In other words, the average level of testosterone for a 45, 55 or 65-year-old man is lower than that of a man of the same age in 2010 — which was lower than that of a man of the same age in 2000!

The question is — why are testosterone levels declining so dramatically? And is there anything you can do to support your testosterone levels?

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Why men’s testosterone levels have dropped

While T levels decline with age, maintaining hormonal balance is more complex. Problems in one area of your health can sneak up and lead to problems in the endocrine system (headquarters for hormonal health).

Three health problems, in particular, have risen to almost epidemic proportions in the U.S. in the past several years, and they all have one thing in common — they can tank testosterone levels…

#1 – Type 2 diabetes

Testosterone is required to help all of the tissues in your body take up blood sugar in response to insulin. It’s no wonder then that men with low T levels are far more likely to have insulin resistance, meaning their bodies have to churn out more insulin to to keep their blood sugar in the normal range.

According to the American Diabetes Association, “If you have Type 2 diabetes, you are twice as likely to suffer from low testosterone as a man without diabetes.”

#2 – Liver problems

Studies show that men with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD (a condition where there is an excess buildup of triglycerides in the liver), have reduced total testosterone.

Untreated, NAFLD can progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and after that, possibly cirrhosis. 75 percent to 90 percent of men with these conditions experience extremely low T.

#3 – Obesity

Obesity is also a driving force behind the low T epidemic. One study showed that 30 percent of overweight men had low T, versus just six percent of those with weight in the normal range

Estrogen dominance can cause abdominal weight gain. That’s because elevated estrogen levels signal the body to reduce testosterone production and store more fat.

Estrogen dominance is a condition that occurs when fake estrogens disrupt hormonal balance and surprisingly can cause health problems for both men and women. In men, low T can impact stamina, muscle tone and prostate health as well as weight gain.

How to fight testosterone theft

While men’s testosterone levels have been under assault for quite a while now, you’re not powerless to do something about it…

First and foremost is to ensure you don’t fall victim to any of the three health conditions that make you a target for low T and declining health.

Many of the steps you can take to improve your health can also improve your testosterone levels, including:

High-intensity interval training and resistance training seem to be especially effective at boosting testosterone.

Eating a high-quality diet of protein, fruits and vegetables and healthy fats is also important (a keto diet has shown real benefits for Low T).

Stress management reduces the stress hormone cortisol which can cause weight gain and lower testosterone.

But you also need to face up to fake estrogens which are almost inescapable in our environment. Luckily, there’s a way to flush them out of your body…

The secret is a compound called Di-Indole Methane, or DIM for short, which is found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.

DIM can reduce estrogen levels in the body by stimulating the breakdown of estrogen into beneficial metabolites.

But it takes far more of this little compound than what you can get by sitting down to a dinner packed with veggies.

In fact, it would take a minimum of three pounds of broccoli every day to grab all of DIM’s hormone-supporting benefits. Fortunately, the nutrient is available in supplement form.

Sources:

Why Are Testosterone Levels Decreasing? – Cleveland Clinic

Low Testosterone – American Diabetes Association

8 Major Factors That Cause Low Testosterone Levels – Men’s Health

Low Testosterone (Male Hypogonadism) – Cleveland Clinic

Testosterone in men with advanced liver disease: Abnormalities and implications – Wiley Online Library

Low Testosterone in Males May Warrant Liver Health Assessment and Intervention – NIH

Relevance of low testosterone to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – NIH

Low Testosterone and Your Health – WebMD

Responses of sex steroid hormones to different intensities of exercise in endurance athletes – The Physiological Society

Endocrinological Roles for Testosterone in Resistance Exercise Responses and Adaptations – NIH

Testosterone-Associated Dietary Pattern Predicts Low Testosterone Levels and Hypogonadism – MDPI

Manipulation of Dietary Intake on Changes in Circulating Testosterone Concentrations – MDPI

Low-fat diets and testosterone in men: Systematic review and meta-analysis of intervention studies – Science Direct

Stress, cortisol, and other appetite-related hormones: Prospective prediction of 6-month changes in food cravings and weight – Wiley Online Journal

The post 3 health conditions that steal your testosterone appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Chemicals and toxins we’re exposed to daily — through personal care products, pesticides in foods, furniture, household items and plastic — disrupt the endocrine system and affect the liver’s normal functions, including its ability to detoxify the bloodstream.

Overwhelmed by chemicals, it becomes less able to break down fats and waste and these poisons get stored in the liver and other parts of the body.

According to doctors at Harvard, it’s an issue that affects 20 percent to 40 percent of the US population.

The reason for the wide variance in estimates is what makes fatty liver so dangerous.

You see, like heart disease, the condition can be a “silent killer” since many people never notice they have an issue until serious — or even irreversible — damage has occurred.

That’s because signs that your liver is struggling can be subtle. However, they can be spotted if you know what to look for.

And even better, catching the symptoms of liver issues early can give you the ability to stop the damage and let your liver heal.

Here are the early symptoms of liver problems to watch out for:

#1 – Swollen ankles

Puffy or bloated ankles could be a sign that your liver is shutting down.

You see, your liver is responsible for making a protein known as albumin. Albumin is what your blood vessels use to prevent fluid from leaking into the surrounding tissue.

However, if your liver is packed with fat and inflamed, it simply can’t function.

Levels of albumin go down and fluid starts seeping from those blood vessels and pooling in your legs, ankles, and abdomen.

#2 – Fatigue

According to a 2019 study, published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology, “The liver is central in the pathogenesis of fatigue because it uniquely regulates much of the storage, release and production of substrate for energy generation.”

In other words, if you’re liver isn’t up to par, your body can’t make the energy it needs to get through the day. And you start feeling drug out, drained, and just plain exhausted.

#3 – Irregular sleep

Liver damage can alter your sleep-wake cycle causing you to fall asleep and stay asleep. And even if you can turn off your mind and slip into dreamland, you might not feel refreshed when you wake up.

Additionally, people with liver issues often have health problems such as diabetes that raise their chances of suffering from insomnia even more.

#4 – More pronounced impact of caffeine

Your liver is the primary organ responsible for metabolizing caffeine.

And studies have found that liver disease can slow caffeine clearance from your body, allowing the effects of that coffee you just drank to linger.

So if you’re a regular coffee drinker and suddenly notice it’s ramping you up much more than usual, pay attention.

#5 – Flushing rising from trunk to head

If your liver is dysfunctional, it can cause your body to overheat.

This happens when your liver is overworked or under pressure, it heats up. This may cause a feeling similar to the hot flashes associated with menopause. And it can even lead to excessive sweating.

#6 – Severe side effects/reactions from medications

Just like with caffeine, your liver has to break down any medications you take.

And according to the Merck Manual (the handbook doctors everywhere turn to when they have a question), “Sometimes alterations (damage to the liver) increase levels of bioavailable drug, causing normal drug doses to have toxic effects.”

In other words, small changes in your liver health can cause normal doses of everyday medications to become toxic.

Lifestyle changes to care for your liver

If you notice these early signs talk to a trusted health professional. If, knock on wood, everything’s fine, is there anything you can do to avoid it and support your liver?

The answer is yes!

Doctors recommend a combination of lifestyle changes that can do wonders for a fatty liver, including:

• Losing weight – According to Wynne Armand, MD, writing for Harvard, losing just five percent of your body weight could reduce the level of fat in your liver.
• Getting your exercise – Aerobic exercise is acknowledged to be one of the best ways to decrease the fat level in your liver. And if you add in a high-intensity workout, it could also reduce inflammation in the organ.
• Adding in resistance training – Studies have found that resistance training helps reduce both liver fat and unhealthy liver enzyme levels.
• Eating more protein – Adding more protein to your diet has been shown to help boost both weight loss and fat loss in the liver.

Finally, be sure to give your liver the nutrients it needs to get back on track. Some of the best nutrients to keep your liver health in line include:

1. N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) – To help support gentle detoxification and guard against future damage.
2. Milk Thistle – A liver booster that promotes the elimination of heavy metal build-up, medication residue, environmental pollutants and alcohol.
3. Turmeric – A powerful antioxidant to promote healthy liver function and the health of liver cells.
4. Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) – A potent antioxidant to help keep fats from accumulating in the liver.
5. Selenium – To help promote detoxification and rid the body of toxic mercury buildup.
6. Schisandra – Helps activate enzymes in the liver cells that produce glutathione – the master antioxidant that detoxifies the body and recycles vitamins C and E, so they can protect cells from free radicals.

Fatty liver is on the rise. Be aware of the sneaky signs that your liver could be in trouble and start taking steps now to keep it trim and healthy.

Sources:

12 causes of swollen ankles — Medical News Today

Fatty liver disease: What it is and what to do about it — Harvard Health Publishing

Recognizing The Early Symptoms Of Liver Disease – Alcoholic And Non-Alcoholic — Family First Intervention

Importance of fatigue and its measurement in chronic liver disease — NCBI

Insomnia and Liver Disease — Liver Directory

Sleep disturbances in patients with liver cirrhosis: prevalence, impact, and management challenges — NCBI

Caffeine and metabolism — Coffee & Health

Case Study: What does a fatty liver have to do with hot flashes? — Liver Doctor

Effects of Liver Disease on Drug Metabolism — Merck Manual

The post 6 strange signs of liver trouble appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a treatable condition brought on by long-term liver damage. But it’s hard to diagnose…

That’s because HE is usually preceded by cirrhosis, where the liver is damaged and scarred. Cirrhosis is considered a silent disease and is usually not detected until its later stages — making the resulting disease, HE, even harder to diagnose.

