Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Hello and welcome.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: You're listening to a recording from inside the members hub of the whole health revolution. These episodes are taken from my live weekly coaching calls where members can join me in real time for honest conversations around health, nutrition, weight loss and sustainable lifestyle changes. So inside the program members get access to live coaching calls, a growing library of whole food recipes, workouts for every level, a supportive community, meal plans and personalised coaching from me. The whole health revolution is not about restriction extremes or quick fixes. There's no fad diets here. It's about building long lasting healthy habits that support your body. Whether your goal is weight loss, managing chronic health condition, improving your nutrition, maybe you want to balance your hormones or simply start feeling better in yourself.
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[00:01:35] Speaker B: Well, hello everybody. Welcome back. This week we're going to be talking about liver detoxification. I often get asked, how can I detox or should I detox?
And so I thought this would be a really good one to cover liver detoxification, what the liver does. Why detox if we should detox? Of course, with everything I speak about, it's never just a clear, clear cut answer. So my aim of this talk is to give you as much information as I can within the space of 20 or so minutes that will help you if you feel that your liver needs a little bit of love. We need to love our liver. It does a lot for us. It's important to know as well that if you're on a weight loss journey, if you're on a wellness journey, the liver really needs to be considered because it's working very hard for you day in, day out, minute of the day.
So let's dig in and talk about liver detoxification. So first of all, before we talk about how can we detox, it's really important to know what the liver actually does for us. We all know that, yes, it detoxes, okay?
But think of it like your, your body's processing plant, okay? It filters, it metabolizes, it neutralizes toxins.
It filters and metabolizes Hormones and chemicals.
So when it's doing that, it's processing things like caffe, of course, alcohol, environmental toxins, processed foods, sugars. We don't often think about processed foods and sugars. Yes, they get detoxified through the liver and excess hormones. So when for women, if you're going through perimenopause, this is where the liver needs a little bit more care because it's very busy. But it's busy our whole lives. It actually processes things like estrogen and it's when the liver's not working properly and we might become estrogen dominant that we start to have issues.
So when the liver is processing anything, it works in three main phases. So the first phase is the activations phase. And this is where it breaks down and converts those toxins. And what happens when it does this is it actually makes them briefly more toxic, so they're in a much more toxic state than when they went into the liver.
And this is important, it must do that because this is how the liver processes everything. The second phase is the conjugation stage and this is where the liver attaches molecules like glutathione and this neutralizes the toxins and this then makes them easier to excrete. It makes them water soluble.
Glutathione, remember that word? Because that is our master detoxer. So we need to have enough glutathione on board for our liver to actually do this. But the liver, there's so many nutrients involved in liver and how it does its job and how effective effectively works, such as all your B vitamins, protein. There's a whole, the diagram is so complex. There's lots of diagrams on how the liver detoxifies. It's one of the most complex diagrams that I ever looked at in my studies. So it needs a lot of help and it needs all of these nutrients on board for it to function optimally. But glutathione is a master detox.
Phase three is the elimination phase.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: So this is where it's transported out.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Of the cells and into the bile or the blood. And then it can then be excreted through the urine or feces.
So you can see that these phases need to work very well together. So if you, it's, if phase one is doing its job very well, but phase two is not working and it's sluggish and it doesn't have enough nutrients on board for it to do its job, then we're ending up with a more toxic state in the liver. So all three phases need to work Very well into. In combination.
The liver does a lot more than just detox as well, though. It actually is involved in our fat metabolism. So it breaks down fat for energy. It produces bile as well as the pancreas. It also produces bile and that's needed to break down fats for digestion and absorption. If it's not doing that, this is where you can see things like fatty stools. You might get slimy stools or maybe they float on the top of the toilet. I know you don't want to be hearing this, but that's not a good state. That's not a good stool to have.
It also converts excess carbs and proteins into triglycerides. And maybe you've gone to the doctors and your triglycerides are a little bit elevated. Well, the liver is doing this to actually protect you.
But if we're having too many processed carbs and what have you in our diet, it's converting those to triglycerides and that can become a problem. We don't want those to be too high.
It's also involved in cholesterol imbalance. Cholesterol's got such a bad rep over the years and I was just having a conversation with a client today saying, okay, we need cholesterol, but it's when it gets out of balance. But we need to take the whole picture into account when it comes to cholesterol. It produces cholesterol, and this is absolutely needed for our hormone balance.
