I have talked in the past about liver and the detox. How important the liver is and how much we undervalue it for what we think about it.

The liver is the essential part of our body and organs, it is the one that protects you from the outside world in the food way. Anything that you eat will go through the liver first and than we pass through the blood and then where it needs to go.

The liver is the one that break down and make up things and compounds. Makes the protein that you need for everything that you do, and most of all detoxifies all the things that you absorb and gets read of everything that you need to let go.

There is phase I that I consider it as the adding the garbage into the bin. Quite often this phase of the liver can be more dangerous, especially if it is too fast compare to the Phase II, which is the garbage man taking the rubbish out, either through urine or through stools.

Genetically Phase I and II unfortunately can be slow in clearing things, which it means that if one of the 6 pathways in Phase II is slow or not working at all, then one of the other pathway needs to work much more.

For example if the pathway called glucoronidation does not work well or slow, if you drink too much or eat heavy food, or do not eat any food for more than 3 hours, you start getting a bit yellow or the jaundice. This is called Gilbert’s Syndrome. Luckily this pathway is supported by glutathione pathway, and if you take the extra glutathione then the jaundice reduces and you feel light and less tired and grumpy! However, if the glutathione pathway does not work well or is slow and the one of the methylation pathway do not work well, than the result could be headache, low mood, tiredness and feeling heavy. This is just a small sample of the possibility. The other coin could be that the phase I is too slow, then the coffee that you drink at 9am in the morning, will still be affecting you by midnight, or if you drink it at 3pm, than is an all night awake. If this is too slow, than it is advisable that you do not eat any Grapefruit, as this will slow down the phase I even more!

Then there the Methylation pathway, which is involved in any of the detox, and making things in our body, including getting rid of the homocysteine and hence affecting the heart and brain. This has also been connected to the epilepsy and autism. Methylation is also involved in making glutathione, this powerful antioxidant, as well as with arginine is involved in making nitric oxide, another powerful antioxidant.

You get the enzymes for the detox and methylation from both your parents, so usually you should get at least one that work, it is slower but it works. But if you get both of your parents SNP that do not work for any of the pathway and especially the methylation, than you are in trouble. And that trouble can start from when you are a baby, as you will not detoxifying any extra toxins that you would inject or ingest.

If you do have either one of the liver detox problem or Gilbert’s Syndrome (a test of total bilirubine from the doctor will tell you if you have it very high), then there is a possibility that you might get a non-alcoholic fatty liver, even if you eat well. Stress or high stress I would say, could lead to extra building stress hormones, which can affect the liver detox pathway. The bile also can start having problems breaking down fat (bilirubine, is from bile and elimination of fatty food into feces), if you do not eat enough vegetables fibers, the fat is not eliminated well enough and the liver might also build up some cholesterol. You might also get a bile reflux, when the sphincter of Oddi is not relaxed enough or closes and opens easily. This can be due to extreme stress, or holding emotions in leading to tight muscles.

The sphincter of Oddi, regulates the flow of digestion, by releasing the bile from the liver and the pancreatic juice from the pancreas to enter the duodenum (the next part of the stomach, where they mix with food to aid digestion. It is a one way valve, preventing the duodenal contents to backflow to the bile and pancreatic ducts.

It is important to seek medical advice if you feel nausea, pain on the right side upper stomach and belly, especially after eating or eating fatty food. If you are under stress from work, and family and more, you might cause the vagal nerve that deals with digestion to shut down leading to the valve and the digestive system to work poorly, and leading the valve to either staying open or shut.

Before getting to that, you might feel food and the stomach looks like you are pregnant within few minutes to half an hour of your meals (this could also be due to low stomach acid). You feel extremely tired, yellowish if you have or do not have Gilbert’s Syndrome, your stools float (you need to flash few times to go down) or are sticky or shiny. This means you are not breaking down your fat. Your urine is a bit more yellow, as you can not flush the bilirubine enough or eliminate enough toxins.

Once you are at this point you need a proper liver diet with plenty of fiber, being strict, with no alcohol drinking and sugar and more, as well a liver support, for about 6 months or more.

As a nutritionist, I would advice the diet, and supplements to go on, as well as having sessions of craniosacral therapy to reduce the stress and vagal nerve sympathetic constant activation, hence regulation of stress and relaxation. This can be a session of at least 5 to 10.

Lifestyle changes is essential in this cases, and understanding your health is more important that anything else!

Email Maria Esposito or call her to make an appointment for a nutritional session and a craniosacral therapy combination.