Hopefully, healthcare providers and patients can work together at diagnosing these conditions — now that we’re learning as much as 13 percent of people diagnosed with dementia may instead have an underlying silent liver disease causing or contributing to their symptoms…

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Hepatic encephalopathy: A life-changing misdiagnosis

Researchers examined medical records of 175,000 former patients treated by the Veterans Health Administration over ten years — specifically choosing those who had been diagnosed with dementia on at least two separate occasions.

Using clinical data, they calculated a FIB-4 score (a score based on liver blood results and age that can be used to predict liver damage). Ten percent had a FIB-4 score higher than 3.25 (the cut-off for diagnosing liver scarring).

High scores were more common in patients with risk factors for liver disease, like viral hepatitis and heavy drinking — and less common in patients with risk factors commonly associated with dementia, like diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease.

Next, the researchers confirmed their findings by looking at a separate group of people assessed for dementia at their hospital. They found similar results, with 9 percent having a high FIB-4 score and potential cirrhosis.

This suggested that around 10 percent of people diagnosed with dementia may instead have underlying silent liver disease with HE causing or contributing to the symptoms.

But that number keeps going up…

In a recent follow-up study, Virginia Commonwealth University researchers repeated this review with 68,807 medical records of patients from a national database who weren’t veterans.

They were surprised to find that even more patients with high FIB-4 scores were found in this population — almost 13 percent.

“This important link between dementia and liver health emphasizes the importance of screening patients for potentially treatable contributors to cognitive decline,” concluded Virginia Commonwealth University hepatologist Jasmohan Bajaj.

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HE symptoms and similarities to dementia

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming increasingly common and is an early-stage liver disease. But left untreated, it can progress to hepatic encephalopathy.

Initial symptoms of HE can be subtle and seemingly harmless, including changes in sleep patterns or irritability.

But as the condition worsens, symptoms become more apparent: forgetfulness, disorientation or confusion.

It’s easy to see how these symptoms can be mistaken for the cognitive decline that leads to dementia — though the damage caused to the brain has a different origin…

In HE, when a liver scarred by cirrhosis can no longer detoxify the blood, then toxins (mainly ammonia) build up and enter the brain, interfering with brain function.

Dementia, on the other hand, is caused by long-term damage to brain function, usually due to damage to the small blood vessels that supply blood to the brain. Diabetes and vascular dementia are two ways that this can happen.

If a loved one is showing signs of dementia and you have any reason to think they might have a damaged liver, get your physician to check. Ultimately, HE can lead to coma and death in its most severe form.

But diagnosed early enough, HE can be treated, first with laxatives that help to remove ammonia and other toxins that accumulate in the gut. This is followed by treatment with an antibiotic (rifaximin) that kills some of the harmful ammonia-producing bacteria in the gut.

By getting your doctor to run a few tests, you could help a loved one escape a double-whammy: the slow decline into dementia, and a painful death from liver disease.

Sources:

Many Dementia Cases Could Actually Be a Hidden Form of Liver Disease — Science Alert

Up to 13% of Dementia Cases May Be a Misdiagnosed Treatable Condition — Science Alert

Undiagnosed Cirrhosis and Hepatic Encephalopathy in a National Cohort of Veterans With Dementia — JAMA Network

The post When dementia starts with your liver appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And all of those toxins are showing up in our bodies — where there’s no telling what kinds of horrors they can wreak on our health.

We recently reported on two pesticides that have the power to destroy the action of the sleep hormone melatonin, leaving you at risk for insomnia as well as metabolic disease, diabetes and even cancer.

And now, another study is reporting concerning news…

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco have detected a whopping 109 chemicals in the bodies of pregnant women — 55 of which have never been reported in people before — plus 42 “mystery chemicals” whose sources and uses are a complete unknown.

Plasticizers, cosmetics, flame retardants and more

Led by a former EPA scientist, the study analyzed the blood of pregnant women, as well as their newborn children.

And not only were the mothers’ bodies flowing with the chemicals, so were the bodies of their babies, suggesting the chemicals were able to travel from the mother’s placenta to leach into the child’s blood.

“It is alarming that we keep seeing certain chemicals travel from pregnant women to their children, which means these chemicals can be with us for generations,” said Tracey J. Woodruff, PhD, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF.

So where are all these man-made chemicals coming from?

Using mass spectrometry, the team was able to identify most of them, in addition to their uses.

According to the team, they found that:

• 40 are used as plasticizers – These are chemicals that go into things like packaging and paper plates.
• 28 are found in cosmetics – The makeup you put on when you wake up can fill your body with chemicals.
• 25 come from consumer products – This can make up a wide range of the things you use every day from a spatula to candles.
• 29 as pharmaceuticals – Chemicals and drug manufacturing go hand-in-hand.
• 23 as pesticides – These are the toxins they spray on food – many of which are banned in other countries, but still contaminate the U.S. food supply.
• 3 as flame retardants – From mattresses to clothing, flame retardants are located in many items you probably have sitting in your house right now.
• 7 from PFAS compounds – PFAS are used in carpeting, upholstery, non-stick cookware and even waterproof fabrics.

The researchers say there may be other uses for all of these chemicals.

Lack of oversight

And those so-called “mystery chemicals”?

Well, the researchers say they can’t identify them or their use because manufacturers don’t always make their chemical libraries available.

An example of this is the latest PFAS compounds they’re using, which are supposed to be safer and less toxic than the old ones. But who knows, since some manufacturers have chosen to block access to their chemical standards.

“It’s very concerning that we are unable to identify the uses or sources of so many of these chemicals,” Woodruff said. “EPA must do a better job of requiring the chemical industry to standardize its reporting of chemical compounds and uses. And they need to use their authority to ensure that we have adequate information to evaluate potential health harms and remove chemicals from the market that pose a risk.”

Reduce your toxic burden

So how do you avoid becoming a walking pool of chemicals?

Well, you might not be able to give all man-made chemicals a miss, but you can reduce your toxic burdens with these tips:

1. Eat organic – Avoid conventional foods and the pesticides they’re coated in and choose only organic fruits and veggies. Follow the guidance of the Environmental Working Group.
2. Use less plastic – Whether it’s plastic bowls, plastic wrap or Ziploc baggies, anything that’s made of plastic is made of chemicals.
3. Throw out non-stick cookware – Instead of non-stick, choose stainless steel or ceramic cookware to avoid those PFAS.
4. Reduce medication usage – Whenever possible, go natural for your health rather than taking prescription or over-the-counter medications that could increase your toxic burden.
5. Choose chemical-free furniture and mattresses – When shopping for new household items, look for ones without chemicals and flame retardants.
6. Pick natural personal care products – Whether it’s deodorant, makeup, or hair care products, look for natural, plant-based options without the chemicals and toxins.

Another very important factor in decreasing the toxic load in your body is the health of your liver. Your hardworking liver is your body’s main detox organ, responsible for filtering your blood and helping to show the “trash” the way out. There are simple things you can do to support it

Toxins are everywhere, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept them in our lives and homes, much less in our bodies. Start reducing your toxic burden today to lower the levels of chemicals in your blood in the future.

Sources:

UCSF study finds evidence of 55 new chemicals in people — EurekAlert!

UCSF Study Find Evidence of 55 Chemicals Never Before Reported in People — University of California San Francisco

The post Scientists find 109 chemicals never reported in people before appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, when you consider what women have to go through, from fatigue and bloating to mood changes, night sweats and more, it’s a wonder we get through it at all.

One minute, you’re rolling through your day just fine, and the next, you’re a hot, sweaty puddle!

It’s no wonder, then, that we’re willing to pop a prescription pill just to survive.

But if survival is the goal, one particular menopause medication might be the wrong choice.

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Non-hormonal medication linked to liver injury

Veozah (fezolinetant) is a non-hormonal treatment for hot flashes. Unlike hormone replacement therapy (HRT), it does not include estrogen or progesterone and was designed as an option for women with a history of breast cancer.

First approved in 2023, close to 29,000 patients have now picked up prescriptions of the drug in the United States alone.

But the FDA is now warning about the rare occurrence of serious liver injury with use of Veozah.

In September 2024, the FDA issued its first warning that liver problems from the medications were possible. Now, though, they have added a boxed warning to the drug since a woman was found to have blood markers of liver injury after taking the drug for just 40 days.

The good news is that after she stopped taking the medication, her symptoms gradually improved, and her liver levels got back to normal.

The FDA now says that if you’re taking Veozah for hot flashes, you should take blood tests for liver markers every month for the first three months after starting the medication and repeat the test at months six and nine.

If you experience symptoms such as unusual itching, nausea, vomiting, or are more tired than usual, stop taking the medication and talk to your doctor. Other symptoms to watch out for include light-colored stools, dark urine, yellow skin or eyes, swelling of your abdomen, or pain in your upper right side, all of which are signs of liver injury.

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Other options for the dreaded hot flashes

For women who don’t feel safe with HRT, the news about Veozah is disappointing. But if you discuss the liver health risk with your doctor and keep up with the suggested liver screenings, it may be a risk you’re willing to take.

But in the long run, it may not be what it is hyped up to be. In the drug trial, some participants experienced headaches and fatigue. And the drug only reduced the frequency and severity of hot flashes.

