How to Support Liver Detox Post-Pill

Let’s skip straight to the secret of liver detoxification: Juice Fasts…KIDDING! If anyone ever tries to sell you on a juice cleanse…run. The truth is your liver detoxifies itself, that’s its job and it’s very good at it. However, there are a few things we can do to help the detoxification process, which I will cover in todays post.

We will also be going over:

Liver 101: The Purpose of the Liver
How the Pill Impacts Your Liver
Tips to Help Your Liver Detox

When working with clients and even when starting my own journey coming off the pill, liver health is one of the first things we look at. Our liver helps to rid the body of toxins, especially with all of the environmental toxins, alcohol, and medications we expose ourselves to. It is important that we support it the best we can. That’s what we’ll be discussing today! How to support your liver to improve upon its ability to detoxify the body.

What is the Purpose of Our Liver

Your liver performs over 500 essential functions for the body including, but not limited to:

Produces Bile: Bile is a fluid stored and released by the pancreas to help with digestion and the absorption of fats.
Filters the Blood: It removes toxins, byproducts, and other harmful substances from the blood. It also rids the body of cholesterol, hormones (including estrogen), and drugs
Protects Against Infections: As part of the filtering process, the liver also removes bacteria from the bloodstream and metabolizes antibiotics.
Stores Vitamins and Minerals: The liver stores significant amounts of vitamins A, D, E, K, and B12, as well as iron and copper.
Processes Glucose: The liver removes excess glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream and stores it as glycogen. When it is needed for energy, it can convert glycogen back into glucose.

How it Detoxifies

The liver filters the body’s blood by sorting, processing, and storing nutrients and metabolites. It does this through 3 phases:

Phase 1 Oxidation: Phase 1 takes place in the liver and uses oxidation to break down toxins into manageable metabolites for the body.
Phase II Conjugation: Phase II takes place in the liver and uses 6 pathways to excrete the metabolites from phase 1 through bile, urine, and stool.
Phase III Transportation: Phase III takes place in the kidneys or GI tract and transports any further metabolites for further filtration to the kidneys or to the small intestine.
What toxins is it removing? Certain medications, food additives, preservatives, food coloring, sweeteners, flavor enhancers, chemicals used in agriculture, alcohols, volatile organic compounds, fumes, air pollution, and more.

How the Pill Impacts Your Liver

Research hasn’t uncovered whether our liver actually ever recovers from years on hormonal birth control, as the pill interferes with our liver’s genes. The liver produces sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) whose job it is to bind excess hormones in the body. On the pill, SHBG increases to protect against the constant influx of synthetic hormones. Even after being off the pill, researchers found that levels were still elevated and speculated that they may never return to pre-pill levels. The issue with this is that SHGB doesn’t just bind up the synthetic hormones, it binds testosterone as well. Which is why some women experience low libido, low self confidence, fatigue, etc.

Estrogen dominance is also one of the most common hormonal imbalances, especially when coming off of the pill. Because the liver helps rid the body of excess estrogen, it is essential that we support it as best we can.

Tips to Help your Liver Out

Liver Loving Foods

Some general foods that support the three different phases of detoxification include: cruciferous vegetables, citrus fruits, animal protein (containing vitamin B12 and iron), sulfur-containing foods like onion and garlic, and glutathione-rich foods including avocados, asparagus, okra, and spinach. Some others to include:

Garlic: activates liver enzymes to flush out poisons and toxins and helps the liver cleanse.

Turmeric helps improve detoxification via assisting enzymes, which actively ward off known dietary carcinogens

Leafy Greens: High in chlorophyll to help eliminate toxins from the body. Eat them raw, lightly cooked or in juice form
Green Tea: High in antioxidants to increase the activity of digestive enzymes.

Swap out Your Products

By cutting down on the number of chemicals in your personal care products, it can help to lessen the burden on the liver. Enter your email down below and I’ll send you a free copy of my (ever-growing) list of clean products and brands that are trustworthy and better options.

Promote Digestive Enzymes

We need enzymes in our bodies in order to carry out key roles, such as digestion and detoxification. You can boost your intake of enzymes through many types of foods, including: Bananas, Avocados, Papaya, Kefir, Pineapple, Miso, Sauerkraut

Drink Water to Help Flush out Your System

Flush it out! Water is something we often do not drink enough of, and adding lemon makes it even better. Lemon and other citrus fruits contain vitamin C and minerals that enhance the detoxification process. Also giving your liver a break from having to metabolize alcohol is the best thing you can do for it. Opt for water instead!

Castor Oil Packs

Castor oil packs can help the body cleanse and detoxify. For the best results, do one 3-4x/week for 45 minutes each. I’ll be doing a YouTube video on exactly how I do it, so be sure to sign up to receive emails below when that goes live!

The liver is essential in detoxifying the body, not just when coming off the pill, but in general. Incorporating more liver-loving foods, cut down on alcohol, drink more water, and try a castor oil pack 2-3x/week. Follow the link below and sign up for the list of clean products that won’t causes added stress to your liver below and thanks for stopping by for a little balanced buzz!