Stressed liver?

Autumn is very fast approaching and we’re saying goodbye to summer. Summer – a time for picnics, vacations, time off and a time when we allow ourselves to enjoy sunny days, food and entertainment. So, at a picnic, we eat a burger or two, for breakfast white bread with a lot of butter and jam, and we have dinner too late in the evening watching the sunset. We soon feel the consequences, especially in September, when a new beginning awaits and we need the most energy. We feel tired, without energy, we have disordered digestion and skin problems. All these symptoms can be attributed to the vices listed above, as they all put a heavy strain on our liver.

The liver is, besides the skin, our largest organ located on the right side of the abdomen, to the right of the stomach. Various liver functions are performed by liver cells – hepatocytes. They perform more than 400 different important functions in our body. They convert drugs and toxins into molecules, which are then excreted from the body through the kidneys (urine) or through the intestines (faeces).

However, our lifestyle and way of eating, to put it simply, is not friendly to the liver. While we were enjoying picnics and vacations, the liver was very stressed. We burdened it with bad eating habits, sweets and lying on the beach. So now is the perfect time to help it. We do this by opting for healthy eating habits, eating fruit and drinking vegetable juices, avoiding fatty and processed foods, and snacking. We also have a beneficial effect on our liver cells by consuming silymarin – an active ingredient obtained from spotted thistle that really takes care of the health of our livers.

How to recognize a stressed liver?

Fatty liver results in:

slower carbohydrate metabolism and difficulty to store extra glucose which means that the body isn’t able to obtain energy from it and that manifests in constant fatigue and exhaustion,
poor fat and carbohydrate metabolism resulting in excess fat around the waist and stomach,
heartburn,
excessive sweating and feeling hot,
bad and weak digestion followed by feeling bloated,
drop in immunity,
problematic skin (itchy skin with acne and dark spots).

Who is exposed to risk?

Individuals with poor eating habits with fat accumulating in their belly area,
individuals with high harmful LDL blood cholesterol,
individuals drinking large amounts of alcohol,
individuals who are not physically active,
individuals under a lot of stress,
individuals who have been on medications for a long time.

The liver has an incredible ability to self-regenerate so make that possible.

Our liver deserves our attention at least twice a year to make sure that it functions optimally in the future. As our grandmothers used to say, prevention is better than the cure. Preventively, we should act after we have put the most strain on the liver. Usually after the summer, Christmas holidays and the New Year.