The Liver is a vital organ that, among other several functions, detoxifies the body from various chemical as well as physiological substances.
Under normal circumstances, the liver detoxifies several metabolites, synthesizes proteins, and generates biochemicals necessary for digestion.
In fact, medical experts estimate this vital organ performs around 500 physiological functions.
But sometimes an unhealthy lifestyle can overload the liver with work due to excessive consumption of foods high in toxins and chemicals.
The overtaxing of the Liver is what people know as “Liver Congestion.”
However, this condition not always occurs due to poor dietary habits. In some cases, Liver Congestion is the result of chemical or metal poisoning.
Liver Congestion Causes
One of the reasons related to the congestion of the liver is tiredness. But other factors can make a patient develop this condition such as subjacent liver diseases.
A relevant factor that causes this condition is Liver Incapability, which means the liver is incapable of detoxifying the waste products properly.
That increases the level of toxins and waste in the blood, which leads to the development of Liver Congestion.
A reduced bile supply can cause this condition as well. This particular case could occur because of liver stones formed by an excess of cholesterol in the body.
As explained before, the development of Liver Congestion is often related to dietary habits. That is why an excess of carbohydrates in diet can cause this condition.
Symptoms
The clinical manifestations of Liver Congestion depend on the extent of the damage the organ suffered.
Some doctors classify such damage as “clinical” if laboratory test values are abnormal, or “sub-clinical” if test results are within average range, but the patient still displays symptoms of this condition.
The usual signs of Liver Congestion include:
Disrupted sleep or exhaustion: when the patient has trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, which results in tiredness.
It occurs because the congested liver produces metabolites that circulate to the brain triggering inflammation.
Acne or eczema, which occurs because the liver’s ability to clear toxins gets impaired due to the congestion.
That leads the body to push the toxins out through the skin, producing patches or pimples on the flesh.
Irritability: since ancient times, teachers and practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine believed the Liver to be responsible for the release of emotions such as frustration, anxiety, and anger.
Impressively enough, Liver Congestion seems to cause unexpected and excessive outbursts of emotion that increase the risk of developing other diseases.
Lack of focus, which occurs because of acid from the now volatile liver travels through the body to the brain, resulting in confusion and forgetfulness.
Sudden allergies to foods or environment can happen due to the liver seeing familiar foods or cleaning products as toxic despite being capable of handling them before suffering from this condition.
Inadequate nutrient absorption could occur because when the liver (the organ that filters not only toxins but nutrients as well) gets congested, the nutrients can’t get filtered adequately for the body to use them.
Hormone imbalance: the liver also synthesizes and secretes essential hormones such as Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1), Angiotensinogen, Thrombopoietin, Hepcidin, Betatrophin, etc.
But when a patient suffers from Liver Congestion, the organ throws off the secretion of these hormones which leads to an imbalance in the endocrine system.
The liver also plays a significant role in the breakdown of steroid hormones like progesterone and estrogen, so when it gets congested, the liver loses most of its capability to eliminate steroid hormones.
That is why patients with a congested liver are prone to internal toxic overload.
The liver itself is an essential part of Neuroendometabolic (NEM) Stress Response system. For the body’s organs to adequately respond to stress, the liver has to be healthy.
In fact, all of the organs should be working together on a functional level to combat stress when it first appears.
But when such an essential part of this system fails, undue stress gets placed on the rest of the organs, which hampers their ability to produce and secrete stress-fighting hormones, resulting in Adrenal Fatigue.
How to Cleanse the Liver
The first step someone can take to keep his liver healthy is to prevent Liver Congestion.
Prevention
Some simple ways to prevent the development of this condition are listed here below:
- Avoid alcohol
- Avoid coffee
- Avoid large amounts of sugar
- Avoid toxins and pesticides in foods
- Eat whole grains, such as oatmeal and barley
- Avoid environmental toxins as much as possible
- Increase cardiac health with regular exercise (workout increases blood flow to the liver)
- Drink plenty of water every day
Repairing the damage
The best treatment for this condition is going through a liver cleansing process (also called liver detoxification process).
People can accomplish this by making some simple dietary and lifestyle changes:
- Increase water intake (particularly in the morning).
- Replace at least two meals per week with vegetable juices (some recommend tomato juice).
- Add some supplements to improve liver function such as Milk Thistle, Black Seed Oil, and Glutathione.