The Liver: Why So Much Starts Here and How People Flush It

Your liver is one of the hardest-working organs in your body. It sits under your right ribs, weighs about three pounds, and performs hundreds of tasks every day: it filters your blood, processes nutrients, makes bile to digest fats, stores energy and vitamins, and transforms waste and toxins so the body can release them. Because so much passes through it, many natural healing traditions see the liver as the place where so many problems begin, and where so much healing can start. When the liver is overloaded, they say, everything else has to work harder.

Caring for your liver is one of the most loving things you can do for your whole body.

What your liver does

• Filters blood. About 1.5 liters of blood flow through the liver every minute.
• Makes bile. Bile helps digest fats and carries waste out through the gut.
• Transforms toxins. The liver changes alcohol, medications, hormones and waste into forms the body can release.
• Stores energy. It stores sugar as glycogen and releases it when you need fuel.
• Stores nutrients. Vitamins A, D and B12, and iron, are stored in the liver.
• Makes proteins. Including those that help blood clot.
• Regenerates. The liver is the only organ that can regrow significant amounts of itself.

The liver in traditional healing

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the liver belongs to the wood element, the season of spring and the color green. It is said to ensure the smooth flow of chi throughout the body. When it is stuck, people may feel frustration, irritability and anger. The traditional "organ clock" gives the liver its peak time between 1 and 3 in the morning, and some people notice they wake often at that hour during stressful times.

In Ayurveda, the liver is the seat of pitta, the fire energy, and is linked with heat, intensity and digestion.

In Western herbalism, bitter herbs like dandelion, milk thistle, burdock and artichoke have long been used as liver tonics.

What an overloaded liver may show up as

Natural health traditions associate many signs with a tired liver. These are reflections, not a diagnosis, and many have other causes:

• Feeling sluggish, especially after fatty meals
• Waking in the early hours
• Irritability and short temper
• Skin breakouts or itchiness
• Bloating and trouble digesting fats
• A coated tongue or bad breath

If you notice yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine, pale stools or pain under the right ribs, please see a practitioner promptly.

Traditional liver flushes

The best-known liver flush comes from natural health writers of the late twentieth century. It usually involves eating lightly for a day, taking Epsom salt in water, then drinking a mixture of olive oil and grapefruit or lemon juice at night. Followers often report passing small green "stones" the next day.

It is important to share honestly: when researchers examined these "stones" in a case reported in The Lancet in 2005, they found they were mostly soaps formed from the olive oil and juice in the gut, rather than true gallstones. The flush can also cause nausea, cramping and diarrhea, and it may be risky for people with gallstones, because a stone could become stuck. If you are drawn to a liver flush, please only do it with guidance from a trusted practitioner.

Gentle daily liver support

Most traditions agree that the kindest liver care is daily and simple:

1. Warm lemon water in the morning to wake digestion.
2. Bitter greens like dandelion, arugula, endive and radicchio. Bitterness is the traditional liver flavor. Read Dandelion: The Sacred Weed.
3. Beets, carrots and artichokes.
4. Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts, which contain compounds studied for supporting the liver's natural processing.
5. Less alcohol, fewer ultra-processed foods and less added sugar.
6. Fiber and water so that what the liver releases leaves the body.
7. Rest early. Being asleep during the traditional liver hours supports repair.
8. Release anger kindly. In Chinese medicine, emotional flow supports liver flow. Journaling, movement and forgiveness are liver care too.

A liver gratitude practice

Place your right hand over your lower right ribs. Breathe into it and imagine a soft green light. Say, "Thank you for cleansing me every moment of my life. I release what is not mine to carry." The Inner Smile has a full version of this practice.

This is part of our Gentle Detox Series. Continue with The Morning Flush and Detox Binders.

Read next

Companion readings chosen for this same theme.

Dandelion: The Sacred WeedThe Morning Flush: Salted Olive Oil, Key Lime and Cayenne on an Empty StomachHeavy Metal Detox: A Gentle Educational Path

With love and light,
Infused Lights