REDUCING CHOLESTEROL: LIVER HEALTH

Posted in Uncategorized on April 23rd, 2009

One of the best ways to stem inflammation in your body, and take a burden off your immune system is to have healthy liver function. Avoiding trans fats, reducing your intake of sugar and carbohydrate, eating raw foods and consuming raw vegetable juices are all great ways to take care of your liver. Another great way to improve your liver health relatively quickly is to take a good liver tonic. A good liver tonic will increase the manufacture and flow of bile through your liver, thus taking toxins away with it, and increase the flow of bile out of your gallbladder; ensuring it stays healthy too. Look for the following ingredients in a liver tonic to make sure you are getting the best formula:

• St Mary’s Thistle (Milk Thistle)

Also known as Silybum marianum, this herb promotes the excretion of bile through the liver, thus has a cleansing effect. It is very high in antioxidants; therefore it reduces the oxidation of cholesterol and prevents free radical damage in the body. Milk thistle also has the ability to repair and regenerate damaged liver cells.

• Dandelion Root (Taraxacum officinale)

This herb also promotes the flow of bile, therefore has a cleansing effect on a congested liver and gallbladder. Bile is one of the main ways we excrete cholesterol from our body, so if you can increase its flow, you will be excreting more cholesterol. Dandelion root also has a mild laxative action, further helping cholesterol to be excreted.

• Globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus)

Globe artichoke stimulates the flow of bile; however it also has other direct cholesterol lowering actions. Clinical trials have shown it has the ability to reduce total and LDL “bad” cholesterol. Globe artichoke contains luteolin; a type of flavonoid which is a strong antioxidant. Luteolin has the ability to prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol, thus preventing it from doing harm to our arteries.

• Taurine

This is a type of protein called an amino acid needed for various functions in the body. Taurine is involved in bile formation, detoxification of toxins called xenobiotics by the liver, stabilizing cell membranes and nerve cells. By helping to form bile, taurine assists with the removal of cholesterol from the body. Taurine also helps our arteries to be healthy, and can actually reverse some of the damage that smoking causes to them. According to Dr David J. Bouchier-Hayes, professor of surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin; “When blood vessels are exposed to cigarette smoke it causes the vessels to behave like a rigid pipe rather than a flexible tube, thus the vessels can’t dilate in response to increased blood flow”. This is referred to as endothelial dysfunction; it is one of the earliest signs of atherosclerosis. A study published in the journal Circulation showed that when smokers were given a taurine supplement, their blood vessels appeared to behave the same as non-smokers; taurine reversed the damage that smoking did to the arteries of the participants.

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