How to Care for Your Liver
Tucked on the right side of your belly is a very important organ. It’s about three pounds, the size of a football, and it performs over 200 important functions—including supplying glucose to the brain, maintaining a healthy immune system, and storing nutrients. This essential organ—your liver—creates blood, stores iron, and detoxifies your system.
Protected under your rib cage, your liver sits above the gallbladder and parts of the pancreas and intestines. Each of these organs plays an important role in digesting, absorbing, and processing foods.
While we don’t discuss liver health often, it’s one of the hardest-working organs in your body, and caring for it is key to good health. Even though the liver has the amazing ability to regenerate itself, there are steps you can take to support its healthy function.
Keep Your Weight Optimal
Maintaining a healthy weight is not just important for an overall sense of well-being. It’s also important for supporting your liver’s health.
One of the liver’s functions is to help metabolize fat by producing bile. Bile helps break down fats, which then assists with filtering toxins from your blood. If you are close to your ideal weight, your liver doesn’t have to work as hard (i.e., utilize other resources). This can help you feel more energized—and more motivated—to pursue your fitness and health goals.
Eat Clean
The need for a healthy diet should come as no surprise. High calorie meals with saturated fats, refined carbohydrates, and sugars overwork your liver. As your body’s filtration system, excessive fats and sugars can be taxing.
Focus on a whole food diet rich in fresh vegetables, fruit, cereals, and lean meats and avoid the chemicals and preservatives found in processed foods. A good rule of thumb for clean eating is to only eat foods with ingredients you can pronounce.
Stay Hydrated
Drinking sufficient water each day is important for a variety of reasons. It helps regulate body temperature, keep joints lubricated, and benefits sleep quality and cognition. To keep your liver operating at optimal levels, drink enough water to help the liver remove waste, process nutrients, and eliminate toxins from your blood, which is 60–70 percent water.
If your body doesn’t have enough water, your blood will thicken, making it more difficult for your liver to process. To stay hydrated, drink half an ounce for every pound you weigh. A 200-pound person should drink 100 ounces of water, or six pints, a day.
Regular Exercise
Exercise—at least 30 minutes a day—should be a cornerstone for all your health goals. Not only does it aid weight loss, it also strengthens your body and improves blood circulation. Exercise can also boost your energy and relieve stress on the liver, enhancing its ability to process toxins.
Responsible Alcohol Consumption
Beware of excessive drinking. Alcohol can damage or destroy liver cells and potentially scar your liver. Moderate alcohol use for healthy adults is one drink (12 ounces of beer or five ounces of wine) a day for women and two drinks a day for men. In lieu of alcohol, mix light citrus juice in water or try sugar-free carbohydrate drinks.
Try Hepasil DTX
The liver is a hardworking organ designed to process not just the foods you eat, but all the environmental pollutants you’re exposed to every day. Consider a liver supplement to give your liver some healthy attention—Hepsasil DTX contains ingredients to help support liver function and promote daily well-being.*
Hepsasil DTX delivers superior support to your liver with the InCelligence Detox-Support Complex. The unique blend of milk thistle (Silybum marianum) extract, N-acetyl L-cysteine (NAC), Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA), broccoli extract, green tea extract, turmeric, and Olivol olive-fruit is scientifically developed to support your liver’s health. By maintaining the integrity of your liver cells with antioxidant protection, Hepasil DTX can support normal liver function.*
Focus on Liver Health
The liver works hard to keep your digestive and circulation systems running as they should. Support your liver with a healthy diet, plenty of water, exercise, limited alcohol, and Hepasil DTX. Check out these additional links to achieve your healthy weight-loss goals or how to maintain your ideal weight.*
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
About the Writer
Ben Raskin is a writer living in Salt Lake City. Follow him on Instagram @USANAben.
