Liver Health and Your Microbiome

Liver Health and your Microbiome                           Liver Health and Your Microbiome

The human Microbiome is your body’s environment – the inside and the outside. Your body’s environment is what keeps you healthy, or what allows diseases to occur. Everyday you make choices that affect your Microbiome. Your body’s environment consists of the bacteria, fungi, viruses, protists and archaea that live in your body and on your body. We are supposed to have health promoting organisms, bacteria, viruses, etc., but if the health promoting bacteria become outnumbered by un-healthy strains of bacteria, viruses, or fungi, inflammation ensues.Your liver health and your Microbiome are integrally connected. Inflamed tissues are an altered Microbiome, which then is an easier environment for un-healthy organisms to thrive in. The longer the environment is inflamed for and houses pathogenic bacteria, viruses,    fungi, protists and archaea the more the environment gets altered, making it progressively easier for  un-healthy strains of organisms to thrive which then leads to disease. Think of the perfect storm, and the merging of environments that are catalysts to each other.

How Does Your Microbiome Affect Your Liver?

Liver health and your Microbiome are directly effected by your intestinal tract – and it’s own Microbiota. From the intestines blood is routed to the liver through the hepatic portal vein. This blood being delivered has the absorbed nutrients from digested food and also carries toxins and medications from the intestinal tract to the liver. Studies have shown the liver being effected by bacteria and fungi in people with unhealthy bacterial and fungal over growths in the intestinal tract. These pathogenic organisms do trans-locate and then cause problems to the liver which cumulatively can contribute to cirrhosis.

Multiple studies on people with cirrhosis have all proved that compared with people who do not have cirrhosis, the people with cirrhosis have bacterial strains not found in the people who do not have cirrhosis. Also, the people with cirrhosis have  many different types of strains of bacteria, not just 10-20, but upwards of 30-40 of these are strains of bacteria that people that don’t have cirrhosis do not have.

Liver Health and Your Microbiome as relates to Bacterial Toxins

A very common toxin from bacteria is called the Lipopolysaccharide. This toxin does trans-locate from the intestinal tract to the liver and it is known to cause liver damage as well as damage to other parts of your body. Often the term “endotoxin” is used in reference to toxins generated from bacteria. It is known that Lipopolysaccharides, endotoxins, cause changes to the immune system, the lymph system, brain chemistry, the kidneys, the heart, the arteries and veins, reproductive hormones as well as the liver.

A great research study by Seki and colleagues proved that the intestinal bacteria/ microflora was the main source of Lipopolysaccharides entering the liver through the portal hepatic vein and this proved to be “an important prerequisite for the development of liver fibrosis during chronic liver injury.”1 This research is very important in showing how your liver health and your Microbiome are integrally related. For more detailed information on how the gut Microbiome affects your brain please click here.

In another great article in the British Journal of Pharmacology, “The multiple organ dysfunction syndrome caused by endotoxin in the rat: attenuation of liver dysfunction by inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase.”2 The researchers found that Lipopolysaccharides “caused a profound hypotension associated with decreases in cardiac output and oxygen delivery, lactic acidosis, renal and liver dysfunction, and thrombocytopenia.2. This means that blood pressure was reduced enough to cause a low heart rate resulting in not enough oxygen to the entire body resulting in lactic acid build up negatively effecting the kidneys and liver and causing low platelets resulting in lack of clotting.

Liver Cirrhosis

Liver cirrhosis is prevalent worldwide, and mostly preventable. Liver cirrhosis is the result of a combination of a number of chronic liver diseases. Cirrhosis happens over a number of years. And once liver cirrhosis occurs, the cells of the liver die and either a person gets a liver transplant or they die. Because it does take years for cirrhosis to develop, and there are not glaring symptoms until there is a really big problem, most people do not even realize they might be heading that way.

Contributing Factors to Poor Liver Health

A diet high in processed foods is very taxing to the liver because of the man-made chemicals in processed foods. A diet high in trans-fats is also very taxing to the liver. All pharmaceutical medications, even over the counter medications, are very demanding on the liver and with long-term use end up causing liver problems. It is possible to keep your liver healthy through your lifestyle and Full Body 30 Day Vegan Cleanse can teach you that lifestyle.

Create Liver Health

Liver health and your Microbiome are mostly under your control. You can live a lifestyle that prevents you from getting cirrhosis. Eating foods that are plant based, especially deep green leafy vegetables, are very good for your liver and do make a difference to keeping the cells of the liver healthy and able to break down substances. Seeing a porfessonal Herbalist to help maintain your liver health and your Microbiome can keep you very healthy and make a tremendous difference to your entire body.

1 Seki E, De Minicis S, Osterreicher CH, Kluwe J, Osawa Y, Brenner DA, Schwabe RF. TLR4 enhances TGF-beta signaling and hepatic fibrosis. Nat Med Nov 2007; 13(11):1324 – 32; dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm1663; PMID: 17952090

2 * Thiemermann C, * Ruetten H, * Wu CC, * Vane JR.: Br J Pharmacol. 1995 Dec;116(7):2845-51.
The multiple organ dysfunction syndrome caused by endotoxin in the rat: attenuation of liver dysfunction by inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase.