Your Liver Is A Vacuum Cleaner

Our livers are the body’s vacuum cleaner, and they do a pretty heroic job. Even in the most pristine of environments with no toxicants (FYI, toxins are made BY your body, toxicants are the outside bad guys), no stress, organic food, and plenty of water, we still make cellular waste that needs breaking down and eliminating. The liver is working 24/7 to clean your body! We mean normal things like products of metabolism, excess hormones, vitamins, and inflammatory molecules, but it also handles the nasty stuff like heavy metals and harmful chemical compounds like BPA.

Of course, there are some things we can do to help our livers naturally:

• Eat nutrient-rich foods: Include leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts, antioxidant-rich berries, and healthy fats such as olive oil and omega-3s to reduce oxidative stress.
• Stay hydrated: Drinking enough water helps the liver process and flush toxins more effectively.
• Limit alcohol intake: Alcohol places a heavy burden on the liver and increases the risk of inflammation, fatty liver, and scarring.
• Avoid processed and sugary foods: Highly processed foods, excess sugar, and trans fats contribute to fat buildup in the liver and impair detoxification.
• Support with nutrients and herbs: Magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin C, sulforaphane (broccoli sprouts), curcumin (turmeric), and herbs like milk thistle, dandelion root, and artichoke may enhance detox pathways and regeneration.
• Maintain a healthy weight and move regularly: Exercise and weight management lower the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and keep the liver functioning at its best.
• Reduce exposure to toxicants: Limit contact with pesticides, plastics, harsh cleaning products, and unnecessary medications when possible, since these increase the liver’s workload.

But, there are some other things worth knowing...

How Do Medications Play A Role?

All medications taken orally are first broken down and metabolized in the liver. As much as 90% of a medication will be processed leaving 10% to work on the body. Some medications are designed so that after the liver has metabolized them, the resulting molecules are what is needed for the medical effect. Using medications topically - i.e. on the skin, means that the molecules are absorbed immediately into the bloodstream and don’t go through the liver. This is awesome for your liver as it is one less thing to have to metabolize and clean up. Not all medications can be given topically - but most steroid hormones can. Progesterone, estrogens, DHEA, testosterone, can all be put into a cream and then smoothed onto the skin.

Now, this means one more reason to love Silky Peach and other Parlor Games' topical creams; you get the hormones you need without stressing your liver. Plus, you need smaller amounts. Those hormones that are not used immediately at receptors in the body will be metabolized by the liver which is why it’s a good idea to use “just enough” to get the protective effect and no more.

Hormones & Your Liver

Now, hormones are wily things - they love fatty tissue and will happily sit forever in the fatty tissue in different parts of the body. This means that if you were to lose weight, there is a chance that as you burn fat stores, you will release some stored hormones. This can have positive or negative results; for some, increasing levels of estrogen can sometimes result in those estrogen dominance symptoms we all came to loathe:

• Tender and Fibrocystic Breasts
• Increased Forgetfulness
• Foggy Thinking
• Tearful
• Depressed
• Mood Swings (we’re talking crazy beastie)
• BLOATING

If this happens, it could be worth it to add in a little progesterone to balance out that released estrogen. And drink LOTS of water to help make sure everything is flushed out of your body!

You can also watch Kate discuss this in more depth, here: