4 Ways to Protect Liver Health

What Does the Liver Do?

The liver detoxifies all the chemicals and harmful substances from the food you eat. When you eat, all the nutrients are absorbed into the body’s blood circulation. At the same time, foreign substances, chemicals, or food additives are absorbed into your blood circulation, too. It is extremely important to detoxify these harmful substances before they have a chance to reach various organs in your body. The liver is your guard organ and plays a large role in decreasing toxicity and destroying those chemicals to protect your body.

As such, it is important to keep the liver healthy. Keep reading to learn some simple ways to do so!

How to Keep the Liver Healthy:

1. Have a Healthy Diet

Try to avoid a diet with high calories, high fat, or high sugar intake. This type of diet can cause an increase in body weight and accumulation of body fat, which are risk factors of a fatty liver. A well-balanced healthy diet should include a moderate amount of all the nutrients our bodies need including:

• high-quality proteins
• unsaturated fat (while limiting saturated fat)
• abundant complex carbohydrates

In addition, include trace nutrients such as vitamins and minerals in your diet. Take adequate amounts of B vitamins (B1, B2, and B3) to support energy and metabolism. Vitamins E and K are key in helping reduce the formation of blood clots.¹ Minerals such as magnesium, chromium, and zinc help your body metabolize macronutrients like glucose and lipids, which help support the liver. For those who are overweight or obese or who are trying to lose weight by sticking to a diet, consider paying more attention to your vitamin and mineral intake.

2. Drink Less Alcohol

Alcohol is metabolized in the liver to produce acetate. However, in the middle of the metabolism, an intermediate metabolite called acetylaldehyde can be produced, which is bioactive and triggers the production of free radicals in the body. The accumulation of acetylaldehyde will cause fatty liver and inflammation, which decreases healthy liver function. Limit your alcohol intake to keep the liver healthy.

3. Stay Active

A sedentary lifestyle is a worldwide problem, which is a risk factor for obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and other health issues. Staying active is one way to increase your energy consumption and energy balance and avoid gaining body weight. Counting your steps is the easiest way to keep active. Taking 6,000-9,000 steps each day can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.² Experts also recommend other physical activities such as hiking, swimming, biking, and jogging.

4. Take Supplements to Support Your Liver

Your diet can supply all the nutrients you need, and healthy foods also contain other beneficial ingredients such as isoflavones, anthocyanins, and saponin. These ingredients have antioxidant properties and can help your liver cells fight against free radicals.

In traditional herbal medicine, certain plants have been shown to benefit liver health, such as milk thistle and red clover. Studies have reported that the active ingredients in milk thistle extracted from the plant's seeds or from red clover also have antioxidant properties.^3,4

You can find these ingredients and more in Super Detox^® to support detoxification and liver health.*

Sources:

1. Vitamin E
2. Prospective Association of Daily Steps With Cardiovascular Disease: A Harmonized Meta-Analysis
3. Milk Thistle
4. Antioxidant Activity and Total Phenolic and Flavonoid Content of Various Solvent Extracts from In Vivo and In Vitro Grown Trifolium pratense L. (Red Clover)