The Liver: Filtering Fuel Through Our Bodies

The liver is the most overworked organ in the body because it plays many roles. It manufactures bile to emulsify fats for diges­tion; it makes and breaks down many hormones, including cho­lesterol, testosterone, and estrogens; it regulates blood sugar levels; and it processes all food, nutrients, alcohol, drugs, and other mate­rials that enter the bloodstream and lets them pass, breaks them down, or stores them. The liver can lose as much as 70 percent of its capability and not show liver disease.

Weighing at 4 1/2 pounds, the liver manufactures 13,000 chemicals and has 2,000 enzyme systems, plus thou­sands of synergists that help with body functions. With these chemicals and enzymes, it neutralizes nutrients so that the cells can use them. Practically all vitamins and minerals we take need to be processed by enzymes by the liver before we can use them. If the liver is too congested to enzymatically process these nutri­ents, we do not get the benefit.

Bile, manufactured by the liver and stored by the gallbladder, buffers the intestinal contents because of its high concentration of bicarbonates. It also emulsifies fats. Bile is a soap-like substance made of bile salts, cholesterol, and lecithin. It makes fats more water soluble, increasing their surface area so that the enzymes can split them for the cells to use.

The liver has three lobes: main, left, and lower. The main lobe organizes and humanizes nutrients. It is the main chemical factory, producing enzymes and chemicals necessary for body functions. The left lobe regulates and maintains body functions. People with toxic left lobes are often environmentally sensitive or panallergic, meaning allergic to nearly everything. Many times, allergic people crave what they are sensitive to. The body gets used to having nicotine, alcohol, wheat, dairy, or whatever, and when we remove it, the body's balance is disturbed. The left lobe works to maintain body homeostasis (staying the same) without the missing sub­stance.

The liver will detoxify what it can, but if it can't break down a particular substance, it stores it in the lower lobe and in tissues throughout the body. It is important to detoxify the liver on a regular basis, perhaps twice a year, to help maintain its function. Many systems have been devel­oped to help detoxify the liver. As you can see our liver works to remove toxins. However an onslaught of toxic substances, such as alcohol and drugs will cause the liver to breakdown causing severe liver damage, including jaundice, liver inflammation, liver cirrhosis, hepatitis and a host of other diseases and illnesses related to liver damage. Detoxification is crucially in sustained the liver and allowing it to work properly.

The craving is, in some part, the liver's way of trying to get us what we "need." But as long as toxic residues from these substances are still present in this lobe, the body will continue to receive a subtle signal to continue the addiction - to want to respond to allergens. T he lower lobe is where the essential fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K are stored so the liver and other glands can produce cholesterol and hormones. Here, the liver also stores environmental toxins such as radioactive substances, pesticides, herbicides, food preservatives, and dyes.