Sorry if this post seems strangely scattered. My normal mind state has a more structured way of writing things like these, but I wanted to get this out of my head as scattered as it may be.
Yeah, so I'm sure now I have been running into liver trouble. Some of my stools are as white as a ghost, which as usual is my indicator to me my liver is sad, lol. It's tricky business when your liver is struggling. Take a look at why the different approaches have difficulty working:
- High Fat: Liver has trouble processing fats, thus the fats don't digest well and end up aimlessly floating around the body. This can cause many disturbances.
- High Protein: When the liver has trouble detoxifying, protein is dangerous because it's by product is ammonia. Then you end up with a brain full ammonia and people think you're as dumb as a drunk monkey. lol.
- High Carbs: Your liver also processes sugars, and if it has trouble doing that you end up with excess sugar in the blood which means excess insulin. Excess insulin can then crash your blood sugar and cause you to begin panicking. It also feeds candida and/or other things around creating imbalance and making you sicker. Not to mention it strains the pancreas which then becomes diseased.
- Herbs: Some herbs are very good for the liver, however some are toxins that stimulate the adrenals making you think you're getting better. In my belief the most herbs will do for the liver is protect it against being damaged by the toxins it cant process.
- Fasting: Fasting seems to be a powerful way to correct liver issues HOWEVER; if one is already deficient because nutrients ext are depleted it can be a dangerous game. Not to mention fasting takes a ridiculously long time to recover from the longer you do it. Juice fasting is easier to recover from, but the problem with juice fasting is it too puts a strain on the liver/pancreas ext ext.
- Liver Flushing: Probably the most powerful for the LIVER. However; a key issue with liver flushing is usually it incorporates Epsom salts. Epsom salts can be very dehydrating and horribly harsh on the kidneys. Some people have in fact ended up in the hospital because of loss of electrolytes from the epsom salts. There is no doubht in my mind though that liver flushing works. It's even been hinted at in the British Journal of Surgery. They had a patient who had a serious gallstone problem and was in dire need in getting his gallbladder removed. Ultrasound showed numerous gallstones stuck in his gallbladder. He ended up going home and trying the liver flush, then returning for an ultrasound. The gallstones were no longer there, and he didn't need surgery. Again, British Journal of Surgery recorded this.
- Enemas: Enemas are a crutch, they remove garbage from the intestines lowering the secretion of toxic material into the liver. They don't however address the issue of why the liver is having trouble processing toxins in the first place.
I'm sure there are many things I'm missing, but you all get the picture of how tricky it is dealing with a sick liver. This is why most people in alternative medicine REFUSE to deal with liver cirrhosis, it's just too finicky. There's no clear way in dealing with it. Now I haven't been officially diagnosed with cirrhosis, but my poor liver function came about after a bad drinking episode a few years back. It may not be my liver could be my pancreas, but I'm really suspecting my liver.
The answer to this problem I feel is a multi-dimensional approach. I'll list the solutions:
1. First of all one of the keys is keeping my digestive system moving. I can not afford to be constipated, because I feel that not having a movement every day begins to damage me. Many of you may not believe in the dreaded "toxins" but I happen too. Western Medicine came up with the term in human health for a reason. Your liver and your kidneys filter toxins that come into your body through your lungs, your skin and your intestines. If your liver and kidneys are strong, you can have junk sitting in your intestines that just won't bother you. If you have a weak liver/kidneys, toxins will not be processed properly and will begin to damage your body. Think of it like disarming mines. That's essentially what your liver/kidneys are doing on a day to day bases, they are taking some thing that is dangerous and rendering it harmless. If they screw up in doing this, they get hurt.
SO to keep my digestive system moving I can employ some of the following things:
- Laxatives
Cons: Potential addiction, damage to intestines, some are toxic.
- Enemas(Any kind)
Cons: Potential addiction
- Oils
Cons: Weaker, won't work if the constipation is based on slight blockage.
- Citrus
Cons: Weaker, won't work if the constipation is based on slight blockage.
- Salts
Cons: Dehydrating, damaging to intestines, harsh on kidneys.
- Eggs
Cons: Gastritis
Again, other options but those are what are standing out to me. So looking at those options I would say my goal should be too pick the least damaging most nourishing solutions. Oils, citrus, eggs and enemas for backup. Mix those together and what do we got? The egg, oil, lime potion with an enema if needed. Of course this is also a type of liver flush, so that’s getting two birds with one stone. We got a package to aid constipation and help the liver detoxify.
The next issue is obviously diet. Specifically which ratios. The options are as follows:
A) High fat, low protein, high carb, low sugar, raw vegan
B) Low fat, low protein, high carb, raw vegan
C) High fat, high protein, no carbs, raw carnivore
D) High fat, low protein, no carbs, raw carnivore
E) High fat, low protein, low carbs, raw omnivore
F) High fat, high protein, low carbs, raw omnivore
G) Low fat, low protein, high carb, raw omnivore
H) Low fat, high protein, high carb, raw omnivore
Okay so looking at each of those options, I have to decipher first which of the three excesses is the most damaging to the liver. Off the bat, protein. Hands down, protein is by far the most damaging when one has liver trouble. Okay so options C, F and H are gone.
