Liver Detoxifiers

Your liver is the largest, most important organ in your body, located on the right side of your abdomen. It weighs about three pounds and has numerous functions, the most important function being filtering toxins from your body. If your liver isn't working well, toxins will build-up, causing weight gain and major diseases like cancer and diabetes. Learn ways you can detox and regenerate your liver for a healthier body.

Natural Treatment

• There are a few natural liver detoxifiers you can start with. One is by fasting. Since a large amount of toxins come from what you eat, fasting gives your liver a much needed break, allowing regeneration to take place. Exercise like walking each day also naturally detoxifies your liver as well as your whole body.

Expert Insight

• The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has been studying milk thistle (silybum marianum) for the treatment of liver disease. Also, Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., nutritionist and best-selling author of "The Fat Flush Plan", focuses on natural ways to detoxify the liver, including milk thistle, which she says "helps repair damaged liver tissue, and blocks the effects of some toxins." Gittleman also reveals that turmeric "is the highest known source of beta carotene, one of the powerful antioxidants that helps protect the liver from damage by free radicals."

Nutrition

• You can detoxify your liver nutritionally by drinking lots of water each day which flushes out your toxins and by eating a raw food diet--mainly fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts. Drink half your weight in ounces of water daily. If you weight 150 pounds, you would drink 75 ounces of water a day.

  According to Tom Francescott, detoxification expert and founder/director of Rhinebeck (N.Y.) Cooperative Health Center, detox your liver by eating a meal of steamed vegetables such as beets, broccoli, carrots, artichokes and onions along with four ounces of protein. Francescott says to eat this every night for seven days.

Fun Fact

• In October 2009, study leader Neal Freedman and other researchers of the U.S. National Cancer Institute shared their discovery that people with hepatitis C "who drank three or more cups of coffee per day were 53 percent less likely to have liver disease progression than those who didn't drink coffee."

Warning

• Consult with your doctor before going on a fast or with any method to detox your liver.

  Gittleman warns to avoid sugar, breads, alcohol, fried foods, vinegar, soy sauce and commercial vegetable oils when detoxing your liver. These foods clog the detoxifying process and cause serious harm to your liver.