It's needed for cell membranes. Our cell membranes are made from fat, fatty cholesterol.
And it regulates the cholesterol by packaging it up into what we call lipoproteins. And that's where you see the HDL ldl. You've got high density lipoprotein, low density lipoprotein. One's good, one's bad.
So your liver is involved in that as well. It's also involved in protein metabolism. So when you eat some meat or any protein type food, what you're eating is a whole bunch of amino acids.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: So it converts the protein into those.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Amino acids which are usable forms. It's also involved in fat soluble vitamins, your A, D, K and e and also B12.
And it stores iron in the form of ferritin.
So you know it's working hard. It does a whole lot for us. Rather than just detox, it breaks down old hormones or excess or old hormones such as estrogen, insulin, cortisol, thyroid hormone.
So you can see if it's not working well or if it's a Bit sluggish. This is when hormonal imbalances can come into play. And when I've got a client in front of me that has maybe hormones seem bit out of whack. Whether they're going through menopause or even if they're not, I'll always pay attention to the liver. And we've got to nurture that liver and get it healthy.
It's also involved in our immune function as well.
So it's a filter for the blood coming in from the gut via a portal vein. And it also houses special immune cells. They're called Kupfer cells and they actually help to capture bacteria and pathogens and worn out blood cells. And so we want the liver to be excreting those. It's a processing unit, as we can see. Yep. The gut is also related to the liver. So we've got those pathogens and what have you coming from the, from the gut.
But what happens when your gut isn't that healthy? Well, it's going to affect your liver for sure.
So the liver relies on a healthy gut to finish the detox job. So if I'm putting you on a detox, but your gut is out of whack, which we call dysbiosis, when it's, you know, it's, you haven't got a good balance of those good and bad bacteria and it's all over the place, which a lot of people are today, let's face it. Then the liver is going to struggle to excrete those toxins.
One thing I look at is constipation. If you're constipated, then what happens is, you think about it, everything along that tract is going to slow down. And the toxins that should have been excreted in the feces are now sitting there and festering. And this gives your body a second chance to absorb or reabsorb those toxins.
And that's not a good state to be. And we do not want to reabsorb toxins that are in a more toxic state than when they went in.
Your gut also helps to produce the bile. And that's how the liver gets toxins into your stool.
It also supports your immune system function as well.
So the liver doesn't work on its own. Nothing in our body works on its own.
And that's a conventional way of looking at health and wellness as we sort of compartmentalize our bodies into different areas and different systems. But everything needs to work in tandem. And this is a really good example of that.
What we need to do is to aim for a daily bowel motion. Yes, you should be going to the toilet at least once a day, once, even more.
And to do that, and that can be different for everybody. You know, I had somebody in clinic once and I remember, I always ask the questions, how are your bowel motions? And I have a lovely diagram that I show my clients and she thought it was normal for her to go twice a week. And that is not normal, that is not healthy, that is constipation and we need to get that moving. But if that's your normal and that's all you've ever known, you don't know any different. But yes, you absolutely should be going to the toilet and having a bowel motion at least once a day.
And to do that, then, you know, obviously my, my treatment recommendations is to increase your fibre in the way of plants, vegetables, fruit, chia seeds. So seeds and nuts are really good. Particularly chia flax seeds are amazing.
Freshly ground flax seeds and psyllium husks are great as well for that. And if you're going to increase that fiber, you also want to make sure you're having lots of water on board. So at least, at least your eight glasses a day, if not more.
But water is definitely needed for everything to work optimally. And also with liver health as well, we want to consider things like probiotics, because if that's not healthy, then let's nurture with some good probiotics. Not always the answer with gut health. And this is where I take a full case take to see what that client needs at this time. But definitely gut probiotics can be helpful and that can be in the way of supplements or maybe you eat them through your food. So fermented foods, yogurt, kefir, kimchi, kombucha, all very good sources.
But also with liver health, bitter foods are fantastic.
What bitter foods do is you'll eat something bitter, say like a rocket, or any lemon, for example. Anything bitter, your brain says, oh, this is, this is dangerous, this is not good. So it increases the digestive juices because it wants to. It thinks it's a baddie coming in and so it really stimulates that digestive system, which is great, that's what we want. And so it's very liver protective. So any liver issues, I will always suggest liver fitters.
