One Sexy Organ

Today I want to talk about one sexy organ.

It's super important to your health and happiness.

Yep, you guessed —it's the LIVER!

That's what you were thinking, right?

You might not know much about your liver.

You probably know it processes alcohol.

You might even know it filters your blood.

Some estimates say the liver is responsible for 500 essential body processes. Others say it's closer to 2000.

So, if this organ plays a critical role in even 500 (or 2000!) processes in the body, what do you think might happen if its function becomes compromised?

You'd probably have some funky symptoms appear, right?

Maybe you get acid reflux or skin rashes. Or high blood pressure, weight

gain, or brain fog. Perhaps many or all of these... and more.

Among other functions, the liver:

• Filters your blood

• Collects dangerous chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, plastics and prescription drugs

• Incapacitates dangerous pathogens like opportunistic viruses, bacteria and fungi

• Chemically nullifies these harmful elements and packages them so they can be carefully and safely shuttled out of your body via your detox pathways

• Stores excess glucose as glycogen and converts it back into usable glucose when it's needed

• Stores vital vitamins and minerals for later use

• Produces cholesterol, bile and proteins needed for the proper digestion of dietary fats

• Protects your body from the corrosive properties of adrenaline and other stress chemicals

• Communicates with the other organs of the body to enable homeostasis

The nature of today's world means our livers have a lot of work to do to keep us safe.

Think about the pesticides and herbicides that are in our produce, chemicals in the water supply, phthalates, parabens, and other compounds in your self-care products, harsh cleaning agents, gasoline fumes, perfumed air fresheners and more that we interact with every single day.

It's not the onesie-twosie exposures to harmful substances that put us in danger, but the accumulation of compounded exposures. Put simply, it all adds up.

Consider also the prevalence of viruses and bacteria such as Strep, Eastern Barr, Herpes, Cytomegalovirus, Shingles, COVID, and others and their variations.

All of this, your liver takes on.

One of its primary functions is to help you properly digest fat. When we eat lots of dietary fat—such as French fries, barbecue, potato chips, pastries, ice cream, cookies, steak, even healthy fats like avocado—your liver has to stop detoxifying to produce the bile that makes the fat usable to the body.

Eating three meals a day with fatty components means there's a significant digestion workload for your body. Your liver suffers, in particular, because it's also working to detoxify the thousands of environmental threats coming at you.

What happens?

It may not be able to keep up with its workload. The liver becomes overburdened.

Signs and symptoms of this can be:

• Fatigue

• Weight gain

• Swelling and water retention

• Brain fog

• Muscle and joint pain

• Poor circulation

• High blood pressure

• High cholesterol

• Abdominal pain

• Dry eyes and mouth

• Poor sleep

• Easy bruising

• Temperament changes

• Autoimmune conditions

• and myriad others.

Remember, symptoms are your body's way of telling you something's not working right.

You just need to listen...and try to figure out WHY.

After a brief stay at the local small-town hospital, my dad received discharge papers that said he had liver disease. When he called to ask more questions, because no one had bothered to discuss this new diagnosis with him, he was told that it's pretty "normal" for someone his age.

I bring this up because there's a difference between "normal" and "common."

Your acid reflux, high blood pressure, and eczema may be all too common. But they're far from normal.

And you shouldn't accept them as normal, even if there's a prescription that can readily address those symptoms.

When the root cause is an overworked liver, the resolution has to help the liver get a much-needed break.

Here are a few ways you're empowered to do just that:

• Load up on fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. Produce has the anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that fight viruses and bacteria, helping to prevent disease, dysfunction and cell aging. Let food be your medicine! Wild blueberries are an excellent detoxifier. Raw onions and garlic are anti-pathogenic. The rainbow of colors that saturate our vegetation all play a role in enabling health. Try to eat a wide variety every day.

• Eat less overall dietary fat so digestion is less cumbersome for your liver. You can do this by first cutting out unhealthy oils like corn, vegetable, and canola oils, which are highly inflammatory. Instead opt for avocado oil, olive oil and coconut oil, in small quantities. Try to limit your intake of animal fats to one meal a day. These are not inherently bad, they're just harder for your body to digest. If you don't eat animal proteins, but you have the symptoms of a clogged liver, try to reduce your consumption of nuts and nut butters, olives, chocolate and other high-fat foods until your symptoms resolve.

• Give this super organ less toxins to manage. Buy organics, when you can, to avoid excess pesticides and herbicides. Some estimates say that doing this alone can cut down on your toxic exposures by a whopping 75-80%! Do a home detox sweep, changing out your cleaning supplies to less toxic versions. (Look into brands like Ecos and Better Life, who've taken a stance on toxins). Eliminate scented candles and artificial fragrances. Begin to swap out traditional face and body care products for ones without harsh chemicals. The Environmental Working Group works hard to keep consumers informed of harmful chemicals in their favorite products. Check out this resource here (https://www.ewg.org/skindeep/). Filter your drinking water. Remember, although this process can seem daunting, even small steps add up to big changes.

• Incorporate stress management techniques. This can look different for everyone, but knowing what works for you is critical. Meditation is an excellent way for you to quiet the mind and shift your physiological stress response from the sympathetic nervous symptom to the parasympathetic. This means you move out of fight-or-flight mode into rest-and-digest. Diaphragmatic breathing can also do this, lowering your blood pressure and pulse and allowing your body to calm down physiologically. Yoga is a moving meditation that incorporates breathwork. Other exercise may also help you relieve stress.

• Periodically, work with a practitioner to do a gentle cleanse for the liver. I like the ones in Medical Medium Cleanse to Heal. This book offers many cleanse options. They don't require that you buy special products, and you can check the book out for free at your local library.

Caring for your liver may not seem sexy, but I can assure you, acid reflux, IBS, weight gain, heart issues, joint pain and the like definitely ARE NOT.

Some of us don't even know what it's like to feel good in our bodies. Don't you think you deserve the opportunity to thrive?

So, love your liver for the sexy organ that it is!

Try to change your habits over the next 30 days. Follow the steps above, then share how the process worked for you in the comments below.

You can change your physiology, Health Warrior! I believe in you.