The Liver is our major detox organ – treat it well!

The liver is one of our most important organs as it filters the toxins out of the body but one should not attempt to cleanse the liver until one has cleansed the bowel area. The reason for this is that if the bowel has not been cleansed first there is fermented pollution in this area, which blocks the discharge of toxins from the system and instead of them being expelled from the body they go back into the bloodstream only to poison the system even more.

To clear out the bowel take some slippery elm and whole linseed – 1 desert spoon of each in 375ml of either milk, water or apple juice. Add a dessertspoon of Psyllium husks last. I would suggest water because the substance does become gluggy and although it doesn’t taste too bad it does become a bit difficult to drink because it thickens. You need to blend the mix for 5 seconds immediately after adding the Psyllium husks as that is when it thickens and then you need to drink it immediately. Take this every night for 5 nights immediately before bedtime. It needs to be right before bedtime so it does not slosh round in your stomach. You don’t want to wake at 3 in the morning to go to the toilet.

For the next 4 weeks take it for 2 nights consecutively each week. For the next 4 weeks after that take it for 2 nights consecutively each fortnight then 2 nights consecutively each month. Do not take any more than this. This will clean out your colon and regulate your bowels slowly over the period of a few months. Then you can work on your liver.

The liver is involved in almost all conditions of ill health. Cleansing can therefore be beneficial in most chronic diseases. It can take quite a while to heal and much patience – often as long as 3 months to a year is required.

Adequate, high quality protein foods are essential in liver diseases. The best complete proteins are in brewer’s yeast (if you are not sensitive to it and many people are without even knowing it), raw goat’s milk, homemade raw cottage cheese, sprouted seeds and grains and raw nuts, especially almonds. Tahini is especially good due to its high content of Methionine, unsaturated oils, calcium and proteins.

As a rule to have a healthy liver it is important not to overeat and to have small frequent meals (5-6 daily), to exclude all fats and oils for several weeks, exclude processed, canned and refined foods, avoid chemical additives in foods and try to drink filtered water and to go to the country for visits as both the water and air affect the toxin level of the liver.

People who have liver problems should avoid synthetic vitamins and drugs, exclude salt and strong spices like mustard, pepper or chilli and eliminate all sugar in any form from their diet. If they must use a sweetener they can use honey or even Stevia or a similar sweet substitute. Similarly they should eliminate alcohol as it robs the body of B vitamins as well as causing further damage.

It has been found that red beets, beet juice or powder are especially beneficial as also is endive, artichoke, cucumber, garlic and lemon. A good liver detoxification juice is to juice some lemons in water, sweeten with natural honey. Drink a glass every 2 hours. Also twice daily you could drink a green vegetable juice mixed with 50% red beet juice. Important juices are red beet juice made with tops and roots, lemon juice, papaya juice, grape juice, radish and dandelion juice in small amounts of beet juice.

Important vitamins and supplements for the liver are brewer’s yeast, B complex, Vitamin C, Choline, B6, B12, Vitamin E, Vitamin A, Lecithin and Niacin.

Important herbs are dandelion, horsetail, bolbo and birch leaves, St. Johns Wort, barberry, parsley, sarsaparilla, centaury and golden rod. Milk thistle is excellent for treating liver disorders. The active ingredient silymarin strengthens and improves the function of the liver preventing toxins from penetrating its cells. It is also a powerful antioxidant. It prevents damage by free radicals and replaces old, damaged cells. It is used in cases of indigestion, biliousness, gastric upset, nausea, psoriasis and acne, alcohol and drug abuse recovery, cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis and for a general detox.

The above however is very general information and I would suggest that if you have liver or bowel conditions you need to contact a natural therapist for a consultation and a program specifically designed for you since we are all different. Again I would recommend not just dashing into your nearest health food store and having a 5 minute consult from the sales assistant. She cannot know what is right for you in just 5 minutes and it is important to put the right things into your body. So if you don’t have a natural health practitioner to assist you, the way you would go to a mechanic to service your car, I suggest you start to Google to find the right one to assist you and your needs.