So, what are your options if you’re not keen on HRT or Veozah?

• Acupuncture can relieve many of the most common (and most annoying) menopause symptoms. In a small group of 70 menopausal women, 80% said that acupuncture relieved their menopause symptoms.
• If needles aren’t your thing, supplement formulations that help relieve hot flashes and night sweats have gotten more sophisticated. Look for those that have been clinically tested. They will cost more, but should be able to give you an idea of how much relief to expect.
• Incorporate soy-based foods like tofu and edamame, as well as flaxseeds, which contain phytoestrogens that may help balance hormone levels. 

One important note: Menopause is more than “the change,” signaling a woman’s transformation from her reproductive years. Women also undergo a “cardiovascular change.” Unfortunately, hot flashes and night sweats are associated with worse heart disease risk levels.

In addition to staying on top of your heart health with yearly checkups, a healthy diet and exercise, Dr. Jocelyn Delgado Spicuzza, who specializes in integrative and biomedical physiology, suggests that “Women may need to consume beetroot juice daily — or even more often — to experience all of the potential cardiovascular benefits.”

Her research shows that beetroot juice can be very useful in protecting blood vessel health of mid-life women during this period of accelerating heart disease risk.

Drinking nitrate-rich beetroot juice each day improved blood flow in a group of menopausal and postmenopausal women. Dr. Spicuzza surmised that this level of improved blood-vessel function — if maintained over the postmenopausal years — could significantly reduce the risk of heart disease.

Decades ago, Nobel Prize-winning scientists discovered that nitric oxide (NO), a signaling molecule found in the endothelial cells of artery walls, was a potent vasodilator and an essential regulator of the cardiovascular system. After menopause, women no longer produce estrogen, which helps maintain nitric oxide in the body. Thankfully, beetroot juice helps the body produce NO, with or without estrogen.

Sources:

FDA adds warning about rare occurrence of serious liver injury with use of Veozah (fezolinetant) for hot flashes due to menopause — U.S. Food & Drug Administration

FDA places its most serious warning on menopause drug due to risk of liver injury — CNN

The post Don’t trade hot flashes for liver damage appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

While you can minimize your exposure to these toxic microscopic particles, there’s little you can do any more to avoid them completely.

Microplastics have been found in our blood, liver, kidneys, muscles, heart, artery plaque and blood clots.

And as if this weren’t scary enough, we’re now learning for the first time that they have also invaded our brains…

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Microplastic brains: first mice, now humans

In May of 2023, I reported that researchers saw that polystyrene nanoparticles (commonly found in Styrofoam) were able to breach the protective blood-brain barrier of mice in just two hours after ingestion.

Now, researchers from the University of New Mexico and Oklahoma State University who looked at concentrations of microplastics in 51 liver, kidney and brain samples from routine autopsies, have found them in the human brain.

Since microplastic particles are often difficult to see, even with a high-powered microscope, the researchers chose instead to identify them in the samples by their chemical composition.

To their surprise, they found up to 30 times more microplastic in brain samples than in either liver or kidney samples. The reason?

The researchers believe the liver and kidneys, as detox organs, may be better equipped to deal with external toxins. The brain, however, does not undergo cell renewal to the extent that other organs do. For that reason, microplastics may collect and linger there longer.

The microplastic most commonly found in the samples was polyethylene. It’s the most common plastic and is used for plastic bags, films, and plastic bottles, as well as water pipes, flooring and packaging.

But the problem entails more than the tiny plastic particles. Microplastics can contain, carry and leach forever chemicals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, heavy metals and pharmaceuticals.

These are all known to impact various areas of human health including including cancers, metabolic disorders, attention-deficits and hyperactivity disorder and fertility issues.

But what can we expect from microplastics, particularly in our brains? In mice, previous research saw cognitive decline and neurotoxicity through impairments in oxidative and inflammatory balance.

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How to minimize exposure to microplastics

We typically ingest microplastics through food or water. We can also breathe in small microplastics that take the same path as oxygen to enter the bloodstream, eventually reaching organs.

In the gut, they disrupt the microbiome. This compromises the gut-brain axis — a two-way system of communication. Microplastics weathered by environmental and digestive processes travel this pathway to eventually cross the blood-brain barrier, the intricate layer of cells that are supposed to keep things in the blood from entering our brain.

Your best protection at this time is to avoid or lessen your plastic exposure altogether. Here are a few ways…

• Don’t drink bottled water. According to a study reported in Smithsonian Magazine, if you drink only from plastic water bottles, you may ingest 90,000 microplastic particles each year, compared to 4,000 if you stick to tap water.
• Avoid plastic dishes. High heat can cause them to release microplastics. This means that you should keep them out of the microwave, and wash them by hand, rather than in the dishwasher.
• Cut down on salt and sugar. Per CNN, a 2023 study found coarse Himalayan pink salt mined from the ground had the most microplastics, followed by black salt and marine (sea) salt. Sugar is also “an important route of human exposure to these micropollutants,” according to a 2022 study.
• Use a reverse osmosis filter to remove some particles from tap water.
• Try this technique to decrease microplastics in tap water without special equipment.
• Eat cruciferous vegetables. Two or more servings daily of cruciferous vegetables may bind to chemicals from plastics and remove them from the body in a process called chelation. These foods include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, arugula and dark leafy greens like kale.

Sources:

Microplastics Detected Infiltrating Human Brains For The First Time — Science Alert

Bioaccumulation of Microplastics in Decedent Human Brains Assessed by Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry — National Institutes of Health

Americans May Be Ingesting Thousands of Microplastics Every Year — Smithsonian Magazine

The post Microplastics have breached human brains: What are the implications? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Recently, researchers from Japan found that a traditional liquor made from buckwheat could even be used medicinally.

Chinese buckwheat liquor, a traditional drink that contains various herbal medicine extracts, can induce autophagy, a process that cells use to clean up proteins that are damaged or no longer needed. In fact, it may hold promise for diseases associated with protein aggregation, like Alzheimer’s and alcoholic liver disease.

Taking out the trash

Numerous diseases start with a buildup of bad proteins — ones that have suffered some sort of insult.

For example, in Alzheimer’s disease dangerous proteins known as amyloid-beta and tau build up in the brain.  Over time, these proteins destroy the ability to remember, think and even live independently.

In liver disease, protein aggregates build-up, keeping the organ from functioning properly and backing up toxins into the body.

So what could a liquor do to help?

Well, according to a study published in Antioxidants, Chinese buckwheat liquor and one of its components could be the secret to cleaning out these damaged proteins to keep everything working like clockwork.

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The research team from Osaka University found that tartary buckwheat extract has the power to induce a process known as autophagy that cells use to clean up proteins that harm your body.

Think of it as taking out the trash.

The researchers made this incredible discovery by treating skin and liver cells with tartary buckwheat extract and looking at how different fluorescent markers of autophagy responded.

The results?

“We found that treating cells with the extract stimulated the formation of autophagasomes, specialized cellular structures that carry out autophagy, and altered the location of proteins involved in regulating autophagy,” said Takeshi Noda, senior author of the study.

When the researchers looked more closely at specific components of tartary buckwheat extract, they found that one component, quercetin, had the same effects as the extract.

These results suggest that quercetin could be a useful treatment not only for alcoholic liver disease but also for Alzheimer’s — one of the least treatable diseases of our time!

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Seed snacking to keep your body on track

So get on the seed bandwagon to better health!

Add buckwheat to your diet (or go the easy route and take a quercetin supplement to take out the cellular trash that causes disease).

And make other seeds with proven health potential part of your daily diet, like:

• Black cumin – This tiny seed is researched-backed to care for your health in seven miraculous ways!
• Pumpkin – From a stronger immune system to better blood sugar, pumpkin seeds pack a punch in six areas of your health.
• Chia – Want to feel full longer, while reducing blood sugar spikes? Chia seeds could help you do both and make weight loss easier to boot.
• Sesame – These seeds with a yummy, nutty flavor should be on your must-eat list thanks to the Parkinson’s protection they deliver.

So add a little seed power to your diet and your health!

Sprinkle them on salads, add them to yogurt and smoothies, use them to bake bread and muffins, or toss them in your morning oatmeal. Just be sure to look for unsalted options and store your seeds in air-tight containers to keep them from becoming rancid.

Editor’s note: Would you like to know more about the simple seeds that can help you lose weight, breathe better, reduce anxiety, boost energy and more? Read our free report, 12 Super Seeds of Health. Click here to receive it today!

Sources:

 What Causes Alzheimer’s Disease? – NIH

The good herb: Buckwheat liquor helps cells clean house – ScienceDaily

The post The seed that takes out disease-causing cells appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Yet, for many of us, the idea of cutting these foods out of our diets completely and eating healthy seven days a week is just too big of a challenge to tackle.

But, what if you could enjoy them on occasion and still remain healthy, stave off liver disease and even avoid diabetes?

Well according to scientists, there’s a way…

And, it all starts with a simple cooking oil you probably already have in your kitchen pantry right now…

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Ancient oil protects against fatty foods

You see, the problem with those high-fat foods stems from their tendency to cause your liver to accumulate more fat cells, including triglycerides (the same thing your doctor is looking at when he checks your cholesterol), and pump more of them into your bloodstream.

When these triglycerides build up bad things happen, and you can end up with what’s known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or NAFLD, a build-up of extra fat in your liver cells that’s not caused by alcohol.

