The Role of the Liver in Detoxification_Final

>> Hi. Do you know how to help your clients safely detoxify their bodies? In this lecture, I am excited to share all about how you can support your clients through detoxification. Keep in mind that the goal is never to rid the body of all toxins. Why not? Toxins are present in everything that we touch, everything that we eat, everything that we drink, and even in the air that we breathe. Our bodies produce them naturally. What I'm saying is that it's impossible to live a life completely free of toxins. But it becomes problematic when toxins are allowed to accumulate over time to unhealthy levels, in which case, they can really take a toll on our bodies. So if we can't avoid them, what can we do? When we talk about detox, the common image that pops into many people's heads is a juice cleanse. This is only one type of detoxification. And you don't necessarily need to cut out food to detoxify your body. Plus, it's not like our bodies are doing nothing to ward off toxins while we're not actively detoxing. Remember, your body is designed to process toxins and remove them. As long as the body is working optimally, it can cleanse itself of most of the chemicals it comes in contact with. As Joshua always says, "Give a half a chance, the body can heal itself naturally." The major way the detoxification happens is through the liver. It even has its own circulation system, separate from the rest of the circulation in the body. It's called the portal system, and it's made up of the portal vein, and its own system of blood vessels. The GI tract, the spleen, and the pancreas drain into this portal system, which is like liver is on private transport system. You can think of the liver as the body's filtration system. Everything we eat and drink, as well as many of the things that we inhale and absorb through our skin, passes through the liver to be detoxified. The liver filters the blood removing harmful substances such as bacteria, drugs, toxins, and foreign proteins. After food is broken down in the GI tract, the small particles enter the portal blood stream from the intestine, and are routed directly to the liver to be filtered. Once there, your liver separates beneficial nutrients from any waste chemicals that need to be removed from circulation, and then processes out the waste chemicals and the toxins. It does this through two phases of liver detoxification. Phase one, the liver transforms the toxin into a chemical that can be processed in the next phase. And then phase two, the chemical is transformed again into a more soluble form so that it can be processed. Let's explore these phases in a little more detail. Phase one liver detoxification is a metabolic pathway where the toxin is processed by the cells of the liver into a chemical that the liver cells can recognize. Many of the toxins that enter the body are fat-soluble not water-soluble. In order to get these toxins out of the system, they have to be made water-soluble. In this phase, enzymes in the liver change fat-soluble compounds into water-soluble compounds. But they're not ready to pass out of the body just yet. A second phase of detoxification is required to complete the process. Think of it like a freight train that needs to get through a tunnel, but the engine is too big to let it pass through. Phase one of the detoxification system swaps out the engine for a smaller one so the toxin can pass through the cell membranes the way it's supposed to. But to complete the process, the train needs to add a caboose, that's what happens in phase two. Phase two liver detoxification occurs when the toxin is combined with other molecules. At this point, it's no longer harmful to the body. The former toxins are now fully water-soluble and are ready to pass out of the liver and leave the body through urine or bile, which is accomplished by taking part of an amino acid and adding it to the molecule. As you know, we get our amino acids through protein in our diets. So a diet with adequate high-quality protein that provides an array of amino acids is important for phase two to do its job well. For example, say the liver is trying to break down lead. After phase one, the metal is more water soluble but also more reactive. In fact, it's probably more harmful than the original lead molecule. Therefore, the body adds part of an amino acid so that the enzymes that break it down will recognize this foreign molecule. It's like creating a special key that can fit that lock. Without that key, the molecule isn't going to be recognized and broken down. In order to do this, the amino acids that the liver uses to process these toxins have to be available. There are several of these amino acids that are used with different substances as they're broken down. In order to complete the process, the liver needs to have enough taurine, cysteine, glycine, choline, and inositol available. After detoxification, these compounds often leave the body by being passed back into the intestines in bile. The cells lining the intestine have the ability to further process these compounds, as do the bacteria in the colon. They then leave the body through the colon. They can also enter the bloodstream headed to the kidneys. The kidneys filter toxins from circulation and further process them before excreting them from the body in the urine. So as you can see, each of these phases is dependent on what's happening in the phase before it so it's critical for us to be vigilant about supporting our lovely livers. Now that we're clear on the process of normal liver function, let's look at the most common ways the liver detoxification system can get off track. Signs and symptoms that the liver isn't working adequately include fatigue and feeling like you need a nap in the afternoon, disrupted sleep, especially between 2am and 4am, asthma or allergies, skin disorders, including acne and rosacea, unexplained weight gain, inability to lose weight, excessive abdominal fat, blood sugar disorders, since the liver plays a key role in blood sugar regulation, nutrient malabsorption, indigestion and acid reflux, especially with fatty foods, chronic infections, mood swings, poor mental function, lowered stress tolerance, and PMS symptoms, decreased libido, and infertility. It's not required to have all of these symptoms so it's possible that