What Are The Signs Your Liver Is Detoxing?
Most people know that the liver is one of the major organs in the body. Most people are unaware of the complete role it plays and how addiction can damage it. The short version is that if we did not have a liver, or if the liver was not functioning properly, we would die a slow and painful death, mostly through blood poisoning.
The liver filters out all the toxins and everything else that would harm the body by getting into the bloodstream in dangerous amounts. The liver detoxes the bloodstream, so these toxins are taken out and expelled. This is why you need to look for signs your liver is detoxing so that you won’t just keel over from blood poisoning.
Body Odor and Excessive Sweating
Typically the body will get rid of toxins any way it can. Normally, it would do so through regular waste disposal, sending the toxins out with the stool or urine. In cases where the liver is not functioning properly and cannot process these toxins efficiently, the body tries to expel them in some other way, and sweat is one such way.
Sticky, smelly, and excessive sweat means there are fatty compounds and other toxins being expelled through the skin and brought out through sweating. Excessive sweating could point out that there are a lot of toxins to process and expel, and the liver is not up to it.
Nausea After Eating
The body has quite a number of sensors that indicate if something is wrong. Should the liver not be performing well enough to be healthy, signs are sure to pop up that are difficult to ignore. One such sign is nausea or even the urge to vomit after eating, particularly if the meal is fatty or oily. This is actually one of the most compelling reasons why people ask, “how long does it take to detox your liver” as not being able to eat properly is nothing short of agonizing for many.
This is actually the body trying to prevent the person from further endangering the liver, which could already be functioning poorly. The nausea is to try to prevent the person from ingesting food that could make them much worse, as fatty and oily foods need to be processed more than others.
Acne, Allergies, and Breakouts
As the body will try to get rid of toxins any way it could if the liver is not performing well, another alternate route for disposal could be pimples and breakouts. The toxins could also be mixed with the pus that comes out when it erupts, and these usually manifest in large, painful pimples.
Allergies are also a common manifestation, particularly those that have an external sign. Allergies are common visual signals that the body is dealing with something or that it needs help in some way to deal with something internally, as the symptoms are quite hard to ignore.
Dark-colored Urine and Discolored Skin
Medical experts monitoring for something wrong would tell the patient to watch out for any color variations in their urine. This is because, much like the signs of allergies, the color of a person’s urine could point to something seriously wrong going on inside, particularly with the liver.
Sometimes dark or discolored urine could be accompanied by a sudden discoloration of the person’s skin as well, particularly if jaundice is setting in. Jaundice is usually the result of liver cells performing poorly, which leads to the build-up of bilirubin, a compound that is present when the liver processes toxins.
Sudden Weight Gain
Should the liver be unable to process fatty foods properly, the fat will not be disposed of efficiently. Accumulated fat will quickly manifest in weight gain, particularly around the midsection. This happens even if the person is not someone who tends to eat large meals all the time. Alcohol, excess sugar, and even substance abuse could compromise the liver to the extent that it could process fatty foods.
This is worth mentioning as the difference between someone who gains weight through food binging and someone who gains weight due to a compromised liver is the time it takes to gain weight. Large eaters will gain weight, but only after continuing to binge– and over a relatively long period since their liver will inevitably process it.
What is a Dysfunctional Liver?
All the symptoms mentioned above are warnings that a person’s liver is either performing poorly or is on the way to completely failing. Liver failure is a condition that is certain to lead to death, as with any failure of any major organ in the body. Death is a certainty because the liver will no longer be able to do what it does to keep the body running, including:
Should the body experience any disruption of the processes mentioned above, all the other bodily processes will also be affected. Liver disease is already at an alarming rate, as in the US alone, at least 30 million people have one form of liver disease or another, ranging from symptoms that could be treated with continuous medication and a lifestyle change to conditions that need a liver transplant.
Can You Detox Your Liver at Home?
