Why your liver may need to slim down

You know that being overweight comes with consequences from heart disease and diabetes to cancer. Carrying around extra pounds causes big health problems.

But did you know that being overweight can also cause you to develop liver problems that can result in swelling and pain in your liver, extreme fatigue and even cirrhosis (even if you’ve never touched a drop of alcohol in your life)?

It’s called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and it’s now the most common form of chronic liver disease, affecting an estimated 80 to 100 million people. It’s especially hitting people in their 40s and 50s.

Scientists have found a way to combat fatty liver disease, even in patients classified as obese. They set out to discover what happens to our livers at the molecular level when we go hungry.

They looked for liver cell activity differences that were caused by fasting, looking at a specific protein, GADD45ß — a protein associated with repairing DNA damage in the liver and controlling the liver’s absorption of fatty acids.

They found that the greater the hunger, the more frequently liver cells produced the protein.

And, not only were those who lacked the protein more likely to develop fatty liver disease, once the protein was restored, the fat content of the liver normalized.

To sum it up — reducing your intake of calories, like when you practice intermittent fasting, can help to prevent or even reverse fatty liver disease.

The word fasting is an instant turn-off for a lot of us. But there are a few intermittent fasting options that really aren’t that bad.

• Choose a fasting “window” — One fasting option is to set an eight hour window in which you’ll eat all of your food for the day and fast during the other 16 hours. For example, you only eat from 10 am to 6 pm.

• Take a day off — You could also plan to fast for an entire 24 hour period. To do this, all you need to do is skip two meals. As an example, you could eat breakfast and then skip lunch and dinner. Since your next meal will be the following day’s breakfast, you’ve gotten in an entire day of fasting.

On top of fasting, it’s also important to give your liver the support it needs to be as healthy as possible. A few supplements that can help are:

• N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) — NAC is a little-known amino acid that has been shown to help support the gentle detoxification of your liver, to rid it of tobacco and other types of carbon monoxide-rich smoke, alcohol and the air pollutants you’re exposed to daily.

• Turmeric —This 4,000 year-old Indian herb is not only a powerful anti-inflammatory, it also helps protect your liver from oxidative stress and promotes healthy liver function.

• Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) — ALA is a potent antioxidant that helps keep fats from accumulating in your liver — vital when you want to prevent fatty liver disease.

I like to get the right balance of all three in Peak Liver Support.

Sources:

breastcancer.org/risk/factors/weight

mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20354567

sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160509085347.htm

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