Why So Many Fail at Switching to Healthier Eating
(Health Secrets Newsletter) The liver is the manager of all other processes in the human body. There is nothing it is not involved with in some way, often in multiple ways. When the liver stops functioning properly, inflammation is no longer contained. Stimulation of the adrenals and thyroid begin, which will eventually exhaust them. Abnormal cells may develop without removal as the liver cannot manage the job. Cancers may develop as sinkholes of toxicity. Autoimmune conditions, allergies and digestive upset can be the result of early liver problems. In this article, we will discuss the liver today, modern assaults up on it, and approaches for healing it and maintaining it for life.
In spite of all that has been said on the matter, the liver is the organ for which care is almost universally insufficient in those I see and consult with. This is partly because of modern living. Toxins in the air, electromagnetic pollution, and stuff we put on our bodies, in our houses and on our clothes as well as so much of what we put in our mouths lead to liver toxicity. Today, you cannot go anywhere on earth without needing to manage toxin buildup in your system. Certainly there are better and worse places to live in terms of toxicity, but no place is fully pure. Upper atmospheric pollution insures that everyone gets to enjoy the artificial fruits of a toxic world.
We can find a lot to worry about, but we should focus on those things over which we have immediate control. These are: food, thinking, our own houses and clothes, supplementing and EM radiation exposure.
We will take these in turn and discuss the liver using these as a platform:
Food: We can accept that food modified from the state in which nature has presented it or that would not, due to hybridizing and modification, survive or exist naturally is probably not fully understood by our bodies. There is no way we can adapt to benefit from such food, and ultimately we will be damaged by such food. We have no need of being hurt by our food, yet when we eat processed and unnatural food we are injured by it. At best it leaves unusable debris in our systems that must be eliminated. The liver must mitigate that injury and facilitate the elimination.
Thus, we want to eat 100% whole food and at least 70% of that food should be totally raw. All of it should be natural food and we should stay away from anything not organically grown since many of the species used in conventional farming are actually more or less dependent on modern chemicals for survival. Natural mechanisms, which would make the plant bitter or astringent have been bred out, and this food lacks where it should have value and is often laced with poisons such that the growers of such food will eat only other food grown from a separate, chemical free area! Avoid completely all factory farmed dairy, all breads and like products, all chemical nonfoods and all refined sweeteners (chemically isolated sugars such as table sugar, corn sweeteners, artificial sweeteners, mannitol, xylitol, sorbitol, etc.).
The last thing about food is that we should eat well below what our metabolic limit is. We have gotten so concerned with getting enough of everything we apparently failed to notice that the real problem is usually getting too much — so much that we can lose the ability to digest properly and then we get deficiency only AFTER that. The rule is to always stop eating 1/3 short of what is required to create the sensation of satiation. Also, stop all food by 6:30 at night. Chew well and relax for meals. Never eat and then sit in front of the computer or television watching news or opinion slanted to be the most dramatic and horrifying that it possibly can be.
Thinking: What we think is felt by our whole body entirely. When you are depressed, angry, fearful, cynical, defensive, etc, your body’s cells respond in abnormal and unhealthy ways. When you have gratitude, faith, love, hope, focus, trust, purpose and acceptance your cells respond in healthy, optimum ways. This is no longer something we only know intuitively. We now can observe the results. We know that our cells all listen chemically to what we think, feel and believe all day. This is not easy to change and it is frequently ignored as marginally important at best, but it is probably the most important aspect of this article. Many aids exist to help us get going, but ultimately we must become filled with a better grade of personality, our characters must be repaired and we must live congruently with no excuse for anger, hatred, fear, immorality, selfishness, loveless behavior or any behavior lacking integrity. One will always manifest for his health and life what he really is inside. No dietary trick or supplement magic will fix this, though as the liver starts to function better it is immensely easier to let go of such negative patterns.
