Spring Cleaning Your Liver: Step 1
It’s time for spring cleaning—who wants to join me? We’re going to spring into action and get your liver in tip-top shape by helping it eliminate the toxins in your body. Detoxification is critical in menopause because it helps with hormone balance and relief from various menopausal symptoms. Detoxing can help you feel so much better!
Your liver detoxes in three stages, so here we’re going to talk about stage 1. We will discuss the next two stages in the posts that follow, so be sure to stay tuned!
During stage 1 of liver detox, the body triggers special substances called cytochrome P450 enzymes into action. They get to work when you are exposed to toxins such as caffeine, alcohol, cigarette smoke, paint fumes, pesticides, xenoestrogens, and drugs. The liver converts the toxins into intermediate toxins, which can be very harmful if they are not moved along and eliminated. If your cytochrome P450 enzyme network has too many toxins to handle, you can experience side effects such as sweating, heart palpitations, headache, brain fog, or jitters.
To make sure that doesn’t happen, you can help your phase 1 detox run more smoothly and help prevent toxin buildup by eating lots of certain nutrients. The nutrients include B vitamins (niacin, riboflavin, pyridoxine, B12, folate), as well as iron and magnesium. You should also focus on the antioxidants (vitamins A and C, flavonoids, carotenoids, and polyphenols) and phospholipids. Therefore, your stage 1 liver detox food list should include berries, citrus, broccoli and other cruciferous veggies, green leafy veggies, nuts, figs, dried apricots and raisins, salmon, chicken, and sunflower seeds. Be sure to read my next social media post on stage 2 of liver detox and spring cleaning!
Divine Renewal 