It’s time to love your liver. Whether you knew it or not your liver is a major tool in detoxing your body every day. But are you actually taking care of the best detox tool in your body?
What can harm your liver:
- Alcohol: Drinking too much alcohol puts your liver at great risk. From the behaviors associated with drunkenness (over-eating, engaging in risky behavior, etc) to the excess toxins that your liver needs to work hard to process — watch how much you’re drinking!
- Acetaminophen: While this go-to, over-the-counter medication is safe for reducing fever and aches in small amounts, overdoing the intake of acetaminophen can cause major liver damage.
- Extreme rapid weight loss: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease most frequently occurs in middle-aged, overweight adults. One major reason is due to sudden, rapid weight loss. That’s why slow and steady is the way to win the weight loss race.
The Top 3 Signs Your Liver Needs Help
1. Fatigue: Your liver helps remove harmful things from your body. A sick liver may mean that the buildup of some chemicals in the blood has reached toxic levels, leaving you feeling sluggish with other side effects. That feeling of unrelenting exhaustion can be a sign of acute liver failure.
2. Digestive Issues: One of the main functions of your liver is to produce bile, which helps carry away waste and break down fats in the small intestine.The waste and fats are then prepared for further digestion and absorption.
3. Changes in Mood and Behavior: Remember how we talked about how crucial your liver is to removing toxins? With a faulty liver, toxins normally removed from the liver can build up to high levels in the blood and get to your brain. One major indicator of hepatic encephalopathy, which occurs in extreme cases, is changes in mood or personality. When someone has a chronic liver disorder, the onset of encephalopathy is usually triggered by dehydration, electrolyte imbalance or by the consumption of drugs, pain relievers and sedatives.
Having a healthy liver should be a priority. Here are ten more ways to improve your liver health starting today.
Carlene Thomas RD,LD is a registered dietitian nutritionist who specializes in weight loss and wellness. She provides nutrition guidance to the public in a variety of ways including corporate wellness, private clients and contributes an expert nutrition voice to a variety of media.