And, while it’s normal for your liver to contain some fat, if more than 5 percent to 10 percent of your liver’s weight is fat, then you have a fatty liver.

NAFLD tends to develop in people who are overweight or obese or have diabetes or high cholesterol. Even rapid weight loss and poor eating habits can cause NAFLD.

However, some people develop NAFLD even if they don’t have any risk factors. In fact, the disease affects up to 25 percent of people in the U.S.

Symptoms of a fatty liver include fatigue, weakness, weight loss, loss of appetite, nausea, abdominal pain, spider-like blood vessels, yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice), itching, fluid build-up and swelling of the legs and stomach and confusion.

You may even have fatty liver disease and not know it, since some people never have symptoms. But, once you have it, NAFLD can cause your liver to swell and lead to scarring, called cirrhosis.

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The Mediterranean answer to a fatty liver

You don’t have to end up with a swollen, sluggish liver just because you occasionally enjoy high-fat foods — as long as you incorporate olive oil into your daily diet.

You see, scientists decided to test the power of extra-virgin olive oil to combat or even reverse the effects of a high-fat diet, and the results were impressive.

The researchers found that hydroxytyrosol, a polyphenol found in extra-virgin olive oil, which is known to have antioxidant properties, actually protects your liver.

Adding hydroxytyrosol to a high-fat diet, reversed the effects of poor eating, and reduced the signs of fatty liver disease, as well as the negative effects seen in other organs, like the heart and brain.

And as a bonus, the hydroxytyrosol even prevented insulin resistance, the first step toward diabetes.

This could be the reason why research has shown that the traditional Mediterranean diet, including olive oil, reduces the risk of heart disease and the “bad” cholesterol that can build up deposits in your arteries.

In fact, a meta-analysis of more than 1.5 million healthy adults demonstrated that following a Mediterranean diet was associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular mortality, as well as overall mortality.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should give up eating healthy. If you occasionally crave those high-fat foods that you know aren’t good for you, make sure you’re getting a regular daily dose of extra-virgin olive oil — at least one to three tablespoons — to combat the effects of a high-fat diet the Mediterranean way.

Editor’s Note: You’re invited to join a tiny handful of Americans who enjoy rare, fresh-pressed olive oil all year long. Take my word for it, there’s a difference in taste, quality and benefit! Click here to learn more…

Sources:

NAFLD Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease — American Liver Foundation
Olive oil consumption and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease — World Journal of Gastroenterology
Diet could REVERSE negative effects of high-fat food — and CURE liver disease — Daily Express
Mediterranean diet: A heart-healthy eating plan — Mayo Clinic

The post Olive oil: The easy antidote for a high-fat diet appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Maybe you don’t even know what it is. Where it comes from… where it lives in your body… or why it’s even important?

So just in case you’re in the dark, I’d like to offer you a “primer.” Then I’ll tell you about some new research on bile production and how you can help this fluid work harder to keep you healthy.

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What is bile and what’s its job?

It’s an olive green or brownish-yellow fluid that’s produced by your liver and stored in your gall bladder. Its job is to help absorb fats and fat-soluble nutrients, such as Vitamins A, D, E and K.

When you eat fatty foods, your gall bladder releases bile into the small intestine through a series of tubes, or ducts, where it mixes with partially digested food. Bile salts and other substances break down fat globules into smaller droplets. These droplets are easier for the digestive enzymes in your intestines to break down and absorb.

Sounds simple, right? But your body needs just the right amount of bile to accomplish this task healthfully — not too little and not too much.

When there’s too much: Bile acid malabsorption

Bile acid malabsorption (BAM) occurs when the colon can’t reabsorb unused bile after digestion takes place.

In some cases, there’s no clear explanation for why the colon doesn’t fully reabsorb bile acids. When this happens, it’s called primary BAM.

But BAM can also be a symptom of another condition. This is referred to as secondary BAM.

Conditions where BAM is a secondary symptom include irritable bowel disease, Crohn’s disease and celiac disease.

The main symptoms of BAM are bloating and diarrhea.

How your liver can poison itself

Bile is crucial for proper absorption and digestion of fats and vitamins necessary for maintaining health.

But too much can be toxic for the liver.

Three scientists from the University of Oklahoma have been working to better understand how its overproduction can poison the liver.

Their evidence suggests that bile acid imbalances may contribute to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is dangerous not only because it can lead to total liver failure if it progresses, but because it is a risk factor for coronary artery disease.

Overproduction of bile can also contribute to a condition known as cholestasis, the slowing or stalling of bile flow through your liver, gall bladder, and bile ducts. Bile that can’t flow leaks into your bloodstream and backs up into your organs, causing inflammation.

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6 simple ways to support healthy bile flow

Here are six simple things you can do to keep your bile flowing smoothly.

1. Stay hydrated. Water ensures it stays thin enough to flow easily; electrolytes are required for the opening and closing of valves that allow bile flow. Especially in summer, make sure you’re drinking 2-3 liters 8-12 cups of water or sugar-free electrolyte drinks per day.

2. Eat bitters. Bitter foods like beets, artichokes, dandelion greens, and arugula stimulate bile flow by increasing cholecystokinin, a hormone that triggers gall bladder contraction.

3. Glycine and taurine. Glycine and taurine are amino acids essential for the production of bile. They can be taken as supplements, but are also found in bone broth, fish, shellfish, seaweed and poultry and eggs.

4. Eat fats but choose wisely. Eating fats is essential for triggering bile release. Stick to healthy fat sources like olive oil, cold-water fish, avocados, almonds, walnuts, and seeds.

5. Identify trigger foods and stop eating them. Avoid fast and processed foods and sugars, which all increase liver inflammation. Food allergies and sensitivities can also cause gallbladder issues. Identifying these foods and removing them from your diet can support healthy bile flow.

6. Support your liver. Your liver is responsible for over 500 vital functions, and it gets bogged down doing its main job, removing toxins from your bloodstream. Detoxing helps take some of that load off the liver and can help improve its functionality.

Sources:

Balancing act between digestion and liver health through bile acids — Eureka Alert

Bile acids regulation of cellular stress responses in liver physiology and diseases — eGastroenterology

Understanding Bile Acid Malabsorption — Healthline

The post For a happy liver and digestion, balance your bile appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But if a headache hits or your tennis elbow is acting up, you probably pop a Tylenol when it’s needed.

After all, medicine has the same effect in your body 24 hours a day, right?

Not according to researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who warn that your body’s circadian rhythm has a big influence on the breakdown of medications…

And that taking them at the wrong time of the day could lead to toxin buildup.

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Enzymes matter

It’s estimated that about 50 percent of human genes follow a circadian cycle, and many of these genes are active in the liver.

Using tiny, engineered livers derived from cells from human donors, the researchers found that these circadian variations can affect how much of a drug is available to your body at any given time — and how effectively the body can break it down.

That’s because the enzymes that break down both over-the-counter and prescription drugs are more abundant at certain times of day. This is important because if your body can’t break down the medication you take, levels of toxins can build up.

Let’s take a look at Tylenol specifically…

According to the researchers, when Tylenol is broken down in the liver, a small fraction of the drug is converted into a toxic byproduct known as NAPQI.

Yet, the study showed that the amount of NAPQI produced can vary by up to 50 percent, depending on what time of day you take the medicine.

And it wasn’t just Tylenol…

They also found that atorvastatin (prescribed for high cholesterol) generates higher toxicity at certain times of the day. (If, by the new guidelines, you find atorvastatin won’t be necessary, try CoQ10 to raise HDL and support your liver!)

What these two drugs have in common is that both are metabolized in part by an enzyme called CYP3A4, which has a circadian cycle.

And because CYP3A4 is involved in processing about 50 percent of all drugs, you can just imagine how many medications could put a heavy load on liver health.

Guarding your liver health

Unfortunately, it will take more research before they can tell us the optimal and safest time of the day to take drugs that are affected by circadian rhythm.

But in the meantime, what you can do is support your liver’s efforts to detox your body by helping the process along naturally…

Some of the most powerful detoxing agents and liver supporters can be supplemented…

No doubt you’ve heard of milk thistle, a purple flower and an ancient liver-booster, milk thistle has been found to help support the elimination of heavy metal buildup, medication residue, environmental pollutants and alcohol that can accumulate in and damage your liver. But there are more…

• N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) — NAC is a little-known amino acid that has been shown to help support the gentle detoxification of your liver, to rid it of tobacco and other types of carbon monoxide-rich smoke, alcohol and the air pollutants you’re exposed to daily.
• Turmeric — This 4,000-year-old Indian herb helps balance inflammation and protect your liver from oxidative stress while promoting healthy liver function.
• Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) — ALA is a potent antioxidant that helps keep fats from accumulating in your liver.
• Selenium — is a trace mineral that helps promote detoxification. One study has shown that selenium helps detox mercury buildup and reduce its effects. Never take OTC pain relievers if you’re low on selenium!
• Schisandra — An ancient Chinese herb that promotes healthy liver function, it helps activate enzymes in the liver cells that produce glutathione — the master antioxidant that detoxifies the body.

Also, it might be a good time to go over current medications with your physician to see if dosages can change or if less toxic medications are available. Remember, never stop taking a prescribed medication without discussing it with your doctor.

The post Medicating against your circadian rhythm can be toxic appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Having high cholesterol, high blood pressure, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes or being overweight can increase the risk of the disease.

A majority of people with NAFLD have simple fatty liver, a condition where there’s fat in the liver but little or no inflammation or damage to liver cells. This form typically does not progress to liver damage.

