Knowledge is Power
The history and function of the Liver
The Legend of The Titan god Prometheus story goes that after offending Zeus by stealing fire from Olympus to aid mankind, Prometheus was banished to the Carpathian Mountains. He was chained to a rock and left to be tortured for 30,000 years as the eagle, Ethos, came each night to pick at his liver. Doomed by immortality, his liver would regenerate each day, only to endure the same fate again that evening.
The Ancient Greeks were definitely onto something when they named the liver hepar, which means ‘to repair oneself’. Clearly, they understood the livers’ ability to regenerate. The liver was the single organ which summarized the custom of predicting the future among the Babylonians, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans. The liver was considered the site of the soul, the vital organ and the central place of all forms of mental and emotional activity. The Germanic term for liver “lifere” was initially connected to “life”, underscoring the relation of the liver to health and existence. In the Early Modern Age, the liver became a recurring image in political reflection, especially within the Elizabethan tradition of the body politic, where the king was frequently described as the “liver” of his country. In the Bible, the prophet Ezekiel said: “For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver” Finally, the liver was used to indicate courage, or the lack of it: some modern French and English idiomatic expressions derive from the ancient belief that people who had no blood in their liver (“lily-livered”) would thus be cowards or betrayers.
While modern advancement has given us a greater understanding of the function of the liver, it hasn’t changed the importance of it.
Today we know that the liver performs 500 tasks to keep the body healthy. Anything that is eaten or consumed, be it food, drugs or alcohol, is filtered by the liver. This smart organ knows when to filter toxins out the body, when to store nutrients and when to release them back into the blood stream.
Another smart function of the liver, when a meal is eaten the liver removes the sugar from the blood and stores it in the form of Glycogen. Once the glycogen is used, the liver will create glucose from other carbohydrates and form a protein.
The liver breaks down fats that are eaten, converting excess carbohydrates and protein into forms that are stored for later use. The liver produces bile to help breakdown and absorb fats.
Perhaps some of the most remarkable functions of the liver is its ability to produce blood for foetal development and acts as a blood recycler during adulthood. The liver knows when to store the iron and various vitamins to use when they fall below what’s needed in the bloodstream. It is also essential in releasing the plasma proteins necessary to clot blood.
Despite all the functions our livers perform, it is one of the most neglected organs in the body, having to deal with constant toxin overload and not enough support and help.
Glutathione is to liver what fuel is to your car engine. It simply cannot run without it.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that the liver is vital to our optimum survival. Love your liver, love yourself.
Leeann Lindsay
How to Master your bodies energy levels
Mastering energy levels can be a lifelong struggle for some people. Entire industries are profiting from this simple truth that we face from time to time. Energy supplements and boosters promising what seems like the fountain of youth in exchange for the second bond on your home. Fitness experts promise more vitality if you push harder, drinks manufacturers promise wings without precautions of side effects. Even cosmetic companies are able to capitalize on people who struggle with energy levels.
But has anyone gone over with you WHY? Why do you have less energy than your co-worker who is the same age as you? Why don’t the usual stimulants keep you going for longer as promised? What makes one person different from the rest? Why does Suzie from the gym seem to have her whole life together and be able to exercise everyday without struggling?
Glutathione.
What is it? Glutathione is a substance made from the amino acid’s glycine, cysteine, and glutamic acid. It is produced by the liver and involved in many body processes. Glutathione is involved in tissue building and repair, making chemicals and proteins needed in the body, and in immune system function. Energy production occurs within all cells (except red blood cells) via the mitochondria. Glutathione protects mitochondria from free radicals and the oxidative damage they cause.
In this way, glutathione is paramount to energy production. If mitochondria are damaged, they slow down and start to make less energy.
Glutathione helps resist the toxic stresses of everyday life – but its levels decline with age, and this sets the stage for a wide range of age-related health problems, scientists have discovered.
“We’ve known for some time of the importance of glutathione as a strong antioxidant,” said Tory Hagen, lead author on the research and the Helen P. Rumbel Professor for Health Aging Research in the Linus Pauling Institute at OSU. “What this study pointed out was the way that cells from younger animals are far more resistant to stress than those from older animals,” said Hagen, also a professor of biochemistry in the OSU College of Science. “In young animal cells, stress doesn’t cause such a rapid loss of glutathione. The cells from older animals, on the other hand, were quickly depleted of glutathione and died twice as fast when subjected to stress. “But pre-treatment with NAC increased glutathione levels in the older cells and largely helped offset that level of cell death.” Glutathione, Hagen said, is such an important antioxidant that its existence appears to date back as far as oxygen-dependent, or aerobic life itself — about 1.5 billion years. It’s a principal compound to detoxify environmental stresses, air pollutants, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and many other toxic insults. When an adult is deficient in glutathione it affects their ability to handle the everyday stresses of life, which then affects their cell’s ability to produce energy. No matter how many energy drinks, fitness classes and health boosters you consume, it is a simple fact that without sufficient levels of glutathione in the body you simply cannot master the energy levels that you deserve.
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