Liver disease is a condition which is affecting over 25% of people worldwide and this number is growing at a rapid rate. Most people believe that liver disease comes only from drinking too much alcohol.

Causes.

1. Eating too many sweetened, sugary or processed foods and drinks.
2. Consuming too many Omega-6 vegetable oils and fast foods.
3. Using painkillers too often, like acetaminophen or ibuprofen,.
4. Viruses can cause hepatitis and damage in the liver.
5. Having too much elemental iron in the body.
6. Environmental toxins like pesticides, plastic, petroleum, etc.

If you would like to find out if there are problems with your liver, watch this video until the end as we will also be exploring some natural home treatments to clean the liver and prevent the damage from getting worse.

Signs

1. Pale stools. The first symptom of a liver problem is pale stools. If you have fatty liver or liver disease bile stops flowing through the bile ducts and hence the stool becomes pale or clay colored. It may float on the toilet water.
2. Poor night vision. Indicates Retinol/vit A deficiency. Improper fat digestion prevents absorption of Vit A which helps the rod cells in the retina to adapt to the different levels of light. Congested gall bladder can also cause dried out, sore, irritated and gritty eyes.
3. Swollen right foot. When the blood is not flowing normally through your liver, it becomes swollen and put pressure on the portal vein. This causes water to accumulate in the legs or feet. When you press your finger into the swollen area, it may leave an indentation.
4. White eyelid growths. White or yellowish growth around your eyelids is a tell tale sign of liver disease. These are small pockets of cholesterol deposits that build up under the skin, because the liver is not breaking down the cholesterol properly.
5. Right sided pressure. Feeling of pain/pressure on the right side of your rib cage, especially after you eat. Bile become sludge and clogs the bile duct which causes the pain. This can also put pressure on the phrenic nerve and causes pain around the right shoulder.
6. Purple /red spots. When your liver is congested, inflamed or damaged, it produces less proteins that are needed for normal blood clotting. You can bruise easily and red/purple bumps which appear as rashes on the skin. Usually seen in the lower limbs or arms. Its caused by the poor blood circulation triggered by liver disease/ diabetes.
7. Cracked heels. Your body uses Vit B3 (Niacin) to keep your skin cells strong ,smooth and moisterised to prevent it from becoming damaged. If you have liver disease, your body uses up its Vit B3 stores to help repair the damage. This leaves less of nutrient available for other jobs causing the skin on the soles of your feet and heels to start cracking. This can be overcome by loading Vit B3 and fixing the root cause of the problem, fatty liver disease.
8. Itchy hand/feet. Constant urge to scratch the palms of your hands and soles of your feet. This condition is caused by the build-up of bile acids under the skin because the liver is not filtering them out properly and this causes histamines to build up in the blood causing itching.
9. White/clubbed nails. If your fingers turn white losing their pink colour, or they become rounded, clubbed or bulbous appearance. This indicates there’s some serious liver damage or other underlying health condition which is preventing oxygen from reaching the nail matrix.
10. Dark urine. Your liver has the job of breaking down old red blood cells which contain that yellowish pigment called bilirubin. If your liver or the gladder becomes damaged, this pigments begins to build up inside the body and then it can be flushed through the urine causing your urine to have a very strong dark, orange, amber, brown or cola colour because your liver isn’t breaking down the pigment normally. This can also be caused by certain medication that weakens your liver like antibiotics, sleeping pills or birth control pills.
11. Yellow skin. When your liver is not working properly and filtering this bilirubin from the blood, the pigment can also start to change the colour of your skin (Jaundice). It indicates some serious damages to the liver like hepatitis, cirrhosis, some drug or medication poisoning.
12. Spider veins. It look like small red dots with spider like extensions of blood vessels that appear on the skin. These blood vessels are damaged because your liver is not doing its job in filtering out all excess oestrogen . High oestrogen weakens the blood vessels and the veins causing them dilate and they become visible on the skin.

Investigation: Ultrasound scan and liver function tests.

Liver is the one of the organs in the body that can completely heal and regenerate.

How to Reverse Liver Disease.

1. Clean up your diet by cutting back on sugary, starchy and maida based foods like bread, biscuits, sweets, ketchup, pancakes, pasta, soda drinks  etc. A fatty or damaged liver is sensitive to alcohol and fruit juices.
2. Eat lots of bitter, sulphur rich foods like leafy greens, radish, broccoli, garlic, kale, cabbage, sprouts, mushrooms, foods high in sulfer helps to strip away fat from your liver by boosting Glutathione levels and helping to detoxify poisons.
3. Drink one cup of organic black coffee brewed at home with a little turmeric in it. The polyphenols in the coffee and phytonutrients in the turmeric reduce scar tissue formation in the liver and they also help to repair the damage caused by alcohol, drugs or excess fruit juice. Drink at least 1 litre of fresh water to thin out the blood, help the liver to produce bile and breakdown any fatty deposits. You can also add lime juice in this to improve the filtration of toxins in the liver.
4. Liver cleansing spices: Ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, അടയ്ക്കാമണിയൻ (Indian globe thisle), green tea and cloves.
5. Eat all your food (calories) in a 6-10 hour window, allow 14-16 hours to fast each day. It will help to improve the health of your liver by lowering inflammation and increasing insulin like growth factor, a hormone that prevents fat from accumulating in the liver. Fasting also stimulates autophagy where your liver recycles old damaged cells and proteins to regenerate new healthy liver cells.
6. Stop eating all the inflammatory seed oils corn, cotton seed, canola, soya oil, margarine etc.
7. Start eating anti-inflammatory fats like virgin coconut oil in your own home cooked recipes.