites in the gut, but they also literally squeeze out your liver like a sponge. It’s taken me a while to get to trying out coffee enemas but I’m telling you, once you get over the gross factor and find a good enema kit, you might even get addicted to it!
I hope you can put some of these tips into practice and please do let me know how you are doing with your detox! Send me a DM on Instagram or just send me an email, I’d be happy to hear from you!