Houses and Clothes: Do not spray chemicals in your house for any reason. Do not use dryer sheets or perfumed products in your laundry. Do not coat your body with chemicals or suck them into your brain from your hair. Avoid offgassing materials wherever possible. If you are going to build a home, study natural construction carefully (not just green by energy standards, but truly natural materials that do not offgas chemicals into your home) and consider how you can make a positive shift. Keep the windows open if you live in a more healthy area, especially if you are at high altitude. If not install a filtration system.
Another aspect of the house is the entertainment we may invite in and the negative material we may choose to read and watch on TV or over the internet. Dysfunctional television and electronic tabloid literature throws normal body function into an intractable mess, neurologically, organically and hormonally. No liver functions well enough to overcome this sort of toxicity. Having said that, we also know that addiction to such things is easier to sever when the liver is functioning better. Again we see a two sided coin, so to speak.
EM Radiation: Perhaps one of the greatest threats to normal function today is EM radiation. We have done some testing in my personal practice and have found in our limited studies on the matter that stomach and liver function drop after 20 minutes and drop substantially after 3 hours in front of the computer. It only takes about 20 minutes or less of having a cell phone strapped to your body for functions to diminish in nearby tissues and the liver. It only takes 5-10 minutes of talking on the cell phone to cause disruption in normal function system wide.
These are not true studies and are preliminary numbers to be sure, but I am completely satisfied that EM radiation is a significant threat to our health. I am greatly concerned about the flood of microwave radiation from cell towers and the flood of wireless internet over every major city. We may not need a conspiracy to wipe out much of humanity, we are rushing toward it as fast as we can go and are delighted to do it in the name of an ill-thought-out convenience. I have not been able to confirm more than marginal improvement when simple cell phone protection technology is used. I have not tested devices such as Clarus uses that plug into the computer to mitigate that response, but I doubt very much that it is a complete remedy. These are things that are not easily changed, but to a large extent we do have some control over exposure to said radiation.
Supplementation: This is one of our greatest tools against the liver problems of today. I have written several articles and done shows and newsletters about liver flushes and strengthening the liver. The primary concerns are liver protection and liver flow. It seems unwise to use any supplements that may cause a burden to the liver, such as those with unnecessary preservatives and other chemicals, or long-term use of anything synthetic, including synthetic vitamins. Generally, anything concentrated and isolated should be used short term only as needed. Whole foods should be our mainstay of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids.
The main focus of this section is what to do, rather than what not to do. What we should do is use one supplement each day to protect the liver, and another to keep the downward, cleansing flow going. In addition to Liver Cleanse, I really like Dr. Christopher’s Liver Gall Bladder formula made into tea for cleansing. I will drink upwards of two cups per day when I feel my liver flow is not good (any inflammatory reaction in my body in excess of normal is a good indicator for me). I have seen many cases where the liver flow is so stopped that massage over the bile ducts and gall bladder is actually absolutely necessary to get things going even when a good formula like that is used. I simply massage where the tenderness is (about two inches to the right of midline about 3-4 inches down from the xyphoid process). I do massage deeply but not with any pressure, just with lots of jiggling, pumping movements. The pain is usually released almost immediately.
For liver strength and protection, I mix the following herbs together in the following proportions by volume:
1 dandelion root,
3 milk thistle seed powder,
2 turmeric,
3 wheatgrass or barley grass powder,
2 stone root powder (collinsonia).
Various other things may be added in this case or that, but this formula is very stabilizing to the liver and protects it. It will strengthen a liver so weakened by the modern toxic world that it has lost its ability to cleanse well.
When these tools are used in concert, rapid healing can take place. The liver may need maintenance all the time for the foreseeable future in today’s world, but the result is that we can actually survive to see the future. We actually get to function mostly normally in spite of living in a radically unnatural world that our bodies do not understand.
Much more could be said about each aspect here, but that is why I have created a whole curriculum on natural healing. Many tools exist that are very fine and will function for our benefit if we will always remember to follow the basics outlined here.
Thanks for reading,
Kal Sellers, MH
