Caring for your liver and the best natural remedies for all liver problems and diseases.

CARING FOR YOUR LIVER-There are few organs in your body as vital as the liver. It is not only is the largest organ, it also performs more different functions than any other organ in your body.

 Only God could make the liver. That relatively small structure (it only weighs four pounds) does literally thousands of different things; all of them are quite complicated and involve complex changes. The liver is truly a special gift from God.

# NUTRITION OF THE LIVER

NATURAL REMEDIES

There are six fundamental things which tend to damage the liver:

1.   Overeating. This is an excellent way to ruin your liver. Just eat all you want, and you will wear it out.

2.   Eating and drinking the wrong things. Here are some of those items your liver does not wish to face: refined white-flour products, processed foods, junk foods, white sugar products, imitation foods. Beware of potato chips and corn chips.

What is imitation food? It is a food made to appear like the original, yet which has been stripped of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and most everything else that might be worthwhile. White carbohydrates, sugar, fats, protein, synthetic colors, flavors, and odors are there to give the appearance and taste of real food

3.   A low-protein, high-carbohydrate and fat diet. To make it even worse, make sure it is full of saturated or hydrogenated fats. All kinds of snacks in the stores consist of this. Fried foods may be a devilish delight, but they only add to the eventual misery.

4.   Eat the specialty food poisons: alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, theobromine, and hard drugs.

5.   Take medicinal drugs. Select from over-the-counter items or those which are prescribed. They will provide you with a real witch’s brew of physical horror, much of it not known and realized until later. With hardly an exception, medical drugs are poisons. The liver has to work overtime in order to try to excrete these dangerous chemicals.

Some substances which are called “drugs” such as charcoal are not drugs. They are natural substances which help your body. It is true there are some poisonous herbs, but these (such as digitalis from foxglove) are readily found in the drugstore. The rest, found in the meadow and forest, are for the healing of the nation

6.   Have insecticides, preservatives, and other cumulative poisons where you can breathe or eat it. Some poisons directly damage the liver (alcohol, oral contraceptives, caffeine, etc.); others damage organs which the liver relies on for help (the pancreas, kidney, etc.)

Here are several dietary suggestions:

·         Make sure you obtain foods high in potassium. This includes rice, bananas, black-strap molasses, wheat bran, almonds, seeds, kelp and dulse, brewer’s yeast, prunes, and raisins.

·         Drink lots of water; and, if at all possible, drink only pure water. Drink a little every hour.

·         Emphasize raw foods in your diet.

·         Drink fresh vegetable juices, especially carrot and beet. Only eat raw nuts and seeds. They must be fresh, not stale!

·         Use only cold-pressed vegetable oil (flax-seed oil and wheat germ oil, taken raw and not added to your cooking). Use no other type of oils-and no grease (margarine, butter, shortening, or meat fat).

·         Vitamin K (140 mcg) is important, to help prevent cirrhosis of the liver. Vitamin A helps protect the liver (taken in form of carotene in fresh carrot juice and leafy vegetables). Zinc (30 mg) builds resistance to many liver disorders.

·         The lemon and the liver are sweethearts. The lemon is one of the best friends that the liver has

·         Co-enzyme helps supply oxygen to the liver.

·         Lecithin helps prevent fatty buildup in the liver.

·         When taking supplements, either chew them up well or take them with a glassful of water.

·         Dandelion is an excellent food for the liver. Beet juice slowly cleanses the liver. Eating fresh apples stimulates the liver into action. Celery is good for the liver. The root and leaves of chicory stimulates the liver. Asparagus roots and shoots stimulate kidneys and liver. Prune whip before breakfast cleanses the liver. Japanese use the active ingredient in licorice (glycyrrhizin) to inhibit liver cell injury caused by many chemicals. Ginger contains eight liver-protecting compounds. Turmeric also protects the liver. Rosemary tea stimulates a sluggish liver.

·         Use celandine and silymarin (which is milk thistle extract) each day to help maintain good liver function. But do not use celandine during pregnancy.

AVOID

·         Do not use nicotine, alcohol, caffeine, fish, fowl, meat, salt, soft drinks, sugar foods, tea, or fried foods.

·         Avoid constipating foods. When there is a backup in the large colon, toxins are reabsorbed into the system and the liver labors to eliminate them. Regular bowel movements are vital to the health of the liver.

·         Do not take too much vitamin A. For the same reason, do not eat fish more than twice a week. Avoid cod liver oil. Better yet, stop eating fish. Meat eating is also harmful to the liver. Anyone taking over 50,000 IU of vitamin A for  over a year should either reduce intake or switch to natural beta-carotene, which is safe.

·         Do not drink milk or eat pastries, stimulants, white rice, black or white pepper, fried or fatty foods, cheese, and refined or processed foods.

·         Never eat raw or under-cooked fish, meat, or poultry. There is a serious risk of infection from doing this. Meat eating is a major source of bacteria, parasites, viruses, and various malignancies.

·         Take no drugs if you want your future years to be happy ones. Avoid taking iron supplements.

OTHER

·         In addition to taking care of your liver, treat your kidneys well also. Poor kidney function results in damage to the liver. Drink water!

