LIVER DETOX

How to use diet, herbs, massage, and other practices to detoxify, strengthen, and regenerate your liver.

The liver is key to the optimal health of the body. Shouldering the heaviest responsibility for keeping the body's internal terrain clean, the liver not only filters toxins and cellular by-products out of the blood like other excretory organs, it also neutralizes poisons, microbes, heavy metals, and carcinogens. By supporting the liver, we support the health of the entire body.

In this practical guide to cleansing and detoxifying the liver, Christopher Vasey shows how many features of modern living--such as overeating, medications, cigarettes, alcohol, food additives, and environmental pollution--overtax this powerhouse of an organ. This leads to weakening of the liver and congestion with toxins, which in turn can lead to illness, including cardiovascular problems, allergies, headaches, constipation, respiratory issues, and skin conditions, as the toxins the overburdened liver cannot filter out find their way to other areas of the body.

Detailing how the liver functions, the author explains how to use diet, herbs, massage, and other practices to detoxify, strengthen, and regenerate your liver. He includes simple charts and questionnaires to help you determine to what degree your liver function is compromised. He shows how a simple change of diet along with the use of hepatic herbs will often have immediate benefits for the liver and the immune system. He explains specific foods to avoid and how taking supplements, such as trace elements of sulfur, accelerate the liver's ability to neutralize heavy metals. He details 9 plants that are most effective in detoxifying the liver, such as dandelion and rosemary, and provides instructions for their safe use. He also describes liver exercises and massage techniques as well as the use of external aids, such as a hot-water bottle, to stimulate liver activity.

Offering an accessible yet detailed approach to supporting the liver, the author shows how bringing the liver back to full health and function has far-reaching effects for the whole body.