Why You Want To Make Your Liver Your New Best Friend

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The liver is one of the most important organs in the body. It is the largest internal organ and weighs about 1,5 kilos (3-4 pounds). It lies directly underneath the diaphragm, underneath the right ribcage.

What is the liver supposed to do in your body?

The liver has many tasks to complete, and is working hard to keep your systems balanced. The main functions are:

1. Your liver secretes almost 1 litre of bile every day.

Let’s start to talk about the importance of secretion of bile. Your body needs a lot of bile on a daily basis to be able to stay healthy. Basically, almost all health problems are a direct or indirect consequence of reduced bile availability. Bile is a bitter, alkaline fluid of a yellow, brown, or green colour. It is produced by the liver, but is stored and concentrated in the gallbladder.

The bile has multiple functions:

Assisting with the digestion of fat, calcium, and protein foods.Maintaining normal fat levels in the blood,Removing toxins from the liver,Maintaining proper acid/alkaline balance in the intestinal tract.Helping colon from breeding harmful microbes.

2. Your liver stores your blood.

A second function of the liver is to store the blood. During periods of activity the blood travels to your extremities so that you can move. When you are resting the blood goes to the liver where your blood is processed and purified.

However, if your liver is stagnant and not able to store the blood properly your extremities will not be nourished, and toxins might be released through the skin.

To help your liver cleanse your blood, I recommend that you don’t eat too much, and that your last meal is in the afternoon. By avoiding late meals you will allow your liver and gallbladder time to prepare for regeneration, which is most efficient between 11pm and 3am.

3. Your liver detoxifies your cells.

Many poisonous substances enter the blood. They then circulate to the liver, where they can be transformed into non-toxic substances. A common example is alcohol. As soon as you drink alcohol it will enter your bloodstream, and go to your liver for detoxification. Without a functioning liver all of the toxins would accumulate and cause serious problems to your health.

4. Your liver helps metabolism in your body.

Your liver plays a major role in breaking down proteins, fats, and carbohydrates.

5. Your liver stores several substances, such as: iron, vitamins A, B12, and D.

Both vitamins and minerals play a huge part in your well being. However, they are only beneficial when taken in the proper amounts and ratios. For you to make best use of these vitamins and minerals your liver has the ability to store some for later use.

Bear in mind that your liver can only store fat-soluble vitamins, so all the water-soluble vitamins must still be supplied in your diet on a regular basis. (For example Vitamin C)

6. Your liver destroys old blood cells.

Red blood cells usually live for about 3 months. They then often break apart as they age, and the liver helps to ingest and destroy these blood cells, which helps keep your blood clean.

7. Your liver is in charge of your body’s planning.

The liver is said to be the “planner” in your body, and the gallbladder is the “decision maker”. This means that your ability to organise, plan and make decisions is related to the well being of these organs.

Is this how it works for most people?

Unfortunately not.

The liver is probably the most congested of all organs today. The way we eat, drink and constantly stress causes our livers to always work over time.

Our livers are usually victims for many kinds of excesses – the most common one being excess of food. As a society we eat way too much, especially rich and greasy food. This makes the liver swollen and sluggish. It just doesn’t have enough time to process everything we put into our body. The liver becomes tired and fatty, and the energy stagnates in the liver instead of being properly distributed around the body.

If the liver never rests from a state of congestion, neither does the kidneys, and eventually even the kidneys functions will weaken. A fatty liver also affects the blood, the pancreas, and the stomach. In other words, a weak liver can cause ulcers, abdominal inflammations, diabetes, gas and indigestion in general. Finally, most cases of heart disease are related to liver stagnation.

In fact, the origin of most diseases can easily be traced to the liver.

Did you know that your liver has a close relationship with your emotions?

One of the first signs of a stagnant liver is difficulty in dealing with anger. A sluggish liver can be expressed by anger, impatience, frustration, violence, rudeness, arrogance, stubbornness, aggression and an explosive personality. All of these emotions can cause depression. Mood swings in general are usually related to the liver.

Having too many desires can also stimulate a person to over-eat, or to just make inappropriate choices regarding food. It can be desires for sex, fame, power, or money. But these desires can take over your life and can blind your judgement. Desires like these aren’t healthy and can greatly damage your liver function. I’m not implying that you shouldn’t have dreams and goals. Not at all. But your dreams should come from your heart. Greed and power, on the contrary, are just based on insecurities.

Unresolved emotional issues are actually stored physically in the liver. Imagine what this can do to your health. Releasing emotional blockages, and letting go, releases the energy in the liver. This is why it is so important to express your feelings. Carrying something around with you will cause serious issues to your liver after only 2 years. Just know that those feelings you carry around don’t do you any good. You don’t need them for anything.

