Improving your liver improves your appearance!

by Dr Sandra Cabot

The liver is  an amazing organ with literally thousands of functions. But the two functions I love best are –

• The liver regulates fat metabolism by breaking down fat and pumping it out of your body via the bile
• The liver filters and cleanses the blood stream removing toxic chemicals, unhealthy cells, cancer cells and micro-organisms that would otherwise attack your body

Thus the liver function has a tremendous impact on your weight and your immune system. These beneficial effects can slow down the rate of ageing of our cells keeping us younger for longer (and who doesn’t want that?!) I’m sure you will agree, it’s very worthwhile to look after your liver!

If we are overweight, our body will produce more inflammation thus speeding up ageing. If our blood stream contains excess toxins and unhealthy cells our body will produce more free radicals, which damage our healthy cells and speed up ageing. Free radicals can attack the skin cells and collagen producing wrinkles and blemishes.

Many of my patients get a big improvement in their skin appearance simply by improving liver function. They have been able to reduce acne, cure rashes and dermatitis and fade brown ageing spots by taking a good liver formula and improving their diet.

In the liver cells there are specialised metabolic pathways that turn dangerous toxins and drugs into forms that can be easily excreted from the body via the bile, sweat and urine. If the liver does not break these toxic substances down, they cannot be removed from your body; thus they build up and increase the rate of ageing, as well as your risk of immune dysfunction.

Liver dysfunction will increase allergies such as red itchy puffy eyes and sinus congestion and sneezing. Sinus congestion often causes dark circles and/or puffiness under the eyes. If we can improve the liver’s detoxification pathways this will reduce the awful symptoms of allergies and mucous congestion. Your eyes will be clearer and less puffy and the itching and discomfort much less.

Fatty liver affects one in four Australians and is something that can be reversed with natural therapies and a low carbohydrate eating plan.

We have an excellent book called Fatty Liver – You Can Reverse It and the recipes, snacks and meal plans are delicious and easy. This book shows you exactly how to reverse a fatty liver.

Some of the benefits of reversing a fatty liver include:

• weight reduction
• increased energy
• less risk of diabetes
• better blood sugar control
• lower cholesterol and triglycerides

Of course, these are just a few of the benefits, there are many more, including a less toxic blood stream, which will improve the appearance of your skin and eyes.