a client could have a handful of them and have a compromised liver. A thorough Health History can help you identify the possibility of sluggish liver detoxification. There are a number of ways liver detoxification can go off track. These include disruptions in phase one detoxification, disruptions in phase two detoxification, inflammation of the GI tract, inflammation in the liver, including fatty liver, and gallbladder dysfunction. Let's explore each of these five causes more fully. Because the phase one detoxification system is responsible for breaking down medications and other chemicals, it can easily get overwhelmed in people who take many prescription medications or consume a lot of alcohol or illegal drugs. The pathway gets overloaded, and the liver is unable to keep up with the toxin load. Cigarette smoking can also slow down the system. If the toxins aren't processed on the first pass through the liver, they'll circulate in the blood until the liver is able to handle them. Clients whose phase one detoxification system is off track may complain of intolerance to fragrances, and other environmental chemicals, and/or caffeine intolerance, both of, which are signs of poor phase one detoxification. Now let's move on to phase two of the process. If phase one detoxification is functioning, but phase two is sluggish or overloaded, then the byproducts from phase one can build up in the system. This can happen, for example, if there's a large toxic load on the body, such as exposure to pesticides, dioxins, heavy metals, caffeine, or alcohol. This pushes the phase one system into overdrive, overwhelming the phase two system. Phase one produces free radicals as it breaks toxins down. Normally, these are processed quickly by the phase two system and neutralized. But if allowed to build up, these free radicals can do a lot of damage to cells in the body. In fact, they can be even more harmful than the original toxins. Glutathione is one of the most important antioxidants in the body. It acts like a vacuum for the free radicals that are produced in the phase one pathway. It works hard in the liver too, acting as both antioxidant and also as part of one of the major phase two pathways. If active glutathione gets depleted, then phase two doesn't do its job very well. As we get older, we're less and less able to produce enough glutathione to keep up with our toxic load. If phase two isn't working efficiently, your clients will develop signs of increased systemic inflammation including weight gain, poor thyroid function, and leaky gut. But remember, a client may experience these conditions and have perfectly normal liver function. So as always, avoid jumping to any conclusions. Next, we're going to look at the GI tract. Liver detoxification is highly dependent on good gut function. If there's inflammation and microbial imbalance in the GI tract, several problems can arise. When the gut is inflamed, it can become leaky, allowing toxins to go directly into the bloodstream rather than going through the correct channels that take them to the liver to be processed. The good bacteria in the GI tract can also play a role in breaking down toxins. So when the bacteria is out of balance and the less beneficial bacteria have taken over, toxins don't get broken down as well. Therefore, fixing a gut floor and balance and streamlining digestion can make a big difference in your clients' detox efforts. Now let's move on to inflammation in the liver. When the liver becomes inflamed, it can't process toxins as well because inflammation blocks the liver's filtration channels and interferes with both phase one and phase two detoxification. In fact, if it reaches the end stage of liver inflammation, cirrhosis, it stops processing toxins altogether. Causes of liver inflammation include over consumption of alcohol, consumption of large quantities of liver toxic prescription medications, and metabolic syndrome. This is a medical condition that must be evaluated and treated by a doctor. Finally, let's talk about the gallbladder which is attached to the liver. Bile which is stored in the gall bladder must be able to circulate from the liver to the GI tract and back to the liver in order for the body to detox effectively. While the gallbladder itself doesn't break down hormones, it plays an important role in helping the body break down sex hormones, and it helps bile circulate throughout the body, which is important for proper detoxification. When it isn't working properly, the gallbladder can get sluggish and be slow to empty. It may also remove too much fluid from the bile, causing it to get clogged with sludge, and eventually form gallstones. Some people seem to be particularly prone to gallbladder problems. Health issues that are associated with gallbladder problems include hypothyroidism, obesity, and estrogen dominance. Symptoms of gallbladder dysfunction include mild to severe pain in the upper right quadrant of the abdomen, particularly after a fatty meal, bitter taste in the mouth after meals, bloating after a meal, and light-colored stool. The good news is that it is possible to improve the functioning of the gallbladder so that it begins to drain better. Say you have a 40-year-old female client who's been having difficulty losing weight, despite eating a relatively healthy diet and exercising. After getting to know her situation better, you find that she's overly exposed to toxins in her food and home. So you suggest several ways for her to decrease that toxic burden and naturally detox her system. One month later, she tells you that she's doing everything you suggested but things don't seem any better. She now has pain in the upper right quadrant of her abdomen and bloating after fatty meals. Though a doctor would need to evaluate and confirm this, it is very likely that your client has a sluggish gallbladder that can't keep up with her detox efforts. Now what? There are several things that you can try. The best ways to help a client with a sluggish gallbladder through diet include adding beets, artichokes, mustard, turnip, and dandelion greens, and daikon radish to the diet. These foods help stimulate bile production. Consuming foods such as ginger, arugula, cilantro, turmeric, dandelion, mint, leeks, and parsley, increasing water intake, eating plenty of chlorophyll-rich foods, such as spirulina and chlorella, and avoiding overeating and eating smaller meals throughout the day. Okay, let's pause here to recap what we've covered so far. The liver is the body's filter, removing toxins from the body in a two phase process. When the liver doesn't function optimally, detoxification can get off track, which can cause a variety of symptoms for your clients. The five main ways the detoxification can go awry are disruptions in phase one or phase two detoxification, inflammation in the GI tract or liver, and gallbladder dysfunction. Thankfully, the liver has a tremendous ability to heal itself of inflammation if the toxic load is reduced and certain measures are taken. And that's what we're going to talk about next. There are two key steps you can encourage your clients to take to maximize their liver's ability to remove toxins. These are decreasing their toxic load, and supporting the liver through dietary and lifestyle improvements. Curious how to accomplish these two steps? Great. Let's explore these in more detail. Decreasing the toxic load. Earlier, I mentioned how difficult it is to avoid toxins in our everyday lives, they are everywhere. Especially, in conventional home and skincare products and in our food and water supply. But there are some actions your clients can take that will help lower the burden on their bodies and decrease their toxin exposure. Here are eight recommendations you can make to your clients to reduce their toxic load. Eat an organic whole foods diet, eat antibiotic and hormone free meats, fish, and dairy, use a whole-house water filtration system, use a high quality air purifier in the home or office, and open windows as often as possible, avoid alcohol, caffeine, smoking, and illegal drugs, avoid plastics, especially plastic wrap, and plastic line cans, swap out chemical household cleaners, soaps, and antibacterial products for all-natural brands, use chemical-free beauty and skincare products, choose products without toxic preservatives and additives such as parabens and artificial fragrances. Now that you've given your clients some ways to lower their exposure to toxins, let's talk about how they can support their liver so it can do its job quickly and efficiently. Here are nine key ways to support the liver through diet and lifestyle to promote optimal functioning. Decrease intake of refined carbohydrates to help heal fatty liver, eat liver supporting foods such as beets, citrus, avocados, and cruciferous vegetables, consume high-quality protein such as eggs, fish, organ meats, and gelatin found in bone broth. The amino acids found in these foods support phase two of liver detoxification. Support the emptying of the GI tract by eating plenty of fiber, support and improve the health of the gut microbiome to improve the health of the estrobolome, break a sweat! This should be done regularly through exercise, saunas, and steam rooms, manage stress to decrease cortisol overproduction, use herbs that support the liver, these include chlorophyll, cilantro, turmeric, dandelion root, burdock root, milk thistle, and artichoke extract, take supplements that support liver function including the B complex of vitamins, vitamins A, C, D, and E, along with N-acetylcysteine, which is a precursor to glutathione, the master antioxidant. By using the recommendations provided in these two steps to support liver health, you now have enough great suggestions to create an entire program on liver health for your clients. In fact, we've included a handout in this module called The Liver Cleanse Protocol. It lists these steps and more so that you have an easy reference for how to create a liver detox program for your clients. Be sure to check that out. We have covered so much great information in this lecture, but before we wrap up, let's talk about how the liver helps to break down estrogen. Remember, there are three main types of estrogen estrone or E1, estradiol or E2, and estriol or E3. As part of its job, the liver breaks down these estrogens into estrogen metabolites. This is an important function because what this means is that a healthy liver helps keep estrogen levels balanced in the body for optimal hormonal health. For the purposes of this lecture, we're going to focus on two important estrogen metabolites 2-hydroxyestrone and 16α-hydroxyestrone. 2-hydroxyestrone is considered antiestrogenic or a good estrogen because it may help to prevent breast cancer while 16α-hydroxyestrone has estrogen tendencies, which is why it's considered a bad estrogen. Studies have shown that having a higher ratio of 2-hydroxyestrone to 16α-hydroxyestrone is beneficial for overall health and in particular, it may help prevent breast cancer. Therefore, shifting estrogen metabolism to increase 2-hydroxyestrone over 16α-hydroxyestrone is crucial for potentially preventing breast, ovarian, and other cancers. It may also help eliminate painful ovarian cysts and uterine fibroids. Plus, 2-hydroxyestrone has been shown to be an excellent antioxidant and it may work better in the body than vitamin E. So how can you help your clients to shift that pathway to the healthier estrogen byproduct? It looks like eating cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli and cabbage may help to increase the levels of 2-hydroxyestrone. In addition, fiber-rich flaxseeds contain lignans that may influence estrogen production and metabolism. Okay, that sums up our discussion on estrogen metabolites, which brings us to the end of this lecture. To recap, we talked about the function of the liver and detoxification, how it can go wrong, and ways to get it back on track. We also covered the role of the gallbladder in helping the liver detox effectively and how to wake up a sluggish gallbladder. Lastly, we discussed how estrogen is broken down by the liver and how to shift the livers production to more favorable estrogen byproducts. Have you ever let a client or a group through a liver detox? Do you feel more comfortable doing so now? Please be sure to drop by the Facebook group and discuss how you've been working with clients on these issues and let us know how we can support you. Also, be sure to review The Liver Cleanse Protocol handout, which has even more details about how you can help support your clients through their liver detox. Thank you for joining us today. And we'll see you soon.