Just let go.

So how does this affect you?

Your? liver actually has direct control over the growth and functioning of every cell in your body. Any kind of malfunction, deficiency, or abnormal growth pattern of the cell is largely due to poor liver performance. Think about this for a second.

What does that really mean? It means that if you strive to look after your liver, and give your liver everything it needs to function properly, you have a much higher chance to get well again, or to avoid diseases coming into your life.

Are you suffering from any of the common symptoms of a weak liver?

Difficulties with planningNervousnessTimidityLack of courage and initiativeHeadachesRepressed angerEmotional outburstsDepressionMoodinessFeeling emotionally overwhelmed and over-sensitiveUpset digestionAllergiesNauseaVomitingTirednessDry skinMuscular weakness and spasmsPins and needlesDry and brittle nailsPoor sleepPre menstrual tensionPeriod pain

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Dr. Sandra Cabot - Free Seminar / Phoenix, Arizona

Hello, my name is Dr Sandra Cabot. Many of you will know me from my famous book, titled "The Liver Cleansing Diet" which literally shot to fame like a shining meteorite during 1997. It made me a household name in Australian kitchens, and brought liver consciousness to hundreds of thousands of people in a short space of time. People from all walks of life and in many different states of health embraced this new and simple way of eating with a passion, that surprised me as well as many others.

There are thousands of diet books on the market and yet this one was different because it concentrated on just one bodily organ, namely the liver, which everyone seemed to relate to, because everyone has a liver. Perhaps its success related to the fact that when one improves the liver function through simple dietary habits it is possible to achieve many health benefits, especially weight control and internal cleansing of the body. It was incredible because everyone seemed to be having a love affair with his or her liver. People who had struggled for years with excessive weight and/or chronic health problems found that the liver was the missing part in the jig-saw puzzle to achieve good health.

From that point, word of mouth took over and successful followers of my liver friendly way of eating told others to follow the Liver-Cleansing-Diet and watched with interest to see its results. This produced a wave of social and economic effects. Australia sold out of linseeds (flaxseeds) and for a while they had to be imported; health food stores had to knock down walls to create more space and the health food industry enjoyed a resurgence in the production and sales of liver cleansing foods. I became known as the "Liver Doctor" which was interesting as my background had been in the area of women's health and hormone replacement therapy. My face became well known, so much so that I would find myself recognized in far-away and remote places.

I well remember being in a public toilet at 5am in the morning, at a place called Three Ways, on the highway between Alice Springs and Darwin in northern Australia where I was instantly and warmly welcomed by a woman who had been successful on my Liver-Cleansing-Diet. She enthusiastically told me how much weight she had lost and how much she enjoyed my media appearances. Yes, one of the benefits of being a successful author is that one has a ready-made network of friends all over the world.

There has been the occasional person who did not understand my theories on the liver, and in particular one reader thought it was impossible to cleanse the liver, believing that this was unscientific! However, it is vitally important to cleanse the liver regularly because, like any filter, it can become overloaded and blocked with excessive waste products. Just think about what happens if you do not cleanse the filters in your kitchen sink, lawn mower, pool-pump or car engine. It would be easy if you could remove your liver everyday and give it a good wash with soap and water! This is obviously not possible, so we need to come up with a more practical solution. I have found that an effective way to cleanse the liver filter is by eating certain foods and using natural supplements and liver tonics. These nutrients include anti-oxidants, essential fatty acids, essential amino acids, enzymes, natural antibiotics and plant substances (phytonutrients). These nutrients also exert an anti-cancer effect and help the immune system.

This website will provide a wealth of information, advice and recommendations on how you can improve your liver function using powerful nutritional strategies. For some of you this will be literally life saving, for others it will allow you to improve your health, regain physical and mental energy and regain your zest for life!

Love Your Liver & Live Longer!

From our founder and health guru Dr Sandra Cabot, making sure that all that knowledge is presented in a coherent and easy to understand manner, here is?her super team of people who want to teach you about good health and how to maintain it for the rest of your life. If you have a question relating to your health or have a problem that's not addressed on this website, why not send us an e-mail.

Christine Ki is Dr Sandra Cabot's natural therapist in Phoenix Arizona. She is available by telephone from Dr Cabot's Health Advisory Service.?Christine will educate you about the hidden causes of weight excess, how to have a healthy liver, hormonal imbalances and much more. Christine is inspiring, fun and full of abundance; she will have plenty of time to answer all your questions.

