Your liver plays a vital role in your body by removing toxins that could potentially harm you. It is responsible for filtering out waste and harmful substances to keep you healthy.

Sadly, lifestyle choices and poor diets cause the liver to become overwhelmed, which can be dangerous for your overall well-being. It is essential to take care of your liver so that it can take care of you. Here is what you can do and why you should do it.

Fatty Liver on the Rise

Each year thousands of people die from chronic liver disease, making it the 12th leading cause of death in the country.

Alcoholism and hepatitis are the main causes for liver disease. However, obesity and metabolic syndrome have climbed up the ranks in recent years, making them just as much of a danger. Fatty liver disease is now a major concern and can cause serious irreparable damage to your liver.

Normally, your liver is dark brown and uniform in size, but when you have a fatty liver, it becomes enlarged and streaked with yellow fat. If left untreated, your risk for cirrhosis increases substantially and severe fibrosis or scarring occurs.

When this happens, the function of your liver deteriorates until the only real treatment is a liver transplant.

Fatty liver disease is more common in middle-aged adults, but increased incidence has been seen in younger adults and even children recently. Your risk for developing a fatty liver are increased when you have diabetes, drink excessive amounts of alcohol, and are overweight.

Typical symptoms include fatigue, abdominal pains, and sudden weight loss, but an AST test is the only way for sure you can identify a fatty liver.

Saving Your Liver

As daunting as this may seem, there is good news. You can make lifestyle and diet changes to save your liver before it’s too late.

1. Lose weight: Excess weight results in fat being stored around your body. When this builds up around your liver, function can be impaired.

Excess fat around the liver also increases inflammation and scarring, which promotes disease, so losing weight is important in keeping your liver healthy.

2. Cut down on carbs: Excessive carbohydrate consumption leads to fatty deposits around the liver, so should be cut out of your diet where possible.

3. Drink coffee: Despite the bad reputation coffee gets, it is actually good for many things. Coffee optimizes the flow of bile, which helps support optimal liver function. It is thought that the dark polyphenolic compounds are responsible for helping the liver.

4. Detox: You can support your liver and lighten its load by regularly detoxing your life, thereby lightening the load on your liver. Opt for organic produce and use natural cosmetics and household products to reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals and toxins.

5. Try probiotics: Probiotics are beneficial for more than your digestive tract. There is a link between any gut bacterial imbalance and fatty liver disease.

Poor intestinal health can cause leaky gut syndrome, which allows toxins to flow into the liver faster, so optimizing gut health with probiotics can keep your liver from getting overworked.

6. Avoid alcohol and certain drugs: Alcohol consumption speeds up liver deterioration, and, because you need a healthy liver to even metabolize alcohol, it is best to avoid it altogether if you have any liver scarring at all.

Certain drugs also negatively impact the liver, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), acid-blockers, and statins.

7. Vitamin supplemental moderation: Vitamin supplements are good for you for the most part, but some can be dangerous for your liver. Excess amounts of iron, vitamin A, and niacin can add stress to your  liver, so be sure to check the amount of these given in your supplements.

8. Supplemental support: While there are some types of supplements that harm your liver, there are several that boost liver health. NAC and SAMe are powerful antioxidants, both proven to protect your from injury.

PC is a concentrated lecithin that also protects your liver, specifically from excessive alcohol consumption. Vitamin E and vitamin C supplements help to prevent inflammation and slow the progression of fatty liver disease.

Milk thistle also contains a beneficial ingredient called silybum that is known to treat common liver diseases.

| Related: Why Milk Thistle Is Good but Silybin Is Better for Liver Health |

9. Drink dandelion tea: Dandelion tea is a traditional remedy for liver problems and has been used for centuries to naturally treat liver disorders. Dandelion is a cholagogue, which means that it promotes movement of stagnant bile from the liver, thereby improving the efficiency of liver function.

10. Avoid constipation: Constipation happens, but you can control it by watching what you eat. If you have certain triggers for constipation, be sure to avoid them as a means of protecting your liver.

When you are constipated, toxins get stuck in the bowel, which allows them to accumulate. Once there, they circulate directly towards your liver.

11. Add some spice to your life: Turmeric is commonly used for curries and other flavorful meals, but it can also help support your liver. Curcumin is the main compound in turmeric and works to reduce inflammation associated with fatty liver disease.

| Related: How Turmeric (Curcumin) Helps Heal the Gut and Your Body |

Curcumin will not cure your liver, but it can control the inflammation that speeds up deterioration and progression of disease.

12. Get active and keep moving: Regular exercise has been shown to optimize the functions and detoxifying activities of your liver. Keeping active reduces insulin resistance, which is a major contributor to the development of fatty deposits around your liver.

The Bottom Line

It is easier to prevent disease than to try and correct or reverse it, so take care of your liver now and avoid any damage or disease. Don’t wait for liver damage to set in and take over, and start taking care of your liver today.

These tips above will save your liver and your liver in turn, will save you.

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