(NaturalHealth365) The liver is our largest organ in the body, outside of the skin, so that is the first indication that it’s vital to have healthy liver function.  If you do have trouble with its function, your skin can be dry, itchy, yellow or riddled with a skin disease.

Technically speaking, “liver failure” tends to take years to develop and can be caused by hepatitis B, C, long-term alcohol consumption, cirrhosis and, of course, poor nutrition.

A quick guide to healthy liver function

Everything we eat and drink has to be broken down into different chemicals before it can get to work on helping (or, in the case of some foods and drinks, harming) the body. And that’s one of the primary jobs of the liver.

Along with vitamin K, the liver makes proteins – which are crucial to blood clotting. The liver also helps to break down old (damaged) blood cells.

Simply put, the liver is a key player in every metabolic function within our body. An amazing fact, the liver receives about 25% of all the blood the heart pumps – in every beat.

So what are the signs of liver dysfunction?

1. The liver feels hard or hurts when you press under your rib cage – on the right side.
2. Your skin looks yellow.
3. You experience chronic indigestion.
4. There are skin diseases.
5. You get easily stressed and feel nervous tension – on a regular basis.
6. Itchy skin.
7. Swelling of legs or ankles.
8. Dark urine.

Juicing is, by far, the most effective, natural and easiest way to cleanse and detoxify the liver. There are specific vegetables and fruits that do a better job at detoxifying than others.

Top 10 foods to help detoxify the liver

1. Dandelion greens
2. Beets with their tops
3. Apples
4. Garlic
5. Lemons and limes
6. Any dark leafy greens like, kale and collard greens
7. Fresh turmeric (or dried)
8. Cruciferous vegetables like, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower
9. Carrots
10. Grapefruit (leave as much of the white pith as possible)

There’s so much more to learn about the liver – but we’ll leave that for another day.  For now, let’s focus on what we can do to help the liver function at a higher level.

My recipe (below) can help – but, first, here are some interesting facts about the liver:

• It can completely rehabilitate itself given the proper support it needs to function optimally?
• Helps us by taking toxins out of our blood so that our blood can be as clean as possible as it flows through each one of our internal organs such as the heart, pancreas, stomach, intestines and spleen.
• Cleans the blood that has just been enriched with vitamins and minerals during digestion. After you’ve eaten something, the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from the food pass from the intestine into the blood.

Before going out to the rest of the body, the nutrient-rich blood makes a stop at the liver. It processes the good stuff into forms that the rest of the body can use.

Waste or stuff your body doesn’t need can be carried by bile back into the intestine and out of the body when you defecate. Other waste processed by the liver goes through your blood to your kidneys and out when you urinate.  It’s truly an amazing organ – isn’t it?

Let’s face it, living healthy is the best way to care for the liver.  This vital organ can be damaged if a person is overweight, drinks too much alcohol, has a stressful life, drinks too much coffee and eats too many unnatural sugars.

Try to keep yourself physically active, eat well, and your liver will keep on loving you back!

These are my best tips to keep the liver healthy

It’s really quite simple: juice and hydrate your body – on a daily basis; live a stress-free lifestyle and don’t forget to exercise.

Try making my favorite ‘powerhouse liver cleansing tonic’ – which serves 2 people.  Naturally, I suggest using only organic produce and juice 4x per week, for 60 days.  The results will really surprise you.

• • 8 carrots (large)
  • 10 small dandelion leaves
  • 1 medium sized beet
  • 2 apples
  • 1 inch fresh ginger root or fresh turmeric root

Do me a favor and post your favorite juicing recipe (below) – I’d love to hear form you.

About the author: Linda Kordich was married and spent 40 years supporting Jay Kordich, world renown health educator and the “Father of Juicing.”  She is the co-author of their book, Live Foods Live Bodies and teaches throughout the world on the ‘Powers of the Gentle Art of Foods and Juices.’  For more information about Linda Kordich – visit: JayKordich.com

Sources for this article include:

Mayoclinic.org