Introduction
Your liver is an amazing organ and performs a huge number of functions. Keeping your liver healthy is crucial to maintaining your health and wellbeing. Read on to find out which are the best herbal remedies to help your liver healthy.
Why Your Liver is Important
Your liver performs many essential bodily functions. It plays an central role in digestion, storage of nutrients and energy release. Your liver clears toxins from your body and eliminates harmful substances from the blood. It manufactures and regulates many hormones. It controls the level of sugars and fats in the blood. The liver also plays an essential role in the functioning of the immune system. In fact, your liver has over 500 different functions!
What Can Harm Your Liver
There are a number of ways in which the liver can damaged. The most common are:
- Overexposure to toxins such as alcohol, medications, and cigarette smoke
- Being overweight
- Poor diet
- Certain viral infections
High alcohol consumption can lead to alcohol-related liver disease and increases the risk of liver cancer. Alcohol-related liver disease in it’s early stages causes a fatty liver but can progress to liver cirrhosis. Fatty liver from alcohol consumption can be reversed by stopping drinking for a period of time. Cirrhosis causes damage that cannot be reversed, but stopping drinking can slow the progression of the disease. Poor diet and being overweight increases the risk of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Some viruses can cause viral hepatitis.
Problems Associated with Poor Liver Function
Looking after your liver health involves both protecting the liver from disease and ensuring that your liver is healthy enough to function properly. Apart from liver disease such as fatty liver, hepatitis, and liver cancer, there are many illnesses that are worsened by poor liver function. These include hormonal problems, such as pre-menstrual tension, and skin disorders such as acne. Some inflammatory conditions are also related to poor liver function, including eczema and arthritis. If your liver is not functioning well, you can feel very tired and suffer from lowered immunity. Poor liver function can also affect your mood. In Herbal Medicine protecting and supporting liver function is important in the treatment many chronic health problems.
How Your Can Look After Your Liver
There are a number of ways in which you can adjust your lifestyle to help keep your liver health. Try the following tips:
- Drink no more than 14 units of alcohol per week, spread across at least 3 days, with at least 2 alcohol free days per week
- Never take more than the stated dose for prescribed or over-the-counter medications
- Do not smoke cigarettes
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Take regular exercise
- Eat a healthy diet that includes fresh fruit and vegetables
- Minimise high fat foods such as fatty, fried, or greasy meals, and processed foods
- Minimise refined carbohydrates and sugars, frequently found in cakes, pastries and processed foods
- Have vaccinations if you are at increased risk of catching viral hepatitis
Herbal Remedies to Help Keep Your Liver Healthy
There are many medicinal herbs which are used to help support liver function and health. The herbal remedies used by Medical Herbalists to help to protect the liver are called hepatics. Probably the most well known of these is milk thistle. Less well known are globe artichoke and schisandra. These are some of the best herbal remedies to keep your liver healthy.
Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum)
Milk thistle helps to both protect the liver from toxin damage and helps the cells of the liver to regenerate. The protective effects of milk thistle on the liver are supported by clinical trials (Mills, S. & Bone, K. (2000) Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy. London: Churchill Livingstone). Milk thistle also improves bile flow which aids digestion. Good bile flow is important to maintain a healthy gut flora. You can use the tincture, which is a preparation of the seeds in an alcohol extract. If you prefer to avoid alcoholic preparations then milk thistle is easy to find as capsules or tablets. Milk thistle is a member of the daisy family and so please avoid if you have a daisy allergy.
Globe Artichoke (Cynara scolymus)
Globe artichoke is similar to milk thistle and also helps to both protect and regenerate the liver. It is also a bitter herb which acts to stimulate the digestive system helping to improve digestion. If you suffer from acid reflux or heartburn you may wish to avoid this particular herb. Again, like milk thistle, it stimulates bile flow further aiding digestion. Herbalists also use globe artichoke to help lower high cholesterol. This herb can be taken as a tincture or the leaves can be made into a tea. Speak to a Medical Herbalist before using if you suffer from an obstruction in the biliary tract or gallstones.
Schisandra (Schisandra chinensis)
Schisandra is a Chinese herb that is both protective to the liver and helps to promote liver detoxification. In addition to its action on the liver it is also an adaptogenic herb which helps you to cope with stress. It is anti-fatigue and is particularly useful for fatigue related to long-term stress. The potent detoxifying action of this herb can increased how quickly medications are eliminated from the body. This can reduce the effect of prescribed medications. Please speak to a herbalist before using this herb if you are on any medications. Avoid in pregnancy and epilepsy.
In Summary
Your liver is an essential organ that performs several important bodily functions. Lifestyle factors such as drinking too much alcohol and poor diet can harm your liver function. This can result in serious liver disease and poor liver function can worsen some health conditions, such as hormonal and skin problems.
You can help to look after your liver by adopting healthy lifestyle habits and maintaining a healthy weight. In addition, herbalists use the medicinal herbs milk thistle, globe artichoke and schisandra to support the liver further.
Before using herbal remedies consult your GP, pharmacist, or Medical Herbalist if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a medical condition, have any allergies, or are taking medications.
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Disclaimer
This article does not substitute for professional medical advice or treatment.
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