However, a small number of NAFLD sufferers have nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a more severe form in which the liver is swollen or inflamed and there is liver cell damage. This can cause fibrosis or scarring of the liver.

In addition to leading to severe liver diseases, NAFLD can contribute to other conditions like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Because there is no medicine approved to treat NAFLD, doctors usually recommend exercise and changes to diet to alleviate it. But there’s one recently discovered dietary change that may prove particularly effective in combating NAFLD…

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Resistant starch may be the key

Previous studies have indicated that NAFLD may be linked with a disrupted gut microbiota since the gut bacteria profile of people with early-stage NAFLD is already altered. This prompted a team of international researchers to investigate if resistant starch can help treat NAFLD.

Resistant starch is a type of fiber that’s non-digestible and ferments in the large intestine. Because of this, it encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut.

Roughly 200 NAFLD patients participated in the study and were put on a dietary plan designed by a nutritionist. Out of those patients, 100 also received a resistant starch powder derived from maize while the other 100 were given a non-resistant corn starch as a control. Both supplements had the same number of calories.

The participants were told to drink 20 grams of the starch supplement mixed with 300 mL water (or 1 ¼ cups) twice a day before meals for four months.

When that time was up and the participants evaluated, those who received the resistant starch supplement saw a 40 percent reduction in their liver triglyceride levels compared to those in the control group. They also experienced lower liver enzymes and inflammatory factors associated with NAFLD. These benefits stood even when statistically adjusted for weight loss.

The researchers also analyzed fecal samples and found the resistant starch group’s microbiota was different in composition and functionality from the control group’s microbiota. Specifically, the resistant starch group had a lower level of Bacteroides stercoris, a species that can affect fat metabolism in the liver through its metabolites.

According to the researchers, there is a strong link between the reduction in B. stercoris and the decrease in liver triglyceride content, liver enzymes and metabolites.

The team transplanted fecal microbiota from the resistant starch patients to mice fed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet. These mice demonstrated a significant reduction in liver weight and liver triglyceride levels and an improved grade in liver tissue compared with mice transplanted with microbiota from the control group.

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Getting resistant starch in your diet

Huating Li, the paper’s co-corresponding author at Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital, says these results indicate a new intervention for NAFLD that’s effective, affordable and sustainable.

“Compared with strenuous exercise or weight loss treatment, adding resistant starch to a normal and balanced diet is much easier for people to follow through,” Li says.

Getting resistant starch in your diet is pretty easy. Here are some foods that contain resistant starch:

• Plantains and green bananas. As a banana ripens, the starch changes from resistant to regular starch.
• Beans, peas, and lentils, with white beans and lentils being highest in resistant starch.
• Whole grains, including oats and barley.
• Cooked and cooled rice, potatoes or pasta.

That last one may seem strange, but it’s because the amount of resistant starch in some foods changes when it’s exposed to heat. Oats, green bananas and plantains lose some of their resistant starch when they’re cooked.

However, another type of resistant starch is made when certain foods are cooked and cooled. That’s why cooked rice that’s been cooled is higher in resistant starch than rice that’s eaten just after it has been cooked.

The best way to maintain the level of resistant starch in rice is to cook it a day in advance and cool it in the refrigerator overnight. After that, it’s okay to reheat the starch before eating, since reheating doesn’t decrease the amount of resistant starch present in the cooked and cooled rice.

When it comes to oats, rather than cooking them, try soaking uncooked oats in yogurt, milk or nondairy milk and refrigerate them overnight for a tasty breakfast the next day.

Another interesting way to add resistant starch to your diet is to try sprinkling your food with one to two teaspoons of green banana flour, plantain flour or cassava flour. Keep in mind that if you bake or cook with these flours, resistant starch will be lost.

Sources:

Resistant starch supplement reduces liver triglycerides in people with fatty liver disease — EurekAlert!

Resistant starch decreases intrahepatic triglycerides in patients with NAFLD via gut microbiome alterations — Cell Metabolism

What Is Resistant Starch? — The Johns Hopkins Patient Guide to Diabetes

The post The natural ingredient that resists fatty liver disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

After all, we’ve all heard about the heart disease dangers that come packed in those paper bags. And the science has been clear that giving into those fast food cravings can lower your immune system, leaving you open to infection.

But how much is too much?

At what level does eating those fast foods start to cause damage?

Thanks to a study from Keck Medicine of USC we just may have the answer — at least when it comes to a very important organ that could send up warning flares of health wildfires to come…

Researchers have determined just how much fast food per day it takes to put you at risk for a fatty liver.

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Fast food: a fast track to bad health

I’m sure you know your liver is the main detoxifying organ of your body. Your blood filters through it second by second, day by day to clear out the waste that can lead to disease.

But it also filters fat, and if the organ gets overloaded with fat, that filtration can get sluggish — and the trouble starts…

Fatty liver disease (also known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD) can hurt your liver, leading to NASH and even cirrhosis or liver failure if things get really bad. But even in its earliest stages, it’s a warning sign of serious danger ahead.

That’s because the leading cause of death for people with NAFLD is heart disease.

Numerous studies more than demonstrate that fast food, offering effective transport of unhealthy fat, is horrible on the liver.

But we’d be kidding ourselves to think we could actually give up all fast food completely and forever. Sure most of us would be willing to cut it down some, but really knowing where the cutoff point is — or “how much is too much” — could be extremely valuable.

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Keep your fast-food intake below this level

And that’s where the results of that Keck Medicine study come in…

The researchers analyzed the measurement of fatty liver in approximately 4,000 adults, comparing them to their fast-food consumption.

Of the participants, the team found that 52 percent consumed some fast food, but only 29 percent consumed one-fifth or more of their daily calories from that fast food.

And guess which group was in trouble when it came to their liver?

The 29 percent of people who got 20 percent or more of their daily calories from the drive-thru experienced a rise in liver fat levels.

“If people eat one meal a day at a fast-food restaurant, they may think they aren’t doing harm,” said Ani Kardashian, MD, a hepatologist with Keck Medicine and lead author of the study. “However, if that one meal equals at least one-fifth of their daily calories, they are putting their livers at risk.”

Even worse, the researchers were able to identify two risk factors that tip the scales even further to the dark side…

The scientists found that people with either obesity or diabetes who hit that 20 percent level of calories from fast food on a daily basis had severely elevated levels of fat in their liver, compared to moderate increases in liver fat in those without those health issues.

The takeaway?

Fast food might be convenient, but it’s also dangerous.

Be sure that those convenience foods make up less than 20 percent of your daily diet. And instead, focus on eating a whole-food diet that’s good for your liver and the rest of your organs.

Sources:

Consumption of fast food linked to liver disease – EurekAlert!

The post Fast food and fatty liver: How much is too much appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I told you about a dozen different chemicals known as endocrine disruptors.

Your endocrine system consists of all of your hormones — including insulin, thyroid hormones, estrogens, androgens and more — responsible for regulating every biological process in your body, including digestion, metabolism, reproduction, body temperature and blood sugar.

So, when any of them are disrupted, the potential for anything to go wrong, health-wise, is huge.

Unfortunately, endocrine disruptors are everywhere — from the food and water we consume to the cookware we use and the furniture that fills our homes.

And now, research has revealed that a particular type of endocrine-disrupting chemical is connected to more deaths than ever thought…

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Heart disease deaths connected to phthalates

A newly published New York University study warns that daily exposure to chemicals called phthalates, used in the manufacture of everything from plastic containers to makeup and perfume, may lead to roughly 100,000 premature deaths among older Americans each year.

“We already know phthalates mess with the male sex hormone, testosterone, which is a predictor of adult cardiovascular disease,” lead author Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP, told CNN.

But the latest research makes the connection crystal clear…

“Our findings reveal that increased phthalate exposure is linked to early death, particularly due to heart disease,” says Dr. Trasande.

“Until now, we have understood that the chemicals connect to heart disease, and heart disease, in turn, is a leading cause of death, but we had not yet tied the chemicals themselves to death.”

In a cohort study, data on about 5,000 adults aged 55 to 64, was chosen from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2010. Survey data was then linked with mortality data in 2015, and those with higher concentrations of phthalates in their urine were more likely to die of heart disease.

Similarly, people in this high-exposure group were more likely to die of any cause than those in low-exposure groups.

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Protecting yourself from phthalates

Phthalate exposure is believed to occur through the buildup of these toxins as consumer products break down and are ingested.

Phthalates are heavily used in plastics — where they are used to make the material more durable. In food packaging, it appears that the phthalate particles can migrate to the food it makes contact with.

Considering that this research found the association with premature deaths and heart disease was mainly driven by exposure to di-2-ethylhexylphthalate (DEHP), a certain type of high-molecular weight phthalate commonly used in industrial food processing and medical devices, this is the first place to start making changes.

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Phthalate particles from other sources in our homes and offices can make their way into the air we breathe, the dust in our homes and the water we drink, simply because they are so widespread in our environment.

In fact, the more you learn, the more shocked you’ll be to find you’re probably getting a helping of phthalates daily from multiple sources.

Avoiding phthalates certainly won’t be easy — but for your heart’s sake, it’s certainly necessary to cut down on exposure. You can find some tips here, from my colleague Margaret Cantwell.

