Dr. Tanya McEachern

Around 500 biochemical reactions take place in ONE liver cell. And there are around 240 billion cells in your liver

Most people know that the liver is involved in detoxification. This is definitely true – your liver has to break down everything that your body comes into contact with. Even if you live the cleanest possible life, you’re still exposed to things like air pollution, plastics, etc. And, your liver has to break down all the hormones that your body produces – stress hormones, estrogen, thyroid, etc. Plus, any drugs you take, including all over the counter stuff, coffee, cigarettes, weed & any hormonal birth control. Things quickly add up to burden the liver

Any time you are doing a detox/cleanse, you are targeting your liver, even if you don’t know it

Other stuff that it does:

• controls your blood sugar in the fasting state (so, arguably more important in diabetes & weight loss than the pancreas)
• produces 85% of your cholesterol (only 15% comes from your diet, so if you have high cholesterol, your liver is stressed)
• in Chinese Medicine, it controls the menstrual cycle. clots in your flow are a very obvious sign that your liver needs some help. PMS is known as liver qi stagnation, and hot flashes are liver yin deficiency (simplified)
• its emotion is anger (TCM). so if you find yourself feeling frustrated more than you should, it’s your liver talking
• big digestive action: secretes most of your bile in partnership with your gallbladder. if you have stones or an inflamed GB, your liver isn’t happy. the GB literally lives inside the liver. you need this bile to properly digest fat & absorb fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K)
• stores your iron and B12
• produces a ton of immune molecules
• converts thyroid hormone T4 to T3 (so, can cause metabolism issues and low circulating T3 on blood tests)

Almost everyone who comes to see me gets liver support. The liver responds well to so many treatments. Some people consider taking a multivitamin as something that can be done daily to preserve health; in my opinion its way more important to incorporate healthy liver support into your routine