Next, we take a look at which options cause constipation. Heavy amounts of nuts mess me up, always have, always will. Okay so option A is gone. Heavy proteins also cause me constipation, those are already gone. So A, C, F and H are gone.
Next, we’re onto which options cause overt stress to my liver/pancreas. As much as I love fruit, too much of it always feels taxing. It feels as if the sugars provide temporary relief, but then are followed by aches and pains in my upper abdominal area. I also begin getting sugar crashes making me sweat profusely. Fruits do help my digestion, but I feel Tyler is right and that going TOO much is not good. No absorption. For me ideally I have one good movement a day. My body feels happy with one good movement a day, no more, no less. So options B and G are gone.
Now we’re left of course with options D and E. Since it’s obvious I’m having so much trouble cutting out the carbs, E looks like the most logical answer at this time.
Nutrients. A few nutrients I wish too highlight:
Vitamin A - It appears that people with liver disorders seem to suffer from a deficiency of Vitamin A. Now like most questions around deficiency, will supplementation aid in healing or hampering? I would say it can do both. The key word here is excess. Excess seems to be a livers worst enemy when dealing with most processes. So my thinking is maybe a bit of raw liver on occasion to help healing. Liver is EXTREMELY high in protein, which as I discussed before I believe will hurt me. So maybe a bit of raw beef liver every few days or so will be a nice treat for my liver.
Notice how I said the liver is extremely high in protein. Interesting huh? The fact that our livers are high in protein(at least I think Humans are the same) but the answer to healing a liver is the opposite of what it’s made of. Obviously we NEED protein, plain and simple. Not only do we need protein, I believe we need the BEST protein. But an excess of protein I believe turns against us.
Omega Fatty Acids - These for me seem to do wonders in healing my brain. Due to the toxic load in my blood my mind at times takes a quite a beating. So a bit of fish is definitely on the menu. Of course grass fed beef as well.
Vitamin C - Vitamin C is all around some thing we need. I’ve seen notes that it aids the liver in detoxification. Again, a bit of liver will give me some vitamin C. If I choose to eat a peace of fruit every day or so, then that will also help.
Herbs - Three plants stick out for better liver function. Milk thistle, artichoke and dandelion. Not much, a small shot glass worth of the mix may just help my liver.
Fasting - So as I mentioned before, fasting is very powerful for healing the liver but very depleting. Some believe that the only true fast is a water fast. I my self don’t subscribe to this, I believe it’s the most powerful but also the most risky. With a water fast you must ABSOLUTELY rest rest rest. Being active after a week or so of water fasting is a NO NO. Some people can do it, but some people have been known to croke very suddenly by trying to do too much while water fasting.
So the question is why is fasting so powerful at times. The reality is less digestion. The less digestion that takes place, the more powerful the fast. Bottom line, your body is trying to do what it does during fasting ALL THE TIME. It just is more capable of doing it during a fast.
An issue which I have with fasting is my weight. Currently I weight 123 lbs at 5’8. That’s embarrassing enough for me, although I’m aware it could be much worse. If I started fasting today, I would loose a lb a day all the way down to 105. NO. Not going to do it.
So how do we achieve lower digestion in combination with the solutions above, with out loosing much weight. As most of you know the answer is in fact intermittent fasting. So with out getting too crazy, let’s say that 16 hours out of every day is fasting time. That leaves 8 hours of an open food window. The liver potion apparently makes one very tired, so let’s move that too the night time on the days that I do it. Here is what is reasonable to me, on the days that I do the liver potion I eat in the morning, leaving the entire day for my gallbladder to recharge. The morning after the potion I can take a small quantity of maintenance herbs and maybe have a fruit like an apple. The rest of the day is fasting.
So I’m incorporating what I deem as a logical package to help detoxify and heal my liver. The package is as follows:
- Day 1 -
Morning - 1/2 lb of Suet - 1600 to 1900 Calories
-`1/4 to 1/2 lb of Meat, Average 200 to 400 Calories
Lunch - Liver Tonic
Night - Liver potion: 2 - 4 Raw Eggs, 1 - 2 tbsp sunflower oil, 2 - 4 juice of limes
Day 2 -
Morning - Enema if needed
- Single peace of fruit
Lunch - Liver Tonic
Dinner - 1/2 lb of Suet - 1600 to 1900 Calories
-`1/4 to 1/2 lb of Meat, Average 200 to 400 Calories
So I think I’m going to try this protocol. Again the key problem in my life is EXCESS. SO far excess animal fat doesn’t seem to cause any notable problems besides feeling very congested and...well full of fat, lol. I also believe if I have one movement a day, the fat issue will not be as big of a deal.
Excess in general is what kills me, limitation I believe is my salvation. The price of the above life style seems to be no more than 15 dollars a day CND. So ladies and gentleman, that is what my mind today has led me to come up with. Please constructively criticize it, I know many of you aren’t down with the greens or the fruits but I want to hear opinions.