You can also support your hormones against phthalate assault…

• Eat plenty of cruciferous vegetables regularly. They contain a compound known as called Di-Indole Methane, or DIM for short, that’s been found to support normal hormone balance. Endocrine disruptors cause estrogen dominance, a dangerous imbalance where the amount of fake estrogens in the body outnumber testosterone or progesterone. Both men and women can suffer the negative effects.
• You can also support your thyroid hormones naturally with zinc, selenium, copper and of course iodine.
• Last, but not least, support your liver. The liver is not only responsible for secreting at least four important hormones or hormone precursors, including insulin-like growth factor, it’s the one organ that can filter toxins from your body. A high-fat diet can negatively impact its detox function.

Sources:

Deaths linked to ‘hormone disruptor’ chemical costs billions in lost US productivity — Eureka Alert

Widely used chemical linked to 100,000 US deaths per year: study — msn.com

How to Avoid Phthalates (Even Though You Can’t Avoid Phthalates) — Huffington Post

Toys, Shampoo, Makeup—Dr. Leonardo Trasande Is Exposing the Dangerous Chemicals in Everyday Products — NYU Langone Health

Exposure to Certain Phthalates Tied to All-Cause, CV-Related Death — Medpage Today

The post Common chemical found to drive heart disease and early death appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But what I really want to do today is tell you about the biochemical pathways inside our bodies that influence LDL levels, as this is something that is not often explained to patients.

There are multiple mechanisms that can drive LDL up, but the major ones are:

1. LDL production in the liver. This process is regulated by an enzyme, HMG-CoA reductase, and its activity, though markedly influenced by lifestyle, is also driven by genetics. This means, at some point no matter how pristine your lifestyle is you will reach a genetically driven threshold of LDL production that additional lifestyle change cannot overcome. Statins, which are all HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, work to suppress the activity of this enzyme — causing LDL levels to fall. The good news is that if the LDL number we see on a lab test is due to genes (because you’ve done your part to eliminate all lifestyle contributors), even small doses of statins can yield dramatic LDL cholesterol reductions. 
2. Cholesterol absorption and reabsorption in the digestive system. Every single time we eat, the liver and gallbladder (if you have one) squish a bunch of bile into the digestive system. Bile is essential for breaking down food. It’s also very cholesterol-rich and is made from circulating LDL. Because we always need to be ready to digest food, we always need to have plentiful bile reserves. We can keep those reserves full by bringing more LDL back to the liver to make more bile for the next meal. We can also reabsorb any bile that didn’t get used up in the digestive process. When we interfere with bile reabsorption, more LDL will need to be pulled from the bloodstream to make bile for the next meal — and LDL levels will drop. This is where fiber and plant sterols come into play. Fiber traps bile, increasing elimination through the digestive system and plant sterols compete with intestinal absorption of bile, also leading to higher bile loss. Some people are very efficient bile reabsorbers and even a small disruption here can yield marked falls in LDL levels.
3. LDL receptor activity. LDL is removed from the bloodstream by attaching to receptors on cells. The more LDL receptors there are, the more efficient the LDL removal process, and the less LDL is left floating around in your bloodstream. LDL receptor levels are heavily influenced by an enzyme called PCSK9. When PCSK9 levels are high, LDL receptor levels are low, leading to high circulating levels of LDL cholesterol. The opposite is also true: People with a genetic deficiency of PCSK9 have very low circulating LDL levels over their entire lifetimes and typically don’t develop cardiovascular disease. Newer injectable drugs like Repatha, Praluent and Leqvio all lower PCSK9 levels leading to higher LDL receptor numbers, often yielding dramatic LDL reductions.
4. Insulin levels. Insulin is a storage hormone released in response to elevated blood sugar levels and is critical to getting that sugar inside cells. But as a storage hormone, it puts our body generally into storage mode. What’s the storage form of cholesterol? LDL. LDL levels go up when insulin levels are high. This is why type 2 diabetics (who have generally high circulating insulin levels) tend to have higher LDL levels as well.  People who eat simple/highly processed carbohydrates will also experience high insulin levels, and as a result, high LDL. That does NOT mean you should eat a low-carbohydrate diet!  Complex carbs from whole foods (the foods known to support heart health and healthy longevity) take longer to digest, leading to lower blood sugar levels and lower insulin levels, minimizing the insulin-LDL effect. 
5. Sex hormone levels. Estrogen is a protective hormone in women and helps lower LDL and raise HDL (good) cholesterol. When women go through menopause and lose estrogen, most will see a deterioration in their cholesterol profile. Some might even see drastic changes. As an aside, testosterone seems to have less effect on LDL but it can lower HDL cholesterol. Men on testosterone replacement can see significant reductions in HDL levels, which could increase heart disease risk.

In summary, there are MULTIPLE biochemical processes that influence cholesterol levels. Some of these we can impact and some we can’t. This means in some individuals, combinations of therapeutic approaches may be necessary to achieve LDL goals. 

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What you can control

What we CAN control are cholesterol absorption/reabsorption in the digestive system and circulating insulin levels. And this is where Step One Foods shine! By providing concentrated levels of fiber, plant sterols and complex carbohydrates we help you leverage your natural biochemistry!

But not everyone responds to a food-based approach because other mechanisms may be at play — and these are largely genetically driven or age related. 

That doesn’t mean a partial response is not meaningful!  If you’ve helped reduce your LDL through diet, you make it much easier for drugs to get you to goal — at a lower dose! This is HUGE — because medication side effects are more likely with higher drug doses. Plus, a better diet has effects far beyond a cholesterol profile. I suspect most of us don’t want to just lower cholesterol, we also want to avoid getting cancer and developing dementia. No matter what the LDL result, eating better is helping you achieve those goals too.

Finally, not everyone with high LDL needs to be on a drug (or even attain perfect LDL levels). After all, LDL is just ONE risk factor for a multifactorial disease. So if your cholesterol is not perfect — and you don’t already have heart disease (or diabetes which places people at very high risk of cardiovascular events) checking a coronary calcium scan can help determine if, after maximizing dietary approaches, you could experience a clear health benefit from also being on medication for the rest of your life.

The post What causes high LDL cholesterol? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Now we know the different lipids work differently in our bodies. LDL, or “bad cholesterol,” was found to be problematic so we’ve been advised to try to keep it low, while HDL is the good guy we all hope wins in the end.

In fact, we like that number to be higher, because HDL is vital in protecting the heart and guarding against heart problems.

But guess what…

There was still something undiscovered about the good guy in the cholesterol wars — until now…

It also protects the liver.

On the lookout to block liver inflammation

Yup, ground-breaking research from Washington University School of Medicine found that our “good cholesterol” is even better than we realize — because HDL also protects the liver from injury by blocking inflammation.

Their study, published in the journal Science, found that common bacteria found in your gut send out heat-seeking inflammatory signals that head straight for your liver. These signals flow through the portal vein, the major vessels that supply blood to the liver.

Once they get to this vital organ, they amp up the fires of inflammation that can lead to damage, cause scarring, and result in problems like fatty liver.

However, a type of good cholesterol known as HDL3 is also produced in your intestines and has the power to block these signals, keeping inflammation at bay and your liver healthy.

How can we give our good cholesterol a boost

If you’ve discussed your cholesterol with a physician, you know that increasing HDL is a good thing

In studies in patients with heart disease, scientists tested the effects of a powerful nutrient known as Coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10 for short, to improve participants’ lipid profiles.

In other words, they wanted to see if taking CoQ10 could raise HDL, lower LDL, or both.

And a meta-analysis of a total of eight of these trials including 267 participants who took the supplement and 259 in the placebo group revealed the answers…

They found that while taking CoQ10 didn’t seem to affect LDL, it:

• Significantly decreased total-cholesterol
• Increased HDL-cholesterol levels

So did you catch that last one?

CoQ10 boosted the good cholesterol responsible for guarding the liver against inflammation and damage.

That’s great news, not only because boosting HDL with CoQ10 is possible, but it’s as simple as taking a supplement. And that’s a big deal since our bodies begin producing less CoQ10 after the age of 20… and I don’t know about you — but that was a long time ago for me.

Sources:

‘Good cholesterol’ may protect liver — EurekAlert!

The effects of coenzyme Q10 supplementation on lipid profiles among patients with coronary artery disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials — NIH

The post The single nutrient that raises good cholesterol and supports liver health appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

After all, there’s no apparent connection between the two.

But when a group of scientists dug a little deeper into this mysterious link, they discovered that simply improving the quality of your sleep can indeed save you from becoming one of the 80 million Americans with a deadly and incurable liver disease…  

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Late nights and napping raises risk for NAFLD

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most prevalent forms of liver disease. It occurs when fat builds up in the liver and can lead to severe health problems, increasing your risk of heart disease, cirrhosis, liver cancer and metabolic disease. 

“People with poor nighttime sleep and prolonged daytime napping have the highest risk for developing fatty liver disease,” says Dr. Yan Liu of the Department of Nutrition at China’s Sun Yat-sen University.

The researchers analyzed sleep behavior reported by 5,011 adults with fatty liver disease.

They found that three sleep habits were significantly associated with an increased risk of fatty liver disease:

• Late bedtime
• Snoring
• Daytime napping for more than 30 minutes

Even a moderate improvement in these factors led to a 29 percent reduction in fatty liver disease risk.

Obesity and diabetes compound the effects of poor sleep

One important detail of the research findings should not be ignored.

Poor sleep habits made risk for NAFLD higher. But when central obesity (a “spare tire”) and a sedentary lifestyle were also present, the risk spiked even higher.

