Love your Liver

💚LOVE - YOUR - LIVER 💚

Most people are unaware of how vital their liver actually is to feeling well and living a healthy life. 

This amazing organ, located on the upper right hand side of the abdomen, just below the diaphragm and neatly tucked away under the ribs on that side, has over 500 hundred imperative functions to keep your body healthy. FIVE. HUNDRED. FUNCTIONS. 

It's sad to think that its role and our general well being are often over looked. 

Liver health is determined by a bunch of markers from blood serums, but there are some other ways you can check your function and get a vague idea on how your liver is doing - and we will discuss some of those ways below. 

In todays society with drinking, general environmental insults, toxins and chemicals in our foods and drinks, it's easy for this amazing organ to get bogged down and not be functioning at its peak resulting in various conditions, and leaving you not feeling your best. 

So - what does it do? Its basically your internal chemical and nutrient processing factory in your body. While processing food nutrients to maintain supply to our tissues etc, it also enables chemical reactions that rid the body of toxins and internal cellular waste. 

Along with nutrient absorption and detoxification - the liver also does the following:
*Produces Bile *Filters the Blood *Breaks down unwanted and harmful hormones *converts carbohydrates in the diet into glucose for energy *synthesises cholesterols and lipoproteins *metabolises fat *produces body proteins *regulates blood clotting *Produces immune system cells used in fighting infections

This is just the tip of the ice berg - its clear to see how much we rely on our liver for day to day functions and why it should be on the top of our list of body organs to look after. 

✅CHECK YOUR LIVER FUNCTION AT HOME✅
(Survey copied from Dr Cris Beer's Book - Healthy Liver)

*You feel tired despite getting a good night's sleep?
*Your skin becomes itchy at night?
*You have dark circles under your eyes?
*You experience pain in your right upper abdomen?
*You have dark coloured urine?
*You have pale chalky stools?
*You bruise Easily?
*You have noticed red freckle-like skin spots appear?
*You find it hard to lose weight?
*You have reddened skin, particularly on your palms?
*You have yellow tinge to your skin or to the whites of your eyes?
*You often feel nauseated?
*You have swollen feet/legs?
*You often have diarhorrea?
*You have lost your appetite?
*You have a coating on your tongue?
*You drink three of more alcoholic drinks in one sitting?
*You experience frequent headaches?

Have a think about these questions, and place your answers into a category of -NEVER-SOMETIMES-OFTEN-DAILY.

If most of your answers are sometimes to daily - then it may be worth while following up with your doctor for a liver function test and following a safe liver detox to help clear out your liver of toxins and chemicals. 

Stay tuned over the next couple of days to learn about safe Liver Detoxes (created by a medical practitioner) as well as foods that Hate your Liver and LOVE your liver - to help you love your liver better in future! xx

***Source - Dr Cris Beer - BBioMedSci, MBBS (hons), FRACGP, member ACNEM, member AIMA, Cert IV in Fitness***

From Bowel -to- Behaviour

🥺😁😫🤣💩From Bowel - To - Behaviour 💩🤣😫😁🥺

Most of us know that the microbes in our gut play a much more vital role in our health than previously known. Research has confirmed the ability of our gut flora to communicate with the brain and influence behaviour through a two way street of communication transmitted via the enteric nervous system, the vagus nerve and the central nervous system. This is known as the gut-brain axis. 

When we consider that the most urgent health problems we face globally are mental and emotional health, immunity-based diseases and diet related diseases, the gut sits among all of them as a part of the cause. In the last 15 years, a good deal of research has indicated that certain types of depression can have a link to gut flora imbalances, inflammation and therein may lie the cure as well. 

The link between high-sugar diets and alterations in gut bacteria has been established in research conducted by Dr Joseph Mercola, who found tat microbial changes leg to cognitive impairments such as learning difficulties and worsened memory. 

A study published in PLOS ONE has found that autistic children have a distinctly different gut microbiome compared to children of similar age. Notably, they tend to have fewer beneficial bacteria such as bifidobacterium. 

🍏WAYS TO OPTIMISE YOUR GUT FLORA 🍎

***Remove Processed foods, sugar enhanced foods, and grains from your diet

*** Replace grains with lots of seeds and sprouted legumes

***Consume 4 servings of probiotic enhancing foods per day (Kombucha, Saur Kraut, Kimchi, Kefir)

***Sip on Hot Bone Broth to heal and seal the gut lining so that probiotics and microbiota have a healthy, sealed and inflammation-free environment to set up a home. 

***Consume Pre Biotics and Fibrous foods to continue to feed your microbiome and keep them full and happy. 

🍠SUPER FOODS FOR DIGESTIVE HEALTH🥭

***Cultured Coconut Yoghurt

***Apple Cider Vinegar

***Fermented Vegetables and Pickles

***SauerKraut 

***Kefir

***Miso

***Tempeh

😍SEROTONIN😍

It is also now known that serotonin - a neurochemical chiefly responsible for maintaining a positive mood, among other things - is made in the brain and remarkably IN THE GUT TOO. Although 80-90% is actually made in your intestines. 
Not surprisingly, serotonin also affects your digestion, bowel movements and appetite. 

In contrast, dopamine, another happy neurochemical, makes you feel proud and elated when you accomplish and achieve, thus causing a feeling of self-gratification. Signs of serotonin deficiency include depression, sugar cravings, low self-esteem and insomnia. 

🥣HOW TO MAKE SEROTONIN🥣

To manufacture serotonin in our bodies, we need adequate amounts of the amino acid tryptophan, which is found in most protein-based foods or dietary proteins. it is particularly plentiful in:
***Eggs
***Chickpeas
***Buckwheat
***Spriulina
***Pineapple
***Chocolate
***Oats
***Dried Dates
***Seeds and Nuts.

Source: SARAH NANCLARES - psychobiologist, Business life coach, chronic illness nutrition specialist - equilibrio.com.au NATURAL HEALTH MAGAZINE