And that can be in the way of herbs and. Or foods as well, and the combination of both. Usually I meant to bring in my bottle, but I've got a bottle kind of like this, this isn't it a bottle like this that I give my clients and it's called liver bitters and it's got things in it like milk thistle and these are all very bitter herbs. It's kind of like, if you like gin and tonic, it's kind of like a gin and tonic kind of bitter taste.
But you have this 10 to 20 minutes before you eat stimulates that digestion and so you're going to absorb more of the nutrients from your food also.
Yes, food. You know, I always approach food first before supplementation. I'll always look at foods. What are you eating? What can I add into your nutrition that's going to really benefit you for what you need?
So when we're looking at liver detoxification, the best foods are cruciferous vegetables. And cruciferous vegetables are the best foods for everything. They're so good, they're so nutrient dense, they're highly antioxidant, they're anti inflammatory.
Fantastic food. So when I say cruciferous vegetables, we're looking at things like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale.
These vegetables contain something called sulforaphane. Now, sulforaphane is very high in broccoli sprouts. So you can get broccoli sprout powder, but in a capsule form. It's highly concentrated. And it is something I use quite a lot and I've used it myself.
And what this does is it, it's a precursor to glutathione, there's that word, glutathione again, which is your master detox. And so it's a really good supplement to have. But it's also very rich in salt in cruciferous vegetables.
Also, beetroot supports bile production and also that liver cell regeneration because our liver is always regenerating bitter foods like rocket and dandelion leaves, radicchio, these all stimulate that digestive bile flow.
We've also got lemons. Yep, lemons are fantastic for that bile flow. Also they can contain antioxidants. Antioxidants are going to help you detoxify. And fiber rich foods, as I said before, is like ground flaxseeds. Always grind your flax seeds and I always advise to, if you've got the seeds, just grind a couple of days for a few days in advance so then they're quite fresh because they can, because they are an oil, they can become rancid and so grind a few days at a time and keep them in the fridge.
If you don't grind them, you're not actually benefiting from the, the, the in what's inside that shell because you're not actually able to absorb everything.
Fibre rich foods are oats and psyllium husks. And what these do is they bind the toxins in the gut. So we want, if you're going to be excreting these toxins, you need something to bind them to, so to hold onto them, to take them out of the gut. And so these are binders.
If you're eating a rainbow every week or every day, if you're eating a rainbow food, you're probably going to be getting some good antioxidants, some anti inflammatory foods and some liver support. But your green leafies and your cruciferous vegetables are really, really good for that.
Now when it comes to herbs and supplements, yes, I do recommend bitter herbs quite often, especially with gut issues, liver issues.
They're fantastic for gently stimulating liver function and also in turn your digestion as well. So some of these bitter herbs I often prescribe are dandelion root, globe artichoke, gentian, milk thistle.
If you don't like bitter herbs, they're going to taste horrid. I happen to love them.
But you do get used to them and you really don't want to mask that bitterness because that bitter is a thing that's stimulating everything. So we really want that to happen.
If you do go into those herbs though, as with anything, you need to check with your practitioner that there's going to be no interactions with any medications or supplements that you're currently taking because they can interact with medications. That's important with any herbal medicine, any supplementation that you take that you do check that there's no interactions first. Another one you can take is of course I've mentioned before sulforaphane and this enhances phase two of the liver detoxification. So when you things go into the liver and they become more toxic, we need sulforaphane to help excrete that out of the liver and get through that second phase.
Magnesium is also involved in the second phase of detoxification as well. Magnesium is a relaxation mineral so it can really help with constipation because it relaxes everything, including the bowel. So magnesium is a fantastic supplement that I recommend all the time. It's one of my favorite minerals and a lot of us are deficient in magnesium as well and it's got so many benefits to it. Over 600 enzymatic processes require magnesium in our body.
What about die off now? Some people, when they do a detox now When I say detox, quite often I just change the diet with my clients. I won't just say, right, we're going to come in with all these herbs and do a proper detox and a lemon detox. And you hear about all these fads and that going on. But quite often it might just be, okay, let's get more of these foods in, maybe some supplementation. But I look at where a client's coming from. So if they're coming from a place where they're eating lots of processed foods and sugars and maybe lots of alcohol on the weekends, well, you know, changing things. There is already going to be a detox for the system because your liver's detoxing all the time.
So that might be all that that person needs. If you're coming from a place where, you know your liver is in real need of a detox and you suddenly start this regime, you might suffer, die off. And it's called die off, but it's also known as the Herxheimer reaction. And what die off is, is basically your body is detoxifying at a fast rate and where you're killing off things like yeast and bacteria, you're going to feel the effects of that. And it can give you headaches, it can make you feel like you're hungover. Give your fog, like the brain fog is real fatigue, skin breakouts, anything that's going on in the liver can often come out in the skin and also digestive upsets. So some people will go into a liver detox and a few days in feels so awful that they just stop it. It's my job to coach that person through that. Say, okay, you might feel this. If you do, let me know and let's pull back a bit. You might have even felt that if you stopped coffee just suddenly. I usually wean people off of coffee, especially if they drink it every day and they're having two or three cups a day. Just stopping caffeine will take you into that sort of die off detox phase.
So it's really important that I support my clients through that. I coach them to let them know that this might happen. And that's a normal part of the process. But I also try and minimize that as much as I can because I we've all got to work and you've got to carry on with life and you don't want to spend a few days to a week in bed because you feel so awful. To lessen the effects of that, yes, go slowly because a more drastic detox is going to quite possibly make you feel pretty yuck.
Support yourself with lots of water, lots of fiber rich foods, magnesium, and rest. You know, if you're stressed out, there may be some stress management and also support those daily bowel motions as well. If it gets really bad, you can also do things like in the naturopathic realm, we often talk about castor oil packs, and this is a very old therapeutic remedy where it can help stimulate the circulation and it can help. Castor oil packs can help remove the waste as well. It's best done if you put it over your upper right abdomen. That's where the liver lives and that can help. 30 to 60 minutes before bed can be really helpful. It is messy, so you might need some towels, but I think it's something that's coming back into sort of fashion now. And you can actually buy castor oil packs online in many places. Another thing that's actually quite enjoyable, and I did this last night actually, is an Epsom salts bath. Fantastic. Because Epsom salts contains lots of minerals and your skin absorbs those minerals. And one of the main minerals is magnesium. So magnesium helps to support that phase two of the liver detoxification. It's also calming for the nervous system. Rich in sulfate, which is needed in that phase two.
It can promote sweating and that can get rid of toxins as well. When you're sweating, you're also getting rid of toxins. So for an Epsom salts bath, have a bath that's nice and warm, not too hot, but nice and warm. And put one to two cups of Epsom salts in the bar and you want to be in that bath for about 20 to 30 minutes max, no longer.
It can be a bit dehydrating. So when I have an Epsom salts bath and a nice long soak, I'll always take a glass of water in with me as well.
Another thing you can do as well is to use a binder. What they do is they carry the toxins out of the system.
And a good binder will carry things like mold, heavy metals, endotoxins, which are gut bacteria, the bad guys, pesticides, and it will carry them out of the digestive system and out in the stall. I use something called, and I've got one here, which I should have probably got. I don't know where I've put it, but I've got something called toxa prevent. And it's a pill that you take and it's actually, it's actually known as a medical device. It's not a supplement. It's Called a medical device. But it's, it's a zeolite clay I think. Is it? No, it's a volcanic zeolite. And what this does is it binds to ammonia and histamines. So you might have heard of histamines. Some of us can be intolerant to histamines and it can come out in all sorts of ways.
Also binds to heavy metals, but it doesn't remove any of the good bacteria from the gut. So it basically just goes through the gut and it doesn't affect your gut bacteria. It's a really good thing to use.
You can also other binders are things like charcoal, bentonite, clay, chlorella, which is in lots of those green powders, is a really good bind.
But before we use binders, before we go heavy in heavily with those, I want to support your bowel motions. I want to make sure that you're having at least a bowel motion every day and you're well hydrated.
And if you do use these binders, it's best to use them away from any medications and away from any supplements. Two hours away from anything. But they can be really helpful and they can reduce that die off effect as well.
I don't think it would be a complete call if I didn't mention non alcoholic fatty liver disease because it's becoming such a big issue in today's world.
You know, once upon a time it was just alcoholics that would suffer with liver disease. But no, not anymore. This is because we're having, we've got a diet high in processed foods and sugars that it is actually causing non alcoholic fatty liver disease.