When you think about the “fuel” behind fatty liver disease, this finding is not surprising.

After all, fatty liver disease is “triggered” by, among other things, obesity, elevated blood sugar/diabetes, and lack of exercise.

So it stands to reason that if poor sleep is indeed a factor, these conditions would only make things worse.

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Start protecting your liver now

NAFLD can also be caused by genetic and/or glandular issues. But even if this is something you face, there is a lot you can do to avoid becoming a statistic:

1. Control your weight. Obesity is a clear risk factor for NAFLD. Paying attention to your weight and keeping it in a healthy range is a big step toward keeping your liver healthy.

2. Limit high-carb food. Processed foods and refined sugar are converted directly to the fat that can overwhelm your liver.

3. Exercise regularly. Frequency and routine are more important than “breaking a sweat.” Research shows that aerobic exercise is the best exercise for a fatty liver. Swimming, cycling or walking are all low-impact forms of aerobic exercise.

4. Eat more produce. There’s a Mexican plant called chaya, or “tree spinach,” that’s known for helping to reduce liver inflammation. But more common vegetables such as carrots, cabbage, and sweet potato contain an important liver-protecting antioxidant.

5. Drink green tea. Among its other health benefits, studies show that green tea extract can help cleanse your liver and rid it of fat that would otherwise accumulate, with liver disease as the result.

6. Other liver-friendly foods. Broccoli, almonds, asparagus, and even coffee have nutrients that support a healthy liver.

And, if you need another reason to keep your liver healthy, it’s been shown that a healthy liver also supports a healthy heart!

Sources:

People with poor sleep behaviors may be at risk for fatty liver disease — Science Daily

Sleep Factors in Relation to Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease in Middle-Aged and Elderly Chinese — Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism

More than 80 million Americans have this deadly disease, and many don’t even know it — CNBC

The post The liver disease that stalks night owls appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

For instance, coffee boosts brain health by improving concentration and memory and giving you sharper thinking skills. Over the long term, coffee can also protect against neurological diseases like dementia, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis.

Other benefits from drinking coffee include better bone health and lower odds of developing type 2 diabetes, liver disease and heart disease. And coffee can also reduce your risk of dying from all causes.

But most of these studies don’t distinguish between unsweetened black coffee and coffee with sugar and/or milk added. It only takes a few minutes of hearing orders in a coffee shop to realize there are still an awful lot of people who add one or both to their daily cup of joe.

That’s why researchers from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China were curious to see whether sweetening coffee changed certain benefits associated with the beverage. This is what they discovered…

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Coffee with sugar shows same health benefits

The researchers examined data from over 170,000 participants in the UK Biobank who had no known cancer or cardiovascular disease. The average age of the participants studied was 55.6 years.

The participants were asked several dietary and health questions to determine their coffee consumption habits. The questions took into account whether they drank instant, ground or decaffeinated coffee, and whether they drank it unsweetened, sweetened with sugar or artificially sweetened.

The results show that during the 7-year follow-up period, participants who drank any amount of unsweetened coffee were 16 to 21 percent less likely to die than those who did not drink coffee.

But that’s not the most surprising part. The researchers also found that participants who drank 1.5 to 3.5 cups of coffee sweetened with sugar every day were 29 to 31 percent less likely to die than participants who did not drink coffee.

The same could not be confirmed for participants who used artificial sweeteners in their coffee.

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No more than a spoonful

The researchers observe that those who drank sugar-sweetened coffee added only about a teaspoon of sugar per cup of coffee on average. That’s a lot less sugar than can be found in a lot of the presweetened coffee beverages sold at popular coffee chain restaurants. Some of these drinks can contain as many as 18 teaspoons of sugar in the largest sizes.

Given that the recommended maximum daily servings of sugar are 9 teaspoons for men and 6 teaspoons for women, it’s probably a good idea to avoid these higher-calorie, highly sweetened specialty coffees. Instead, stick with plain coffee with a small teaspoon of sugar added.

Even though a lot of coffee shops do have sugar-free syrups, the artificial sweeteners used in these syrups have health risks of their own. So you may want to skip them as well.

If you absolutely must have your flavored coffee drink, there are ways to make it yourself while scaling way back on the sugar. For instance, here’s a recipe for a vanilla latte that uses maple syrup and pure vanilla extract in place of the sugar-laden vanilla syrup most coffee shops use. And you can use this recipe for a mocha latte that includes cocoa powder and natural sweeteners like honey or maple syrup instead of chocolate syrup.

Sources:

Sweetened and unsweetened coffee consumption associated with lower death risk — EurekAlert!

Association of Sugar-Sweetened, Artificially Sweetened, and Unsweetened Coffee Consumption With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality — Annals of Internal Medicine

Do you know how much sugar is in your Starbucks drink? — CBS News

My Go-To Vanilla Latte Recipe (Ready in Less Than 10 Minutes!) — A Sweet Pea ChefVegan Low Sugar Café Mocha — 80 Twenty Nutrition

The post The sweet news about sugar in your coffee appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

The concept of biological age — the idea that stress, fitness and other lifestyle factors can cause a person’s body to age either more slowly or quickly than their chronological age — is quite familiar to us by now.

Exercise, a good diet, staying mentally and socially active, are all confirmed ways to lower our biological age.

But there are 78 distinct organs in your body, each busy doing its own job. Have you ever wondered whether they all age at the same rate?

Well, as it turns out, they don’t.

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The goal: Preventing age-related disease

A Chinese research team from the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) has found that a person’s organs can age separately from one another and can have drastically different “ages,” despite being in the same body.

The researchers gathered data from 4,066 people between the ages of 20 and 45.

Why look at people this young when we’re talking about aging?

“The aging process in young healthy adults is still largely unknown,” say the researchers. “The organs of young adults are not yet heavily damaged, offering the possibility to prevent age-related diseases. Accordingly, we have chosen … a young cohort … with the aim of studying the early changes of aging.”

In other words, studying the organs of young and middle-aged people may open the possibility of discovering ways to prevent age-related diseases.

How the study was conducted

Each participant in this study gave a blood and stool sample, had a physical examination, and underwent imaging of the facial skin.

Using the information gathered, the researchers went on to determine an estimated ‘age’ for each participant’s kidneys, heart, liver, sex hormone, skin and gut.

They also assigned an age estimate to each person’s overall physical health, as well as their immune health and genomics (their “genetic health” as it pertains to aging and disease).

How our organs age differently

The researchers combined their findings into nine categories: gut, heart, fitness, liver, nutrition, skin, immune, renal (kidney) and sex hormone health. These categories were then compared to one another, looking for correlations between organs.

The strongest correlation found was between sex hormones and kidney health. In other words, healthy sex hormones seem to go with healthy kidneys. Sex hormone and kidney health both had a strong correlation with a healthy immune system.

Overall fitness level had strong correlations with heart and liver health and overall nutrition levels.

Kidney health and gut health was the only negative correlation found among the participants. In other words, when a person had a healthier gut, their kidneys were often less healthy, and vice-versa.

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Why the difference and what it means

One possible explanation for these different aging rates could be that the aging process occurs in every cell of the whole body. Each organ is composed of different cell types, and these various types of cells may age differently.

This is indeed an interesting phenomenon. But as far as living a long and healthy life, the advice is still the same…

Exercise is essential, and whether you’re 45 or 85, there’s an enjoyable form of movement out there just waiting for you to take it on! In the study a high fitness level was associated with having a strong heart, liver and skin.

Eating a balanced, whole-food diet, free of processed foods will add years to your life.

And, of course, anything you can do to control the stress in your life will grant you a longer, healthier life.

Sources:

Young at heart! Our organs can age at different rates no matter your overall health with a healthier gut often correlating with aged kidneys, study finds — dailymail.com

Distinct biological ages of organs and systems identified from a multi-omics study — Cell Reports

What Are the 78 Organs of the Human Body? — MedicineNet

The post Our organs age at different rates and what it means appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Thankfully, healthcare providers are finally waking up to the fact that there’s nothing normal about consistently having periods that last longer than 40 days, or monthly cycles that vary wildly from the 24 to 35 days considered healthy. In fact, it could be a sign of a more serious problem like polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) or early-onset menopause.

Having a long or irregular menstrual cycle has also been linked with a higher risk of ovarian cancer, cardiometabolic diseases and death before the age of 70. When compared to women with normal menstrual cycles over a 20-year period, women with irregular periods are 20 percent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and 17 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

Now, a study has uncovered another health risk women with long or irregular periods need to be aware of…

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Irregular periods could raise liver disease risk

Researchers have found that premenopausal women with long or irregular periods have an increased risk of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

About a quarter of U.S. adults have NAFLD, a chronic disease caused when excess fat builds up in your liver from causes other than heavy alcohol use. NAFLD can progress to chronic liver damage and a higher risk of death.

“Our study results show that long or irregular menstrual cycles may be associated with an increased risk of developing NAFLD, and this link was not explained by obesity,” says Dr. Seungho Ryu of Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul.

The study included data from 72,092 women under 40 years old. About 28 percent of these women experienced long or irregular menstrual cycles, and 7 percent had NAFLD.

When following up four years later, the researchers found new cases of NAFLD in almost 9 percent of the women.

“Young women with long or irregular menstrual cycles may benefit from lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of NAFLD as well as other cardiometabolic diseases,” Ryu says.

