Love your Liver for Healthy Hormones

Want to know what’s even more powerful than a once in while juice cleanse or detox?

Supporting your liver daily! 

Your liver is your body’s detox champ.  

And it works hard!  

In the last two decades, the prevalence of non alcoholic fatty liver disease has more than doubled. Meaning 1 in 4 people in the U.S. are affected! 

That’s A LOT of people. 

Too many processed foods, a sedentary lifestyle, toxins in our environment, certain medications, and even stress all add up to equal a pretty heavy load for one little organ.

High levels of toxins impair your gut microbiome, absorption of nutrients and important enzymatic processes that affect your body’s ability to properly detox. 

While your liver may be small, it's hugely underrated in terms of how much it does for your body. It helps with everything from converting the nutrients from your food into energy, storing sugars and producing essential proteins to neutralizing toxins like alcohol and aiding in your digestion. 

And it plays a REALLY big role in hormone health.

An overburdened liver has a decreased ability to break down excess hormones such as estrogen, leading to all sorts of imbalances from heavy bleeding and fibroids to conditions like PCOS and endometriosis. 

Your liver is also responsible for manufacturing cholesterol which is the foundation for all of your sex and steroid hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, even cortisol and DHEA. And it’s where inactive thyroid hormone (T4) gets converted into its active form (T3). 

But to function optimally, it needs adequate nutrient support. Specifically, B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, selenium, amino acids, and lots of phytonutrients like curcumin (from turmeric) and EGCG (from green tea) to help facilitate detoxification. If you’re still wondering what the hell phytonutrients are, you can find out more here.

Here are 9 Simple Ways to Support Your Liver for Better Hormone Health

• Eat organic when possible.

  The EWG’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15 Guides are great places to start. 

• Reduce or eliminate alcohol.

  Not a popular opinion I know, but alcohol is a double whammy both damaging the liver and impairing detox pathways. 

• Get your sweat on!

  Whether in a sauna or through vigorous exercise, sweat is one way to help move toxins out of your body 

• Drink plenty of water!

  Half your bodyweight in ounces is the goal. 

• Support a healthy gut microbiome.

  Gut health is an important player in detoxification and overall hormone health.

• Make sleep a priority.

  Sleep is underrated but it’s the most important time for your brain and your liver to do the work of detoxification.

• Swap more processed foods for fresh, whole foods.

  Adding in more colorful herbs, spices, fruits and veggies as often as you can is one of the best places to start. 

• Eat more cruciferous veggies.

  Foods like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower as well as plenty of dark leafy greens! Dandelion greens are one of my favorites! They’re a bitter food which act to increase bile production and boost enzyme production. 

• Consider adding in some herbal support.

  Herbs like milk thistle, ginger and turmeric and digestive bitters are really helpful and safe to use.