Do you believe that when our liver is functioning normally it can filter 1.5 litres of blood per minute?
You may think I am joking as it involved a lot of blood. True to believe, it is that our blood needs to be cleaned and renewed in such continually in order to keep us in optimal health. Without the liver, our system would quickly succumb to a build-up of bacteria, parasites and fungi which could be life threatening.
By saying this our liver can help us to effectively filters a lot of potentially harmful elements from the blood, such as dead cells, microorganisms, toxic chemicals, chylomicrons (fatty globules) and cancer cells. Freshly filtered blood from our liver flows back to our heart where it then recirculated around our body.
And when our liver is malfunctioning, poorly filtered blood will carry toxins that damage our immune system and heart; this will eventually put a strain on our body that can cause more rapid ageing in the long run.
What is preventing Fatty Liver all about? ‘Fatty liver’ refers to the build-up of excess fat that was stored in our liver cells of which this fatty build-up can interfere with our liver’s ability to filter out toxins. According to medical resources, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has now become the most common liver ailment worldwide today.
Those at a high risk of developing NAFLD are people who have high blood sugar and obesity, with sedentary overweight people are at the most risk of both diabetes and NAFLD. To what I know, currently, there are no medical treatments or processes available to tackle the disease. Nevertheless, there are steps we can take to protect our liver and prevent NAFLD condition from developing.
To support our liver to function optimally, we should look for nutritional supplements that provide us with essential phospholipids, vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids and well documented herbal supplement such as milk thistle (silymarin) extract.
You may want to know essential phospholipids such as the one extracted from soya bean oil are often used in liver therapy. They help in the nutritional management of damaged liver due to chronic liver disease, liver cirrhosis, fatty liver and intoxication by hepatotoxic substances.
Having said the above, I believe you will agree with me that prevention is always better than cure, right?
Best,
Tan Kok Hui
Nutrition Made Simple, Life Made Rich