Detoxing the liver is ironic, considering the liver’s job is detoxing the body. In many cases, however, it becomes necessary. This is particularly true for people who either have a liver disease they came by due to an illness, such as hepatitis, or if they have an unhealthy lifestyle, made worse by substance abuse.
The first step to helping your liver with a detox you do yourself is to know how NOT to make things worse. Many think because there are do-it-yourself detox procedures that could be done at home, they can go on and continue making things difficult for their liver. No amount of medication or DIY detox could help your liver if you do nothing to ease the stress that it is going through already.
Here are some ways to help ease the burden on your liver:
Understand the Threats to a Healthy Liver
Medical experts will always argue the disease is hereditary, but at the end of the day, it would still be much better if one could avoid risk and take steps to avoid the disease, if possible. Still, it would be good to know if liver disease is present in the family and how severe it usually is.
This sets the stage for how much more a person should provide extra care for their liver. Prevention will always be better than the cure, and if one could live without taking unnecessary risks, that could be much better.
Be Aware of Relevant Diseases
Some contract viral hepatitis, which affects the liver, which can never recover fully. This leaves their liver weak and quite vulnerable to other forms of the disease. It could get so bad for them that people who had just received a liver transplant have a better chance of recovering and living a healthy life than they ever could.
As viral hepatitis is transmitted through a more direct method, unprotected sex and drug use where the paraphernalia is shared, such as needles, are among the highest possible modes of transmission.
Avoid a Sedentary Lifestyle
Unhealthy habits, such as binging, substance abuse, and lack of exercise, are the worst things a person’s liver could go through. These habits push a person’s liver to work overtime, and in conditions where the odds are against the liver coming out ok after the ordeal.
Exercise, proper rest, and moderation could help the liver in a very big way. If these things are not feasible, then at the very least, ensure that things are not made worse for the liver by further abuse.
Eat and Drink Healthy
Unlike decades before, it is much easier to find healthier alternatives to popular meals and drinks today. These things are commercially available and easily integrated into one’s lifestyle. Instead of soda or other drinks high on sugar, natural juice alternatives add vitamins and nutrients the body needs.
There are also alternatives to plant-based processed foods, ensuring the fat levels are kept to a bare minimum if present. The natural flavors of these plant-based foods also do away with added seasoning that could increase the sodium levels in the body.
There Is a Way to Achieve Wellness and Recovery
The path to being better is definitely not easy. It is not as difficult as most paint it out to be, either. All you need to do is find the path to getting better and stay on it until you achieve it.
We here at Achieve Wellness and Recovery understand this better than most others, which is why we do our best to make sure people see the path. Once they see it, we also ensure that they know what it takes to stay on it until they achieve what they set out to do.
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Medically Reviewed By
Nicole Rettino-Lambert LCSW, LCADC, CCS, CCTP, CSTIP
Nicole Rettino-Lambert is a dually licensed clinician with over 20 years of experience working with children, adolescents, and adults in both addiction treatment and mental health treatment. Along with extensive experience in clinical work, she has held leadership roles in both inpatient and outpatient addiction treatments centers in New Jersey. Throughout her various leadership positions, Rettino-Lambert has developed clinical programming, assisted staff in their growth and development in the clinical field, and had the privilege of helping numerous individuals on their path to recovery.
As a clinician, Rettino-Lambert specializes in addiction trauma, mental health, self-harm behaviors, anxiety, intimacy issues, sex addiction, and personality disorders. She holds certifications as a clinical trauma professional and sex informed professional. Her passion and purpose as a clinician are to help individuals find their voice, purpose, and motivation through their recovery. She takes pride in being part of the process that helps those who are fighting for their lives to achieve both sobriety and wellness.In her role as a Clinical Director at Achieve Wellness and Recovery, Rettino-Lambert works tirelessly to ensure that her staff feels supported in their roles, continues their clinical growth and development, and is empowered to become the best versions of themselves. She firmly believes that all the staff are an essential part of clients’ recovery journey and that they deserve continuous compassion, empathy, acknowledgment, and support from leadership.