It's also caused by inflammation. And another thing that is very closely linked is insulin resistance. It can be reversed once again with nutrition and lifestyle practices. So that's looking at eating whole foods, cutting out that sugar, cutting out the crappy processed foods, having them just now and again, increasing movement because movement helps to get everything moving, your lymph and your digestive system. So if we're sluggish and not moving in sedentary all day, then that's not going to help our liver either. So there's lots of different blood markers you can get for liver health.
One of them is your ALT.
And an optimal range for men is under 30 units per liter. For women it's between 19 to 20. Below that mild elevation should be taken seriously, especially when there's any metabolic issues going on. So if you've got metabolic syndrome, which means maybe you've got high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, Maybe your waist circumference is on the high side, maybe you're pre diabetic. All of these factors, if your liver enzymes are increased, then we need to look at that because it needs some care. There's a definite correlation there.
Alt, by the way, is usually the earliest sign of any stress that's happening on the liver. And then you've got lots of others like ast, ggt, triglycerides. So I always look at triglycerides. When someone comes to me with their cholesterol levels, I want to see triglycerides and hdl, I want to look at that ratio and let's see what that that's doing.
Higher levels of fasting insulin are definitely linked to it and fasting glucose. So we're looking at the whole picture. And also your HBA1C, which tells us how much blood glucose has been circulating in the blood for the life of the blood cell, which is about three months.
So, you know, you'll be looking at all of those things in, in to get the whole picture.
Also ferritin as well, ferritin is, can be elevated in oxidative stress and inflammation. So if it's really high, then that can be an issue as well as when it's really low, it could be low iron, but we're looking at ferritin as well and crp, which is your C reactive protein. If that's above one, there's inflammation going on. I know the medical profession like it to be under, I think it's under 4 or 5. But holistically speaking, and for optimal health, you want that under one to wrap up. You know, hopefully that's not gone too much into the biology of the liver and the physiology and what have you. But it is a very complex organ, but it works so hard for us. And so we really need to love our liver, look after it, give it the fuel and everything it needs to work optimally because you can see if it's struggling, it can really have big impacts on our health.
My point to this call is you don't always need a fancy detox. You know, there's lots of things out there that are marketing detoxes and what have you, you don't always need that. Look at where you're at now. What can be improved with diet and lifestyle? Start with that. And yes, if you still need a liver detox, and sometimes it does, I do give detoxes to people, but it's on a case by case basis.
What we need to do is give it more of what it needs and less of what's going to harm it at the end of the day.
Three things you can start this week. I like to give you a little challenge each week.
One is to add in a daily bitter, green or cruciferous vegetable. You can have it as roasted veggies, you can have it in a smoothie, you can get the green powders, doesn't matter. But if you can get that bitter and if you love bitter foods, then fantastic. Another thing you can do is to support your bowel movements. If you're not going to the toilet, every that needs to happen.
So fiber and hydration are the first two places to start with that. If you, if you're getting thirsty and you know you're not drinking enough water, definitely it can be a very easy fix and that sometimes it's all that's needed. And to reduce your toxin load, you know, I haven't spoken about toxins in the environment.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: And while there's a lot we can't control, we do have control what's within our immediate environment. So switching to natural cleaning products, natural personal care products, cutting back on alcohol and sugars. So yes, you can't control everything, but you certainly can make a difference to your immediate environment and it makes a.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Difference in your overall health and wellbeing.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: So I hope that today's call has helped a wee bit and given you some good insights on how you can support your liver naturally.
And before you go, just a quick reminder that this episode was recorded from inside the members hub of the whole health revolution. If you found today's conversational helpful and you'd like to be a part of these calls live, then you can do so by joining us in the whole health revolution evolution. It's about building sustainable, healthy habits that actually work. There's no restrictions, no extremes, no fad diets here.
[00:28:48] Speaker B: It's just real world nutrition movement and.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: Lifestyle interventions to support you and help you feel better in your body. No matter what your goal. All you need to do to join the program is visit www.naturalhealthproject.co.nz weightlossprogram. That's P R O G R A M and if you use the code free F R E E W E E K you can enjoy one week.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: Free inside the program.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: Cancel anytime.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: But I'm sure you won't want to.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: So thank you so much for listening and hopefully I'll see you in the next episode.