·         Do not use harsh laxatives. But do keep the colon clean

Be good to your liver; and it will help you in years to come. It is a well known fact, among natural healers, that, if the liver is all right, cancer can be eliminated. But if the liver is too degenerated, the hoped-for solution may not be achieved.

THE LIVER PROBLEMS & DISEASES

1. JAUNDICE

SYMPTOMS

The whites of the eyes yellow, then the mucous membranes, and then the skin generally.

CAUSES

When, for various reasons, the liver cannot handle the load placed upon it, bilirubin builds up. This is a yellow-brown substance which results form the breakdown of old red blood cells. The liver must constantly remove bilirubin form the blood; and, if this is not done, bilirubin begins collecting in tissues all over the body. The urine is darker and the stools are lighter because the bilirubin, usually contained, is not present.

   But red blood cell destruction can also cause it. Blood tests identify whether the problem is obstruction or RBC destruction.

    Jaundice is not itself a disease, but rather a symptom of one. It can point to pernicious anemia, hepatitis, cirrhosis of the liver, and hemolysis (which is an abnormal destruction of red blood cells). Jaundice can also be caused by blockage of the bile ducts in the liver, because of gallstones or a tumor. More rarely, it is caused by a parasitic infestation, such as tapeworm, hookworm, a flea, or mosquito carrying a viral infection.

NATURAL REMEDIES

·         Take a hot, high herb enema twice a day. Use white oak bark or bayberry bark tea.

·         As long as fever continues, drink a glass of water with lemon juice every hour.

·         Give fruit juice to begin with. Take one cup golden-seal or Echinacea 1 hour before meals, 3 times daily.

·         Eat only raw fruits and vegetables for a week. Then eat 75% raw foods far a month. Take fresh lemons daily during that time.

·         Drink fresh vegetable juice.

·         Treatment includes exposure to ultra violet light in order to speed up elimination; Vitamin C, to bowel tolerance; and vitamins A,E, and selenium.

·         Silymarin, extracted from the milk thistle, helps repair damage of the live. It is well-worth taking.

·         Go on a liver flush (below). This is done by drinking apple juice alone for 3 days, followed by drinking a cup of olive oil and a cup of lemon juice. This is a good remedy which cleans out the bile ducts.

·         Helpful herbs include burdock root, agrimony, celandine, red clover, licorice, dandelion, and chionanthus.

·         Jaundice often produces itching of the skin. Wash with hot boric acid water to reduce this.

·         For jaundice, Dr. Christopher recommends 4 oz. ginger syrup, and 1 oz. each of fluid extracts of butternut and bone-set. Give 1 tsp 3-4 times daily.

·         Both alcohol and tobacco are very hard on the liver.

GENERAL- Cold mitten friction, cold towel rub, rest in bed, aseptic diet.

PAIN-Fomentation over the stomach and liver for 15 minutes very 2-3 hours; during interval between, heating compress at 60^o F., twice a day. Copious Hot enema at 110o F., after discharge of hot water, an enema of one pint water, at 70^o F. Hot trunk pack. Hot full bath, at 104^o F., for 10 minutes. Cold towel rub or wet sheet rub.

FEVER-Sweating wet sheet pack, warm vapor bath, radiant heat bath, copious water drinking.

HEADACHE-Hot and cold compress to head, evaporating compress to head, cold compress to head, hot sponging on the back of the neck.

ITCHING-neutral salt bath, hot sponging.

CHILL-Hot water drinking. Dry pack.

2. INFECTIOUS JAUNDICE (Well’s disease, Leptospirosis, Spirochetal Jaundice)

SYMPTOMS

Sudden fever, chills, anemia, jaundice, sometimes abdominal pains, and occasionally aseptic meningitis.

   Within a few hours, fever, extreme thirst, and severe aching of the limbs develop. Blood vessels in the eyeballs are markedly enlarged. Jaundice appears in about half the cases. In locations where the disease is common, mortality is about 10%-20%.

   This disease can easily be diagnosed as something else. It is important to determine the true nature of the infection early.

CAUSES

This is an infectious disease caused by the leptospira icterohaemorrhagiae, spirochete bacteria. Rats, dogs, and various wild animals carry it. People are infected when urine-contaminated water (generally from rats) penetrates cuts on their fingers or during butchering and skinning of infected animals. The rats are not harmed by the disease.

   Leptospire is a parasite which travels to the liver and greatly multiples there, but can also be found in the blood (in the early stages) and in the urine (later). Blood tests or urine cultures are necessary for diagnosis.

NATURAL REMEDIES

·         Give him bed-rest and keep his bowels open, using daily enemas if necessary.

·         If he can take food, give him all a liquid diet. Plenty of water is also needed.

·         Go on a liver flush (below)

·         Do everything possible to exterminate rats.

·         Avoid swimming in, or contact with, water that may be contaminated with animal waste.

·         Carefully dispose of all his discharges, so as not to contaminate anything.

