Liver aid herbs

[nguyen viet trung]

Liver aid herbs

Unless you have had a liver problem, chances are that you barely give the organ much thought. A liver is easy to ignore. It never grumbles, thumps, burps or makes itself obvious like other organs. However polite it may be, do not underestimate your liver's importance. This organ performs an amazing assortment of tasks as your body's manufacturing plant.

Through eating, breathing and even absorption through the skin, we all take in quite a smorgasbord of substances, ranging from life-sustaining foods to toxic chemicals. The liver's role is to break down and neutralize a wide array of potentially toxic chemicals, including such things as food additives, environmental pollutants, petroleum, paint and solvents. Even many natural substances, such as hormones, need to be broken down. The liver also converts protein into usable amino acids. Nutrients such as fats, carbohydrates and vitamins A, D, E, K and B12 are metabolized by your liver. Several vitamins are stored in your liver. And as if your liver is not busy enough, it also manufactures antibodies for the immune system, produces agents that allow blood to clot when you get cut, and even helps control blood sugar levels.

Liver problems are easy to shrug off at first because the typical symptoms tend to be the last things you would think of being related to your liver. Headaches, irritability, fatigue, aches and pains, indigestion, bloating, constipation, hormonal imbalances are just a few examples.

Hepatitis and cirrhosis are two diseases that can badly damage your liver. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver brought on by certain viruses or by overexposure to a toxic substance. Cirrhosis is a serious disease that changes the structure of the liver so that it cannot function properly. One of the biggest problems with cirrhosis is that less blood flows through the liver, and the toxins that are normally eliminated can now poison the body. About 20 percent of heavy drinkers eventually develop cirrhosis, and alcoholic hepatitis is often a precursor of cirrhosis. This condition can also a previous viral or bacterial infection that inflamed and weakened the liver.

The good news is that even a damaged liver retains an incredible ability to regenerate itself. Thanks to many scientific studies, mostly from Germany and the United States, we know that dandelion, burdock, licorice and especially milk thistle can heal a damaged liver and protect it from further destruction.

Milk thistle most impressed the medical world when G. Vogel, M.D. and other well-known plant researchers, including Hildebert Wagner, Ph.D., have found that the antioxidants in milk thistle called flavonoids are some of the most potent liver-protecting substances known. (Antioxidants prevent cell destruction and damage caused by the harmful compounds known as free radicals.) Studies conducted by these experts show that flavonoids work even better than the well-known antioxidant vitamin E. So do ginger and garlic, according to the results of numerous studies conducted all over the world. Similar flavonoids that improve liver function are also found in rosemary and grape leaves, which are used in Greek cooking. All of these herbs protect the liver from damage and increase the production of beneficial liver enzymes so that the liver can do its job better.

One important function of antioxidants is to protect the liver against damage from heavy metals and other toxic substances in the air and the food we eat. Heavy metals are all around us—lead solder in tin cans, lead and cadmium in cigarette smoke, mercury in dental fillings and some cosmetics, and aluminum in antacids. Research conducted in Germany has shown that milk thistle helps protect the liver from drug and heavy metal poisoning. As a result, milk thistle is the basis for a number of German drugs used to treat liver problems. Milk thistle is available in a number of preparations, but you can also sprinkle it onto your cereal or soup or incorporate it into other meals. To make milk thistle powder, buy whole seeds and grind them in a coffee grinder. Keep the powder on the table in a spice shaker.

Milk thistle is not the only member of the thistle family to come to the aid of the liver. If you like artichokes, you are in luck. While few American doctors consider artichoke a medical herb, European doctors regularly prescribe artichoke extracts to patients with liver problems. In fact, they have been using artichoke to treat jaundice and other liver complaints since as far back as the eighteenth century. Artichokes protect the liver from damage and help it regenerate.

The bitter compounds in the dandelion leaves and root help stimulate digestion and are mild laxatives. They also increase bile production in the gall bladder and bile flow from the liver. This makes Dandelion a great tonic for people with sluggish liver function due to alcohol abuse or poor diet. The increase in bile flow can help improve fat (including cholesterol) metabolism in the body

Licorice has been found to neutralize liver toxins. In modern times, licorice has been studied by the Research Group of Liver Disease at the Shanxi Medical College in China. Since the 1950s, medical doctors in both the East and the West have used a compound derived from licorice to treat chronic hepatitis. In Japan, glycyrrhizin, a compound extracted from licorice, was found to be so successful in treating hepatitis, one of these reported that licorice increased the production of interferon, which is commonly used to treat hepatitis B.

Ginger actually gives other herbs a boost by improving the body's ability to assimilate them. Since the liver is responsible for breaking down substances in the blood, it eventually deactivates medicinal compounds in herbs. Ginger actually protects herbal compounds from being destroyed, making it possible for them to pass through the liver unchanged and thus continue circulating in the blood for a longer time.

Turmeric is what gives the Eastern spice known as curry (which is actually a mixture of several different ground herbs) its yellow color. You get a healthy medicinal dose of this herb every time you eat foods seasoned with curry powder. Because the compounds found in turmeric are not water soluble, this herb is best taken as a pill or, even better, as a tincture.



Liver Tea

1 teaspoon each dandelion root, milk thistle seeds

½ teaspoon each, licorice root and ginger rhizome

1 quart water

Combine ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for a couple of minutes. Turn down heat and let steep for about 15 minutes. Strain and drink at least a cup a day.





From http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Boo ... /15/45.cfm