04.18.2018 •

The Plan for a Healthy and Happy Liver

Think you’ve got a grueling work schedule? Well, allow us to introduce you to the hardest working organ in the body—your liver. Believe it or not, the liver is in charge of literally hundreds of different daily functions, like regulating fat stores, supporting digestion of fats, neutralizing and eliminating toxins, metabolizing hormones, storing vitamins and minerals, contributing to immunity health, and regenerating its own damaged tissue. Now that’s a workload!

With so much on your liver’s to-do list, you want to make sure it’s strong and healthy. Otherwise, you can be opening the door to a host of health issues that can affect digestion, bones, skin, and joints, not to mention cause urinary, circulatory, respiratory, and immune system disorders.

Factors That Affect Proper Liver Functioning

As tough as your liver might be, it is not indestructible. Harmful lifestyle choices like excess alcohol and processed food consumption can jeopardize even the healthiest liver. Other factors like obesity and environmental toxins can also put added stress on your liver, resulting in perhaps unrepairable damage. Over time, chronic liver abuse can lead to major problems, including liver infections, cirrhosis, enlarged liver, and liver cancer.

Whether it be from taking in toxins from the environment, eating a detrimental diet, or suffering from sickness, a healthy liver is crucial when it comes to maintaining your overall health. And the road to a healthy, happy liver begins with a great cleansing plan.

Red Reishi Mushrooms and Detoxifying Your Liver

Revered for thousands of years in Asia, Japanese red reishi is no stranger when it comes to detoxifying the liver. In addition to boosting energy and lowering stress, this mighty mushroom delivers a powerful punch of antioxidants that not only improves the immune system, but also supports proper liver functioning.

Mounting scientific evidence has demonstrated, again and again, the awesome liver cleansing and supporting abilities of red reishi. This fantastic fungus has been shown to filter toxins and protect your liver against free radicals, cirrhosis, and fibrosis. Reishi can also help counteract hardening of the arteries—a serious condition called arteriosclerosis that can lead to a diseased liver.

And if that wasn’t remarkable enough, the polysaccharide fractions and tripertenes from reishi also help fend off infections—bacteria, fungus, and viruses like hepatitis that can damage the liver.

Reading through the research on reishi mushrooms and how it supports healthy liver function is like reading about a superhero, but in this case, it’s true. Reishi has been found to have antioxidant activity, modulate hepatic Phase I and II enzymes (related to liver detoxification), have antiviral activity, balance immune response, modulate the production of nitric oxide (involved in increasing blood circulation amongst other things), inhibit b-glucuronidase (involved in liver detoxification), and maintain hepatocellular calcium homeostasis (again for liver detoxification).

So, be kind to your liver—don’t stress it out too much with poor choices of food and drink and toxic burdens. But also consider supporting your superhero liver with Japanese red reishi mushrooms.

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Dr. Melissa Carr is a registered Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine with a B.Sc. in Kinesiology. In practice since 2001, Dr. Carr has a passion for sharing health information. She has been a nutrition instructor and a health consultant, lecturer, and writer for 24 Hours Vancouver newspaper, Fraser Health Authority, UBC, and the David Suzuki Foundation, amongst others.