Health starts in this greatest of chemical factories. Never treat it lightly. Take care of it. It cannot be replaced.
It is the master craftsman, which maintains all body balance. To duplicate the thousands of chemical functions of the liver, it would be necessary to build laboratories that would cover thirty square miles of land.
The body can heal just so fast. Nothing will speed up its time of regeneration and growth.
It performs all the functions of living it is the liver. It is the battleground where the forces of health and the factors that threaten balance, fight for their supremacy. Sick people come under that group who lose called the loose livers.
It is the largest gland of the body. It is the hardest worked organ in the body. To restore its integrity when it has been exhausted, damaged or overloaded and congested is the most valuable service you can render yourself. To lose the function of the liver, is to lose the vigor of health.
Freedom from liver symptoms is not a reason for neglecting its constant care. Eighty percent of a liver can be damaged without producing severe symptoms. The biggest enemy of its integrity is our own false security.
Anyone who has ever had jaundice never completely enjoys good health again until a real rest, a real clean-out of the congestion, and an intensive restoration therapy has been completed.
Never stop treating a liver ailment, even when feeling good, for at least two years. It takes this time for the cells of the liver to be replaced by normal, healthy cells and to rebuild its reserves which are required to counteract and handle the loads placed upon the whole body and mina, by the circumstances of modern living.
The body can heal just so fast. Nothing will speed up its time of regeneration and growth.
There is no point in swallowing pills and taking other treatments if no attention is paid to the essential requirements of the liver. It is most important to follow a proper diet and to avoid all excesses if full benefit is to be obtained from treatment.
Health does not depend only upon your physician. It also depends upon you.
The Functions of the liver:
The liver manufactures bile. Its role is to help digest and assimilate fats; to promote good function and elimination of the intestines. It also eliminates body poisons. These dissolve in the bile and are brought by it to the intestines where they are excreted. When there is not enough bile, the function of the intestines is lowered and body poisons accumulate and some of the fats are stored in the body. Anything that is surplus in the body acts as a toxin. When the color of the bowel movement becomes pale, yellow, grayish or chalkish, it is an indication that this is happening.
The liver is the storehouse of energy and body building materials. Anytime the body runs low on fuel, the liver provides this to the blood stream. It also maintains a constant level of food and proteins in the blood. These are used as building blocks to replace the wear and tear of the body.
The liver is master detoxifier. Its role is to break down all substances unnatural to the body … (all body poisons, body wastes, drugs, chemicals, fatigue poisons). All foods coming from the stomach and all the breakdown products from constantly dying cells are carried to the liver. Here they are broken down to minute forms. Those portions the body does not want or cannot use, will then be eliminated. The rest will be carried by the blood to nourish the body.
The liver is the master craftsman which maintain all body balance. To duplicate the thousands of chemical functions of the liver, it would be necessary to build laboratories that would cover thirty square miles of land.
Certain factors interfere with the processes of detoxification and rebuilding. They lower the supply of energy and of building material.
Factors in the Health of the Liver:
Overloading the Liver:
- Overeating-Food is sucked into a liver, as into a sponge. Overloading is one of the greatest factors in liver fatigue and congestion.
- Overindulgence-Excesses of food or drink, or an excess of any one kind of food acts the same way. The most harmful offenders are listed under refined foods … These factors are especially harmful during a sedentary existence.
- Cooking-It hardens protein molecules, just as baking hardens clay in the manufacture of pottery. It become difficult, even impossible, for the liver to effectively utilize this kind of material.
- Refined Foods-These are foods from which the natural content of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes have either been eliminated by commercial processing or paralyzed by chemical preservatives, or destroyed by cooking and staleness. The vitamin, mineral, enzyme complex is necessary to help the liver work the foods into a harmonious part of the body function and structure and to eliminate them without difficulty. Faulty elimination results in liver congestion and fatigue.
- Foods to which the body is allergic.
Constipation: In order to have good health there should be two or three bowel movements a day otherwise, some of the toxins can be reabsorbed back into the bloodstream. The poisons are carried by the blood vessels from the intestines which go straight to the liver. The toxic action of these poisons can then damage the liver cells. If there is stool discoloration, bile salts are most effective. Black-strap molasses, flax seed soaked in a glass of water, and raw grated potato mixed in tomato juice are also beneficial.
It is better to take natural laxatives than to let this happen. Carter’s Little Liver Pills, herbal laxatives.
Drugs, Chemicals and Antibiotics: When the liver is congested .or its function depressed, one must never take a drug (except in emergency). They are all taxing, sometimes dangerous and unfriendly to the liver. Any beneficial action of drugs on the body can be but a temporary one, as they force the liver into an urgent and excessive activity to expel their irritating presence. Repeated abuse in this direction can in time overload and exhaust the liver.
Alcohol: Same action and harm as drugs.
Insufficient Protein Intake: The liver must have a generous supply of good quality proteins. The building and energy materials required for its intense and universal function must be in constant supply. Proteins must be in a form that can be turned into body and liver cells. These should be in raw form as much as possible especially during illness. Meat is a high quantity but a low quality protein. It is best to avoid flesh meat for about two months. Excess concentrations of protein can unbalance the body.
Excess Starch in Diet: Meals made only of starch, sugar, carbohydrates, or sugar foods such as fruits, provide a fuel and energy level that lasts only an hour or more. In the following hours, energy starvation takes place. This acts the same way as protein starvation, lowering the vitality of the liver. Carbohydrates also protect liver cells from the poisons that are constantly flowing through its circulation. The absence of carbohydrates results in most damage. Proteins and healthy fats provide the only source of energy that dissipates at a slow rate and maintains sufficient fuel requirements until the next meal. A balanced diet satisfies hunger and relieves cravings for large quantities of food, for alcohol, for cigarettes, and for other excesses; while a high starch diet creates, or increases cravings and hungers for excesses.
