Why look after your liver for better gut health?
Chronic liver diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.
With an increasing number of deaths from liver failure & complications each year, it certainly makes sense to care for our gut and liver health more than ever before.
What is the gut-liver axis?
Recently science has discovered a connection between leaky gut syndrome and increased transition of bacteria leaking from the gut to the liver via the gut-liver axis and playing a crucial role in liver disease development and progression.
The liver is a vital organ, with over two thousand roles to perform daily. Cleaning the blood, detoxing medications, alcohol, food chemicals, and metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins is only just the beginning of the livers constant work it must do each day to have you firing on all four-cylinders.
When symptoms of leaky gut pay a visit, you might experience bloating, diarrhea, fatigue, headaches, joint pain, food sensitivities, skin rashes, acne, or eczema. When these symptoms present, they are not just affecting the gut, but also affecting the liver via the gut-liver axis.
With leaky gut syndrome, there is a dysfunction in the intestinal microbiota, therefore increased intestinal permeability, and consequently an exposure of the liver to bacteria components that can result in hepatic injury. This injury to liver cells causes the immune system to react, and inflammation occurs. If symptoms of leaky gut progress further, with more bloating, diarrhea, fatigue, headaches, joint pain, food sensitivities and skin problems, the liver produces an increased inflammatory response and more liver cells become damaged.
When liver cells become damaged, the liver cannot perform its over two thousand roles to its best ability. With lowered liver function, essential roles of cleaning the blood, detoxing medications and maintaining optimal metabolism start to wane, leaving you no longer firing on all four-cylinders.
If left unchecked and cascading inflammation continues from leaky gut to the liver via the gut-liver axis, the liver struggles more and more to keep up with its daily task force.
When this happens, the liver works to its best ability. It begins prioritizing on the most important roles, like cleaning the blood by detoxing medications, toxins and chemicals in foods and drinks. The liver then leaves what it determines as less crucial tasks of metabolism to support digestion, for later, but with only twenty-four hours in a day, there’s only so much the liver can do to support you.
When less crucial roles of metabolism get left by the wayside, the livers bile production starts to diminish. When there is less or no bile produced, essential fats no longer get broken down and used to produce essential hormones. Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to help manage the stress response, and cholesterol to help combat oxidative stress and manage inflammatory conditions.
Now you can begin to understand the correlation between gut and liver health, and the gut-liver axis and impact on liver health.
If symptoms of leaky gut continue, this further impedes on liver function and can & lead to painful liver disease.
When this happens, the liver works to its best ability. It begins prioritizing on the most important roles, like cleaning the blood by detoxing medications, toxins and chemicals in foods and drinks. The liver then leaves what it determines as less crucial tasks of metabolism to support digestion, for later, but with only twenty-four hours in a day, there’s only so much the liver can do to support you.
When less crucial roles of metabolism get left by the wayside, the livers bile production starts to diminish. When there is less or no bile produced, essential fats no longer get broken down and used to produce essential hormones. Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol to help manage the stress response, and cholesterol to help combat oxidative stress and manage inflammatory conditions.
Now you can begin to understand the correlation between gut and liver health, and the gut-liver axis and impact on liver health.
If symptoms of leaky gut continue, this further impedes on liver function and can & lead to painful liver disease.
1. Ditch the junk!
Instead switch to a plant-based diet consisting of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, pulses, tubers, and unrefined gluten-free grains. These plant foods provide all the nutrients that the microbes inside the gut need to feed off and produce more friendly bacteria. Friendly bacteria are essential for good gut and immune health, and keeps you feeling energized and looking young!
2. Eat more prebiotic foods.
Prebiotic foods feed the good gut bacteria inside the microbiome and microbiota, and also support living organisms inside the gut that help repair the gut lining by lowering inflammation.
Consume a variety of prebiotic foods like chicory root, konjac root, Yacon root, burdock root, flaxseeds, Jerusalem artichoke, garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, seaweed, bananas, dandelion greens, barley, oats, apples.
3. Consume less meat, dairy and eggs.
Cattle and livestock are fed growth hormones and antibiotics to make them grow faster and prevent sickness. These hormones and antibiotics in the livestock, get stored in the animal’s protein. Then when ingested by humans, these mimic estrogens in our body and cause bad estrogens, known as xenoestrogens. These are also endocrine disrupters and effect the way glands in your body produce hormones for growth and development, sexual function, reproduction, sleep, mood and other bodily functions.
4. Avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics.
Antibiotics are often over-prescribed to help treat many common health conditions like the common cold, flu coughs and sore throats when, in fact; they are not effective against viral infections such as those just mentioned. When experiencing a common cold or the flu, look to support the immune system with anti-viral foods like garlic, fennel, basil, sage, lemon balm, peppermint, Echinacea, ginger and ginseng.
5. Reduce stress.
Stress causes hormones of adrenaline, and cortisol gets released into the bloodstream. These hormones help manage the stress response; however, they do impose extra workload on the liver. The liver then drops all non-essential tasks, for example, bile production in favor of cleaning up the blood. To help lower stress naturally, try stress management techniques of daily practice of mediation, mindfulness, and learning to say no to non-essential activities in your daily routine.
Now you are well on your way to helping to prevent leaky gut and liver disease and looking after your gut-liver axis.
Want to Learn more?
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If you have leaky gut and concerns around liver health and the gut-liver axis, then we invite you to check out the Healy medical device, see what others have to say, and discover for yourself what all the hype is about!
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References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6165386/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326117
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/19-best-prebiotic-foods