A Clean, Efficient Liver - for a better immune system, anti-cancer strength and all-round health
Your life depends on your liver. It is the largest organ in your body, and a very complex one at that. It is the organ of detoxification, filtering almost two pints of blood per minute. Without a clean efficient liver, you lay yourself open to all manner of illness including cancer. Your liver is the cornerstone of your health.
A healthy liver also aids digestion and absorption. It helps direct the stores of carbohydrate and release of glucose in the body. It metabolises fats and cholesterol aiding their excretion.
However, one of the biggest problems of the Western world is ’Fatty liver’. It is a particular problem for people with cancer. Not only does a fatty liver impair the workings of the most important health organ in the body, a fatty liver has a ’knock on’ effect: the fat goes into the lymph system impairing the immune system; it goes into the blood stream causing heightened triglyceride levels (and these mean more metastases and lowered cancer survival); it goes into the pancreas (blocking the production of insulin and pancreatic enzymes).
The liver also filters out dead cells, toxins, drugs, chemicals and all sorts of debris. It processes bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. And most importantly a healthy liver is the cornerstone of a healthy immune system.
You need a clean liver!
The Liver and Parasites
Let’s get this out of the way first, as no one ever thinks they might have a parasite!
Yet, until 200 years ago the enemies of the liver were largely confined to viruses, bacteria and parasites. Specific viral hepatitis is now back on the increase and is linked to liver cancer - some seventeen cancers are currently linked with viruses.
But you could have any manner of parasites in your body. Microscopic parasites are increasingly found in our water and on tropical fruits, and larger parasites like flukes are making a comeback. 42 out of 1000 cancer patients in Duke’s Medical School, Carolina had a liver fluke. In the UK, liver fluke in livestock is up fourfold since 1997. You can pick up a parasite on holiday abroad (ever have an upset tummy?), through poorly washed imported fruit, sushi and even kissing! Do you still think you definitely don’t have a parasite? The South East Asian parasite, Shigella, actually lays its eggs in your liver.
Just as a precaution, every cancer sufferer should consider being tested for a parasite (Bioenergetic testing - for example a Vega test - can quickly identify if you have a problem). You can then take a course of a herbal parasite killer. The Chinese herb, Sweet Wormwood or artemisinin is very powerful, but should not be taken for more than 10 days at a time if you have a weakened liver.
Go to: Super Herb Artemisinin
Parasites reduce your nutrients and particularly your B vitamins but also may produce toxins and particularly the carcinogenic Aflatoxin B, which is linked to an increase risk of cancer.
Viruses are obviously much harder to shift, but the most common parasite in the Western world today is Candida albicans, a yeast. Bloated after meals? Yellow toe nails in men, thrush in women, mouth ulcers, rashes, fatigue, excess wind? 70 per cent of Westerners are estimated to have excesses of yeasts - but again it is easy to do something about it.
Go to: ’Can Candida cause cancer?’
The Liver and Toxins
The modern world also subjects the liver to alcohol, pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, antibiotics, drugs and external hormones like animal hormones, HRT and the contraceptive pill. All these negatively affect the Kupffer cells in the liver, which break down toxic matter, and so the toxins interfere with biochemical pathways and reduce liver performance significantly.
In a cancer patient, the liver also works overtime dealing with the lactic acid produced by cancer cells, the chemotherapy drugs, and the dead cells from radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It will be slightly acidic, slightly inflammed and poorly oxygenated.
The big problem in cancer - a ’Fatty liver’
As if parasites and environmental toxins weren’t enough, ’fatty liver’ is yet another big problem. One of the jobs of the liver is to produce bile, about 3 pints per day. The bile and its metabolic agents, the bile salts, metabolise fats and cholesterol and clear this from the body through the bile ducts into the intestine.
A fatty liver affects more than 50% of adult Americans
If damaged by toxins - environmental toxins, chemicals, chemotherapy drugs, lactic acid from cancer cells - or blocked in some way, the liver loses its full ability to clear fats and toxins from the body, and so becomes ’clogged up’. Fat builds up in the liver, and then fatty deposits build up around the body. Fat is an excellent solvent, so toxins, free radicals and hormones all build up around your cells. Under normal conditions the liver manufactures substances like antihistamines essential to the immune system. But a fatty liver depletes the whole immune system as it tries to cope with excess toxins left in the blood and all over the body.