To keep up-to-date with Dr Cabot's worldwide travel schedule or to book or organize a seminar, please email christine@scbintl.com or CONTACT US

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Decompensated Liver Due To Hepatitic C Virus

Q. My mother is 55 years old and suffering from decompensated liver due to hepatitic C virus. she has had 4 episodes of hepatic encephalopathy (3 minor and 1 major due to spontaneous bacterial peritonitis). She has had ascites since that episode. She was diagnosed with Hep C and compensated cirrhosis 2 years ago - she took Interferon but that did not prove effective. Now she has developed caries spine (TB). She is on second line drugs for 4 months which is not proving effective in eradicating the TB virus. Her current results are bilirubin 3.4, ALT 29, PT 14, albumin 1.9, ESR 108, platelets 47.

a) under this condition what would you advise us to do?

b) can she undergo transplant whilst she is on TB (tuberculosis) treatment?

c) would you suggest adding first line drugs for TB (that is rifampicin, pyrazinamide, isoniazid) - she took rifampicin but her bilirubin shot up to 6, so we discontinued.

d) also will hepatitis C re-infect the transplanted liver and if so how long on average does that take? I have heard re-infected hepatitis

C virus is more aggressive and damages the liver causing cirrhosis rapidly

e) I've heard that there are drugs for cirrhosis which are under trials - do you know at what stage these are?

A. a) Your mother has decompensated liver cirrhosis from hepatitis C and requires a liver transplant. Interferon treatment would not be tolerated in this situation. Medical treatment alone would not be adequate in the long run.

b) Yes - she can undergo the transplant on TB treatment if the TB is not active.

c) The use of anti-TB medication is difficult in patients with liver cirrhosis. Do you have the culture results of the TB? This will help the choice of medication. Second line medication may be needed if the first line medication cannot be tolerated.

d) Hepatitis C is likely to re-infect the new liver but treatment can be given after the liver transplant and is usually quite effective. In a very small group of patients, one can have a rapidly recurring form of hepatitis C but this is unusual.

e) There are currently no effective drugs that will treat cirrhosis specifically. Treatment is usually directed at the underlying cause of the liver disease. At the end of the day, we would need to assess the patient before giving you a final result.

My Mother Was Diagnosed With Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Q. My mother was diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma in 2007. This diagnosis was based on a recent MRI scan which revealed a large tumour (around 8cm) that extends from the capsule surface right down to the porta hepatis.

The appearance was typical of HCC and there was also evidence of recent haemorrhage within the tumour. AFT levels exceeded 2000ng/ml. Prior to the diagnosis, her health has deteriorated rapidly; she was experiencing severe right upper quadrant pain which radiated to her back and kept her awake at night.

She was also diagnosed with chronic Hepatitis C in 2001. Although interferon/ ribavirin dual therapy was commenced in 2002, it was ineffective. Cirrhosis was diagnosed after a liver biopsy. There is no concurrent problem to note and her health was good until late August 2007. We were informed that curative treatment was not an option as the tumour did not fulfil the Milan criteria for resection, chemotherapy would not be efficacious, and the tumour was too large for radiofrequency ablation. The last option presented was chemoembolisation.

Unfortunately her liver function was poor, she was in Child Pugh group C, and this treatment can only be given to those in Child Pugh group A or B as the risk of adversity in these groups is low. The only feasible option given was palliation and letting the disease progress and take its natural course but this is not acceptable to us. If there is no evidence of extra-hepatic spread of the cancer, would a transplant be possible?

A. It is an extremely difficult decision to decide on the best treatment for a patient with a large HCC and decompensated liver disease. You are quite right in thinking that currently, there is no curative treatment for such a condition except for liver transplantation which would treat her liver cancer together with her decompensating liver cirrhosis.

In many centres, due to acute shortage of cadaveric donor livers, patients with liver cancer beyond the Milan criteria are not transplanted. However, there are centres such as ours where living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is widely practiced and often patients with large tumour, way beyond Milan criteria but with no extra-hepatic metastastes and also no large venous involvement such as the large hepatic veins and the main portal vein, are being transplanted successfully. The majority of patients transplanted in Asia using LDLT are beyond the Milan criteria as there is no other alternative treatment.

The 3 year survival rate for this group has ranged from 25-40% and it is well known that for patients who have survived the 3 years are likely to continue living beyond this period as the recurrence rate decreases markedly after the first 12-18 months. The main constraint to LDLT is, of course, the availability of a suitable donor.

Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) Testing

HBV is transmitted through infected body fluids, including blood, semen, and vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood). It also can be transmitted from a pregnant woman to her child at or near the time of birth.

There are several different HBV tests. These are the HBV tests most commonly done:

* Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is the earliest indicator of an active hepatitis B infection. This antigen may be present before symptoms of an HBV infection are present. If this antigen level remains high for more than 6 months, then you will probably become a carrier of HBV, meaning you can transmit it to others throughout your life.

* Hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb) usually appears about 4 weeks after HBsAg disappears. The presence of this antibody means that the infection is at the end of its active stage and you cannot pass the virus to others (you are no longer contagious). This antibody also protects you from getting HBV again in the future. The test is done to determine the need for vaccination—the antibody will be present after receiving the HBV vaccine series, showing that you have protection (immunity) from the virus. Occasionally your test may show that you have both the HBsAb and HBsAg antibodies. In this case, you are still contagious.

* Hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) is an HBV protein that is only present during an active HBV infection. This test determines how contagious you are. Testing for this antigen can also be used to monitor the effectiveness of treatment for HBV.

* HBV DNA testing checks for genetic material (DNA) from the hepatitis B virus. The HBV DNA tests measure how much genetic material is present. A high level of HBV DNA means that the virus is multiplying in your body and you are very contagious. If you have a chronic HBV, an elevated viral DNA level means you are at an increased risk for liver damage and may want to consider treatment with antiviral medicine. Testing for HBV DNA is also used to monitor the effectiveness of treatment for chronic HBV infection. HBV DNA testing is a more sensitive test than HBeAg (above) for detecting HBV in the blood.

Other HBV tests are not done as often:

* Hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb) is an antibody to the hepatitis B core antigen that appears about 1 month after an active HBV infection. It can be found in people who had an infection in the past and in those with long-term (chronic) HBV. It usually is present for life. Blood banks test for this antibody when screening donated blood for hepatitis B.

* Hepatitis B core antibody IgM (HBcAbIgM) is another antibody to the hepatitis B core antigen. It indicates an HBV infection that has occurred within the last 6 months.

* Hepatitis B e-antibody (HBeAb) shows that the active stage of an acute HBV infection is almost over, and your risk of being contagious is greatly reduced.

A hepatitis B vaccine is available to prevent an HBV infection.
Hepatitis D virus (HDV) testing

Infection with the hepatitis D virus (HDV), or delta agent, occurs only in people who are already infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Vaccination against hepatitis B will prevent hepatitis D infection. Hepatitis D infection is rare in the United States and Canada, except among people who inject illegal drugs and those who are frequently exposed to blood products. The hepatitis D test detects HDV antibodies. A positive test indicates only that you have been infected with HDV—it cannot distinguish between an acute or chronic infection. Another test, the HDV RNA test, is needed to determine whether you have an active HDV infection. It does not distinguish between an acute or chronic infection. This test currently is not available except in research settings.

Since hepatitis B infections can be spread through sexual contact, practice safe sex until your test results are returned.

Decompensated Liver Due To Hepatitic C Virus

Q. My mother is 55 years old and suffering from decompensated liver due to hepatitic C virus. she has had 4 episodes of hepatic encephalopathy (3 minor and 1 major due to spontaneous bacterial peritonitis). She has had ascites since that episode. She was diagnosed with Hep C and compensated cirrhosis 2 years ago - she took Interferon but that did not prove effective. Now she has developed caries spine (TB). She is on second line drugs for 4 months which is not proving effective in eradicating the TB virus. Her current results are bilirubin 3.4, ALT 29, PT 14, albumin 1.9, ESR 108, platelets 47.

a) under this condition what would you advise us to do?

b) can she undergo transplant whilst she is on TB (tuberculosis) treatment?

c) would you suggest adding first line drugs for TB (that is rifampicin, pyrazinamide, isoniazid) - she took rifampicin but her bilirubin shot up to 6, so we discontinued.

d) also will hepatitis C re-infect the transplanted liver and if so how long on average does that take? I have heard re-infected hepatitis

C virus is more aggressive and damages the liver causing cirrhosis rapidly

e) I've heard that there are drugs for cirrhosis which are under trials - do you know at what stage these are?

A. a) Your mother has decompensated liver cirrhosis from hepatitis C and requires a liver transplant. Interferon treatment would not be tolerated in this situation. Medical treatment alone would not be adequate in the long run.

b) Yes - she can undergo the transplant on TB treatment if the TB is not active.

c) The use of anti-TB medication is difficult in patients with liver cirrhosis. Do you have the culture results of the TB? This will help the choice of medication. Second line medication may be needed if the first line medication cannot be tolerated.

d) Hepatitis C is likely to re-infect the new liver but treatment can be given after the liver transplant and is usually quite effective. In a very small group of patients, one can have a rapidly recurring form of hepatitis C but this is unusual.

e) There are currently no effective drugs that will treat cirrhosis specifically. Treatment is usually directed at the underlying cause of the liver disease. At the end of the day, we would need to assess the patient before giving you a final result.