The liver is one of the important organs involved in the detoxification pathway because it filters the toxic load that pulses through the body on a daily basis.
Most toxins, or poisons, reach our bloodstream when we swallow or inhale them. Others pass through our skin, while still others are released by dying cells or invading bacteria. Many of these toxins pass through the liver — the body’s waste-purification plant — where they are broken down and removed from the blood before they can do their dirty work.
Poisons are also broken down by the kidney, eliminated in the urine and feces, or exhaled. Drinking six to eight glasses of water daily; eating lots of fresh fruits, veggies, and whole grains; and avoiding tobacco smoke and other fumes can all help keep your body in top working order. So can cutting back on fried foods, animal fats, sugar, and caffeine.
We can protect ourselves to some extent by avoiding obvious hazards such as recreational drugs, unsafe sex, and raw shellfish, all of which can cause the liver-damaging disease hepatitis. But even when we’re being good to our liver, hidden dangers can damage its cells and interfere with toxin breakdown. Toxins lurk in prescription medications, food additives, and air pollutants, and these may be impossible to avoid completely.
Here’s where “liver detoxification” might come in. When the liver is working double-duty to protect you from an onslaught of bad diet, bad judgment, and unavoidable insults, it could benefit from a little extra help.
Antioxidant vitamins such as C, E, and beta-carotene; minerals such as zinc and selenium; B-vitamins that aid alcohol metabolism; and herbs said to “cleanse” the liver such as milk thistle, dandelion root, and schizandra, might help protect liver cells while ridding our body of poisons.
Detox
The liver is one of the important organs involved in the detoxification pathway because it filters the toxic load that pulses through the body on a daily basis.
Most toxins, or poisons, reach our bloodstream when we swallow or inhale them. Others pass through our skin, while still others are released by dying cells or invading bacteria. Many of these toxins pass through the liver — the body’s waste-purification plant — where they are broken down and removed from the blood before they can do their dirty work.
Poisons are also broken down by the kidney, eliminated in the urine and feces, or exhaled. Drinking six to eight glasses of water daily; eating lots of fresh fruits, veggies, and whole grains; and avoiding tobacco smoke and other fumes can all help keep your body in top working order. So can cutting back on fried foods, animal fats, sugar, and caffeine.
We can protect ourselves to some extent by avoiding obvious hazards such as recreational drugs, unsafe sex, and raw shellfish, all of which can cause the liver-damaging disease hepatitis. But even when we’re being good to our liver, hidden dangers can damage its cells and interfere with toxin breakdown. Toxins lurk in prescription medications, food additives, and air pollutants, and these may be impossible to avoid completely.
Here’s where “liver detoxification” might come in. When the liver is working double-duty to protect you from an onslaught of bad diet, bad judgment, and unavoidable insults, it could benefit from a little extra help.
Antioxidant vitamins such as C, E, and beta-carotene; minerals such as zinc and selenium; B-vitamins that aid alcohol metabolism; and herbs said to “cleanse” the liver such as milk thistle, dandelion root, and schizandra, might help protect liver cells while ridding our body of poisons.