3. CIRRHOSIS OF THE LIVER

 SYMPTOMS

Upset stomach, fever, constipation or diarrhea, weakness, weight loss, poor appetite, vomiting. Enlarged liver and red palms. Fluid collects in the abdomen. Possible mild jaundice. Large veins often seen over the abdomen, especially about the navel and near the diaphragm. Enlarged veins in the rectum, intestines, stomach, and esophagus.

   In the later stages, there is anemia, edema, and easy bruising, due to bleeding beneath the skin.

CAUSES

Cirrhosis is a hardening of the liver, because of too much connective tissue and a degeneration of the active liver cells.

   It can be caused by certain poisons, chiefly alcohol. Certain infectious disease can cause special types of liver cirrhosis; viral hepatitis is outstanding. This is especially true of syphilis, which produces nodes in the liver. Malnutrition, caused by lack of food or eating junk foods, can also lead to cirrhosis.

   The liver cells harden and scar, causing them to no longer function normally, due to the scarred tissue. This prevents the blood from passing properly through the liver.

NATURAL REMEDIES

·         Eat a good, nourishing diet. And go off all meat, tea, coffee, and spices.

·         Internal bleeding frequently occurs, so take vitamin K (140 mcg)

·         Silymarin (200 mg 3 times daily) helps the liver.

·         Drink ¼ cup Aloe Vera each morning.

·         Do not eat meat or fish.

·         Helpful herbs include burdock, celandine, barberry, Echinacea, golden-seal, fennel, red clover, milk thistle, and thyme.

DIETARY CONSIDERATIONS- Avoid tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, condiments. Use an aseptic diet.

ORGANIC CHANGES IN LIVER-Local applications to liver: Alternate douche, alternate compress, Revulsive douche, flannel-covered heating compress. Follow these local applications by general douche or a wet sheet rub.

PAIN-Fomentation, Revulsive compress or Revulsive douche, with hot leg bath or hot leg pack. Follow by compress over liver, twice daily.

JAUNDICE-Wet sheet pack, followed by wet sheet rub. Radiant heat bath, followed by graduated shower or wet sheet rub.

DROPSY-Revulsive douche to legs and abdomen. Trunk pack.

GENERAL WEAKNESS-Carefully graduated tonic baths (tonic frictions), neutral bath, sunbaths, and outdoor life.

CONTRAINDICATIONS-Avoid cold full baths very cold general or prolonged cold douche. 

#LIVER FLUSH

WHAT IT IS- The liver filters the blood and excretes much of that waste through the bile, which it sends into the gallbladder, When some oil or fat is in a meal, its presence signals the gallbladder to contract and squeeze out some bile, which helps prepare those oils and fats to be properly absorbed by the body,

   A liver flush occurs when much of the bile is flushed out of the gallbladder. However, there is the possibility that gallstones may be in the bladder. So phase one of the liver flush is to melt down those stones; and then, in the concluding phase, the bile and the stones are jolted out of the gallbladder into small intestine.

NATURAL REMEDIES

HOW TO DO IT-There are several ways this can be done.

1.This methods is used for the purpose of flushing out gallstones, after first softening them. It is a three-day pattern for effectively flushing gallstones

·         Go on a liver flush by drinking apple juice alone for 3 days. On the third day, the juice is followed by drinking a cup of olive oil and a cup of lemon juice.

2. This method is used for cleaning out the liver and gallbladder rather than eliminating stones.

·         To cleanse the liver and gallbladder, drink as much pure apple juice as possible for 5 days. Add pear juice occasionally. Beet juice also cleanses the liver.

3. This is a still more involved regime for restoring the functioning capacity of the liver and gallbladder. Slightly different than #2, above, it should not be used on anyone below the age of 25 or who has large gallstones:

·         On Tuesday through Sunday noon, drink as much apple juice as you are able, in addition to your regular meals.

·         At noon on Sunday, eat a normal lunch.

·         Three hours later, dissolve 2 teaspoons of magnesium phosphate (Epsom salts) in an ounce of hot water and drink it. It may not taste good, so follow it with a little freshly squeezed grapefruit juice.

·         That evening, only take citrus juice for supper.

·         At bedtime: Either (1) drink a half cup of unrefined olive oil, followed by small glass of grapefruit juice, or (2) drink a half cup of warm, unrefined olive oil blended with a half cup of lemon juice.

·         Go immediately to bed and lie on your right side, with your right knee pulled up close to your chest for 30 minutes.

·         The next morning, one hour before breakfast, drink 2 teaspoons of disodium phosphate, dissolved in 2 ounces of hot water.

·         Eat your meals as usual. The cleansing regime of the liver and gallbladder is completed.

·         In case there is slight to moderate nausea when taking the olive oil and citrus juice, this should be gone by the time you go to sleep.

·         But if the oil includes vomiting (when only happens rarely), you need not repeat the procedure at this time. Drink a cup of strong peppermint tea, to help relieve the nausea.

You may find small gallstones in the stool the following day. They are green to dark green. Very irregular in shape, the size of grape seed to cherry seeds, and feel like gelatin. If there are a large number of them, repeat the liver flush in two weeks.

NOTE: HEPATITIS-liver disease is written in a different post briefly.