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Don't fool yourself - crash dieting and "marathon" gym sessions simply don't work. Your body was never meant to be fat. And getting it back in shape is easier than you think... |
Being Overweight Endangers Your Liver
By Dr. Al Sears
Most of my patients figure as long as they don’t overuse alcohol or drugs, their liver is safe.
But alcohol isn’t your biggest worry.
If you’re overweight, your liver is in real trouble.
Evidence suggests that alcohol contributes to only 6 percent of liver damage. The much higher risk factor for liver damage is obesity. It alone contributes to 52 percent of liver disease.1
And when an overweight person drinks, the chances of liver damage are dramatically increased. Let’s look at some real numbers so you can see exactly what the risks are.
If you’re overweight, you have a twofold increased risk. If you’re obese (body mass index over 30), you’re four times more likely to develop liver damage than a normal-weight individual.1
When you add alcohol to the mix, it gets even scarier. For example, a normal-weight individual who drinks two or more glasses of alcohol a day has a two-fold risk of liver damage. While an obese person with the same drinking habits has a 5.9-fold increase – that’s nearly six times the chance of liver disease. And overweight people drinking two or more glasses a day have a 3.4-fold increased risk.1
This is bad news. Your liver is the most overlooked and often ignored organ in your body. But it’s arguably the most important.
Your liver:
- Manufactures a full quart of bile daily to break down fat. Bile is the yellowish-green fluid that’s produced in your liver and stored in your gallbladder. Bile also plays an essential role in emulsifying – or breaking down – the fats you eat. Think of bile as a detergent that gets rid of grease from your dishes.
- Filters harmful toxins and substances (including alcohol) out of nearly 100 gallons of blood every day and allows nutrients to get to your cells.
- Produces more than 13,000 crucial chemicals and hormones including cholesterol, testosterone, and estrogen. Plus, your liver manages over 50,000 enzymes to maintain a healthy body.
- Regulates blood sugar levels and prevents dangerous spikes and lows.
- Stores essential vitamins and minerals – including vitamins A, D, K, and B12 – to help keep your bones from crumbling.
- Detoxifies all internal and external environmental pollutants. If your liver didn’t continually remove metabolic trash and toxins from your blood, you would be dead in a matter of hours.
Even more important than what your liver does, is what happens when your liver is not working properly.
To get rid of all the waste, your liver will create balls of fat that collect in the liver itself. (This is the start of a “fatty liver.”) Those fats will also spill into your blood in the form of triglycerides, which boost your risk of a heart related disaster.
Your liver will also move those toxins to different places in your body, including your skin. In fact, many skin conditions like dandruff and psoriasis are tell-tale signs of a sick liver.
All of this contributes to a systemic poisoning that zaps your strength, vitality – even your sex drive. Chronic fatigue, high blood pressure, autoimmune disorders, and “problems in the bedroom,” often have a connection to a sluggish or sick liver.
If you haven’t started on a weight-reduction plan, get started today. It doesn’t have to be difficult. My most important rule of healthy weight reduction is simply to eat foods in their natural, unadulterated forms. That includes red meat, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, most vegetables, most fruits, and nuts.2
Avoid anything processed or refined. And start a heart healthy exercise program.
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Dr. Al Sears owns and operates an integrative medicine and anti-aging clinic in Wellington, Fla., with more than 20,000 patients. His therapies and reputation for solving some of the most difficult-to-diagnose cases attract patients from around the world. You will find his website here.
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1 Obesity is the Cause of Most U.S. Liver Damage: Risk of Disease Fourfold Higher in Obese. Mitchel L. Zoler. Family Practice News. July 1, 2004.
2 Sears, A. The Doctor’s Heart Cure Book. Dragon Door Publication: Minnesota. 2004.
