- Do you struggle with heavy, painful periods?
- Do you struggle with PMS or PMR?
- Have you been diagnosed with PCOS, Endometriosis, Uterine Fibroids or Adenomyosis?
I hope your week is going well! Time sure is flying isn’t it? Today, I want to talk to you about the liver and it’s relationship with effective weight loss. The liver is known as the “gatekeeper” of the body. It is responsible for filtering out the body’s toxins. In fact, every 3 minutes, the liver filters all the blood in the body! Isn’t that amazing! When the liver is clogged up and running slowly, it causes a domino effect in the body effecting just about everything… digestion, hormones, blood sugars, adrenal glands, energy, immune system, and more. One of the most common suicide avenues is swallowing a bottle of Tylenol. It is so common because people know that Tylenol kills your liver and if your liver is severely damaged and stops functioning, the rest of your body quickly shuts down.
What causes a clogged liver?
The major culprit for fatty liver is what you’re putting in your body. That could be an unhealthy diet, alcohol, drugs, medications, sugar, etc. Whenever you consume these toxic substances, it can get to a point where the body can’t store fat fast enough and begins storing it in the liver. This is known as a “fatty liver”. The liver is known as a filtration device, if it is being pounded day after day after day with unhealthy fats, sugars, and toxins, it starts to get backed up because it can’t efficiently filter out everything as fast as it’s coming in. This can cause stones, sludge, and all sorts of complications that slows down the liver, furthermore, slowing down your metabolism, increasing your waistline, and wreaking havoc on the body.
What about the Gallbladder?
Did you know that over 600,000 Americans have their gallbladder’s yanked out of them each year! That is MIND BLOWING! This 45 minute surgery costs a whopping $30,000!! Talk about a good salary! $30k per hour, eh? Not too shabby!
Unfortunately, I have been a culprit of the nation-wide gallbladder hijacking. I wish I knew then what I know now in order to prevent this unfortunate surgery, but now I am determined to help people live a healthy and normal life afterwards. The truth is that after my gallbladder surgery, my problems DID NOT go away, but worsened. I know have to put in 10 times the effort in my health in order to feel good. So, if anyone ever tells you the gallbladder is not necessary, tell them they are crazy. Who are we to say that God made a mistake in creating our bodies…I don’t think so!
Back to the liver…when the liver is overburdened, it spills over into the gallbladder. This is what causes so many problems with the gallbladder and creates gallstones. Behind every bad gallbladder is a toxic liver. So, how do you prevent gallbladder surgery & disease? Take care of your liver and make sure to clean them both out.
 Congested Liver & Diabetes
The excess leptin production from the excess of stored fat from a congested liver causes a decrease in the hormone adiponectin. Low adiponectin causes insulin resistance in the liver, which raises blood sugar levels and simultaneously converts sugar to fat in the liver. When this happens, your liver cannot process carbohydrates effectively, causing easy weight gain. Having a fatty liver elevates the risk for type 2 diabetes by 500 percent. Fluctuating or high blood sugar levels and excess body weight are indicative of a fatty liver. If you are able to eat carbohydrates and do not gain any weight, it is a sign that your liver is functioning better than if you easily gain weight from carbohydrates.
Clogged Liver & Fat Metabolism
I can first hand tell you the issue with having no gallbladder, a clogged liver and digesting fats. Before my surgery, I had a horrible time digesting fats…well, anything really. And after the surgery, before I took care of my liver, if I ate something like an avocado or frozen yogurt, anything that had a good amount of fat in it, it would come right back up through reflux. So gross, I know, but the reality of the fact was that I could not digest these fats and they sat in my stomach.
Fats are incredibly important for many different processes in the body- your hormones, brain function, muscle restoration, metabolism, and more. Even if you are eating healthy fats, if you have a congested liver, your body may not be able to breakdown these fats into fatty acids and absorb them to be used as fuel. When the fats are not used as fuel, they tend to be stored as fat. So, if you notice you have a difficult time digesting fats, you may want to give some extra TLC to your liver and gallbladder.
Cholesterol, Triglycerides & The Liver
Did you know that your liver makes 80% of your cholesterol?? Most of the time high cholesterol levels in the blood don’t come from eating foods that contain cholesterol- unless you’re eating processed unhealthy foods! For instance, grass-fed beef and raw butter from grass-fed cows contain cholesterol, but they are healthy sources. YOUR BODY NEEDS CHOLESTEROL for healthy hormonal function.
I think it’s quite interesting when people are prescribed medications for their high cholesterol and triglycerides. Why? Because this medication is harming the liver. If you want to HEAL the real reason behind high cholesterol & triglycerides, one needs to heal the liver, not harm it some more. When you do this, the levels will return to normal on their own. If you change your eating pattern and are eating clean, whole, nutrient dense foods, and your triglyceride levels remain elevated, it is indicative of a clogged liver. We must not forget how POWERFUL the body is when it comes to knowing how to heal itself. It just needs the right tools!
Lack of Exercise- Effects on Liver
If you are consistently exercising, your muscles need fuel to regenerate and keep functioning. In this case, your liver can send fuel to help. If you are sedentary for long periods of time, your liver has nowhere to send the excess fat & sugar. Your liver is actually drowning in excess fat & sugar, and as a worst case scenario, it is forced to unnaturally dump excess calories back into the digestive tract. This process is definitely NOT what our bodies were designed to do. We were never intended to be poisoned by excess calories, yet this is becoming more and more common.
In order to achieve this magical process, your body needs to create extra cholesterol and bile to export the excess fat into the digestive tract. This causes increased levels of LDL (Bad cholesterol) and can cause indigestion & heartburn. The excessive amounts of bile produced can be damaging to the small intestine causing leaky gut syndrome, food allergies, and many digestive disorders including acid reflux. This is one reason why antacids never heal the real issue. It’s the liver that must be addressed in many digestive issues. These digestive disorders almost always cause an expanding waistline due to the inefficient digestion of food, which leads to bloating and inflammation.
Effects of Stress on the Liver
When we are stressed, it causes the hormone Cortisol, from our adrenal glands to increase. Studies have shown that when there is an increase in Cortisol, it increases a protein in your liver (HES1), which shuts of fat metabolism in the liver and contributes to weight gain as well as fatty liver.
How the Digestive System Effects the Liver
Not only does a congested liver effect digestion, but if you have a damaged digestive system, it causes another metabolic stressor that can lead to an inefficient liver. A proper balance of good-bad bacteria is essential for liver health, which is one reason why probiotics and cultured foods are so important.
So, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed today’s info packed article on the liver and it’s relation to effective weight loss! How is your liver feeling these days? Do you see areas you could improve or are you taking care of your liver these days? I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a comment below!
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xoxo,