A fatty liver sees a rise of fat in the lymph, fat in the blood stream (shown to link to more metastases and lowered survival), and a fatty pancreas (limiting insulin and pancreatic enzyme production in that organ). A fatty liver can also lead to the build up of gallstones which block the bile ducts and cause an even greater fatty liver!
A fatty liver affects more than 50% of adult Americans.
Help is at hand with a home-made liver flush or liver cleanse, which was originally an important first step in William Kelley’s cancer treatment. It was then popularised by Dr. Hulda Clark. You can read more about this man, and the way he went about treating cancer patients (including his own wife - successfully) by going to an article on the late Dr. Gonzalez, a Doctor in New York who developed Kelley’s methods with great success.
Go to: the Hulda Clark liver flush or liver cleanse
Personally, I think the Liver Cleanse in this form seems a bit drastic. And so at CANCERactive we have looked into three simple ways you can clean up your liver (and simultaneously, your pancreas). Indeed, two UK Professors have been reversing diabetes in Clinical Trials by de-fatting the liver and thus the pancreas. Our ’detox’ is based on their successful programme.
Go to: The CANCERactive liver detox and cleanse
What else helps clean and strengthen your Liver
Turmeric (or curcuma longa), an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, and choline and inositol (both in soya lecithin) added to the diet can aid fat metabolism. Beetroot is an excellent liver cleanser. Boldo tea strengthens the gallbladder, the herb silymarin (Milk Thistle) strengthens the liver along with other herbs like dandelion (dandelion tea is a popular treatment). Research indicates that milk thistle doesn’t just strengthen the liver generally, but in cases of cancer (for example leukaemia) it actually reduces the levels of toxins (which cause side-effects) in the body during treatment. Another ’herb’ increasingly used in conjunction with cancer treatment which appears to help the liver detoxify and reduce side effects is mistletoe - however injections can only be provided by doctors.
However, the most important mineral is magnesium - and 40 per cent of Americans were found, in research, to be deficient in magnesium. Magnesium is found in a variety of whole foods from nuts to grains. You can find out much, much more about your liver and the foods, like artichoke and black raddish, on which to focus in Chris Woollams’ book ’The Rainbow Diet - and hope it can help you beat cancer’. We were 10 years ahead of our time with this book - but we update it regularly!!
Magnesium is also the mineral in good old-fashioned Epsom Salts. People used to take a tablespoon of Epsom Salts in warm water once a month before retiring at night. And it worked, clearing out the liver and making it cleaner and more efficient.
If you click on any of those highlighted words, it will take you to another article or to the Natural Selection shop, where you can buy Curcuma Longa, wormwood and parafree or the best selling book. Go to: ’The Rainbow Diet - and how it can help you beat cancer’.
Interestingly, if you go to the doctor in France or Italy with a variety of symptoms they are likely to tell you that you have a ’crise de foie’, a liver problem. "Feeling a bit livery" would have been heard in Britain 50 years ago when products like Andrews Liver Salts were commonly taken. Andrews liver salts contain sodium bicarbonate, two ant-acids, citric acid and the laxative magnesium sulphate or magnesium sulfate (which is Epsom Salts - Go To: Epsom Salts).
Now, if you have eczema, tiredness, sickness or acid stomach, you are very likely to be given drugs which will overwork the liver even more. Yet the all-to-often neglected liver is the start point for good health in all of us.
NB. Never take a drug long term for digestive problems or acid reflux. It is a recipe for disaster - fix the underlying problem, don’t cover it up.
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People who read this article, also read:
MAGNESIUM - CLICK HERE to read article
THE KELLY/CLARK LIVER FLUSH - CLICK HERE to read about William Kelley’s Liver Detox
THE RAINBOW DIET - and how it can help you beat cancer - CLICK HERE to read about this best selling book.
SALT, NATURAL SALT and SALTS - CLICK HERE to read article
Go to: Parasites?
Wormwood