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Rebalancing an irregular cycle and keeping a healthy liver

All this recent research emphasizes the need for doctors to pay closer attention to their patients’ menstrual cycle.

In fact, some experts believe the length and intensity of the menstrual cycle should be considered one of a woman’s vital signs along with her weight, heart rate and blood pressure. That way, they’ll be able to spot irregularities early and possibly diagnose and treat conditions more quickly.

Doctors will most often recommend birth control pills to regulate menstrual cycles and reduce prolonged bleeding.

However, if you’d rather take the natural approach, there are steps you can take that may help bring your menstrual cycle back into balance while also promoting the health of your liver — at the same time!

Vitamin D: Research in 2018 found links between low levels of vitamin D and menstrual disorders. As well, research performed in 2020 found that NAFLD patients have low levels of vitamin D and that deficiency likely contributed to the development of liver disease. An optimal daily dose can help get vitamin D levels up and maintain them.

Other supplements that can support liver health include:

• N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) 
• Milk Thistle 
• Turmeric 
• Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) (Also, when studied in women with PCOS for 24 months, the combination dose of myo inositol and alpha lipoic acid improved menstrual regularity.)
• Selenium 

Weight: Make sure to maintain a healthy weight on both ends of the scale. Both obesity and being severely underweight have been linked to irregular periods. And of course, obesity is a major risk factor for NAFLD.

Get moving: Exercise is linked to helping maintain a regular menstrual cycle and in reducing the risk of NAFLD. But don’t overdo it. An extreme amount of exercise may actually cause you to skip periods.

Sources:

Women with irregular periods may be at risk for liver disease — Endocrine Society

Irregular periods linked to increased risk of death before the age of 70, says BMJ — The Guardian

Irregular menses may signal heart disease, diabetes risk — Healio

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) — Better Health Channel

What Are Irregular Periods? — Everyday Health

The post Having irregular periods could lead to liver disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

However, there’s another type of fat that many of us never even consider that has a big impact on our health.

That’s the fat found in your liver.

And if you’re carrying around too much of it, you could be just a step away from severe metabolic disease, like type 2 diabetes.

Luckily, fatty liver is one of the most preventable diseases around, if you’re willing to follow a healthy diet and get your exercise.

But let’s face it…

There’s not always time for a long workout — and sometimes it’s hard to get the intensity level going to burn fat.

Luckily, researchers at Western Sydney University have some news that can help you choose the best exercise to slim up your liver…

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How to slay fatty liver

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most prevalent forms of liver disease, affecting up to 30 percent of the population. It occurs when fat builds up in the liver and can lead to severe health problems, increasing your risk of heart disease, cirrhosis, liver cancer and metabolic disease. 

Yet, despite its dangers, there’s very little your doctor can do for you if you develop NAFLD.

That’s why lifestyle interventions, such as losing weight and getting fit have become the focus when it comes to NAFLD prevention.

This led those Australian researchers to the question of how much exercise is really enough to keep your liver slim and trim. The team reviewed over 28,000 previous studies on the effects of exercise on liver health, with the primary analysis including 19 studies, involving 745 adult participants.

Theirs was the first review to determine the effect of aerobic exercise on liver fat by comparing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT).

The good news? Their results showed that both workouts delivered clinically significant liver fat reduction.

In fact, while MICT led to a 3.14 percent reduction in liver fat, shorter HIIT workouts offered comparable benefits with liver fat levels dropping by 2.85 percent.

Do you prefer high or moderate intensity?

Some of us can go at a HIIT workout like it’s a piece of cake. Others among us, prefer something a little moderate. And now we know that’s ok.

Because in reality, the best exercise is the one you can stick to.

Lead author, NICM Health Research Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Angelo Sabag said that regular aerobic exercise was an important management intervention, whether HIIT or MICT.

“Our review demonstrates the importance of regular aerobic exercise as an effective therapy in those at risk, with both HIIT and MICT found to improve liver fat to similar degrees.

“It is useful information to know that by training harder in less time with HIIT, you can achieve the same results as MICT, which is ideal for those with a busy lifestyle and little time.

“Another interesting finding was that even if people didn’t exercise at volumes sufficient to satisfy the recommended physical activity guidelines, they could still achieve clinically significant improvements in liver fat so long as they exercised regularly above a moderate intensity.”

How can you know if you’re at risk for NAFLD? According to the Mayo Clinic, these factors are warning signs:

• High cholesterol
• High levels of triglycerides in the blood
• Metabolic syndrome
• Obesity, particularly when fat is concentrated in the abdomen
• Polycystic ovary syndrome
• Sleep apnea
• Type 2 diabetes
• Underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism)
• Underactive pituitary gland (hypopituitarism)

Sources:

HIIT for liver health – Western Sydney University

Fatty liver disease: What it is and what to do about it – Harvard Health Publishing

The post The best exercise for a fatty liver appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And it turns out that’s not all you have to worry about with COVID-19 infection. Researchers recently identified another worrying after-effect that could spell trouble for the long-term health of COVID-19 patients…

COVID-19 depletes glutathione in the body

A study at the Baylor College of Medicine found that compared to healthy age-matched individuals, COVID-19 patients have increased oxidative stress, oxidant damage and substantially reduced levels of glutathione, one of the body’s most abundant antioxidants.

Often called “the master antioxidant,” glutathione is found in high concentrations in most cells. It helps defend them against free radical damage and oxidative buildup which is toxic to cells and can harm many physiological processes. Glutathione also has a vital role in detoxifying outside contaminants such as chemicals, pollutants and drugs.

“Increased oxidative stress and reduced glutathione levels are associated with a number of conditions including aging, diabetes, HIV infection, neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular disorders, neurometabolic diseases, obesity and others,” says corresponding author Dr. Rajagopal Sekhar, associate professor of medicine at Baylor.

From their previous research, Sekhar and his colleagues suspected COVID-19 could be affecting oxidative stress and glutathione. And their study confirmed that premise in adults hospitalized with COVID-19.

“We found that these defects occur in all adult age groups, including young people, and worsen with increasing age,” he says.

The study samples were organized in three groups: ages 21 to 40, 41 to 60 and 61 and older. Earlier research has shown that in healthy adults, oxidative stress and damage levels begin to increase and glutathione levels start to decline.

However, this pattern changed with COVID-19 infection. 

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“We were surprised to see that the COVID-19 patients in the 21 to 40 and the 41 to 60 groups had much less glutathione and more oxidative stress than the corresponding age groups without COVID-19,” Sekhar says. He says this finding is surprising, given that they normally don’t see these deficits in younger age groups.

“These defects appear to get progressively worse with increasing age, and the oldest patients with COVID-19 had higher level of defects in these outcomes,” he adds. “We propose that these changes might be involved in the disease.”

Previously, the research team found increased oxidative stress levels and reduced glutathione in people with HIV and those with diabetes, and that supplementing with GlyNAC, a combination of glutathione precursors, improved those deficits.

Other studies found giving GlyNAC to older people and HIV patients reversed conditions like inflammation, insulin resistance and endothelial dysfunction, a type of non-obstructive coronary artery disease. GlyNAC also improved muscle strength, cognitive decline, exercise capacity and body composition.

Because these are all defects that have been reported in patients with COVID-19, Sekhar says the researchers considered whether GlyNAC supplementation could potentially be of value in with COVID-19 and its long-term symptoms.

“The effects of GlyNAC supplementation in patients with COVID-19 remain to be investigated in future research studies,” Sekhar said.

At the core of GlyNAC is n-acetylcysteine, also known as NAC. NAC is a powerful antioxidant that helps replenish glutathione.

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Boosting glutathione in the body

There are many ways to help bolster your body’s production of glutathione. As with most things health-related, it all starts with eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep and keeping your stress levels down. It also helps to limit your alcohol consumption and avoid taking certain prescription and over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol.

Foods that help increase glutathione production include turmeric, raw dairy, eggs, grass-fed meat, whey protein and sulfur-rich vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach asparagus, collards and watercress. Grapes and avocados also have natural chemicals that boost glutathione.

Supplementing with certain nutrients can also help encourage your body to produce more glutathione. These include vitamin B12, vitamin B6, folate, selenium, n-acetylcysteine, milk thistle, vitamin C and vitamin E and the herb known as schisandra.

Sources:

COVID-19 patients have increased oxidative stress, oxidant damage, and glutathione deficiency — Baylor College of Medicine

Severe Glutathione Deficiency, Oxidative Stress and Oxidant Damage in Adults Hospitalized with COVID-19: Implications for GlyNAC (Glycine and N-Acetylcysteine) Supplementation — Antioxidants

Glutathione — WebMD

Endothelial Dysfunction — Stanford Health Care

The post COVID-19 deals a heavy blow to your ‘master antioxidant’ appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, almost 250,000 men will receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer and over 34,000 men will die from it this year alone — a rate that’s predicted to skyrocket!

And now, thanks to a study from scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois Chicago, we might finally know why prostate cancer cases have been increasing sharply… and what to do about it.

The forever chemicals that seem to be everywhere

They say that the issue stems from a combination of so-called “forever chemicals” and a dietary component that’s making matters much worse.

The chemicals, known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl or PFAS,  are a class of synthetic chemicals that are found in food wrappers, nonstick cookware and other products.

You’ll find them lurking in your dental floss, hiding in the water you drink and even in your “eco-friendly” takeout bowl of all things!

According to the researchers, they’ve already been linked to prostate cancer — but they’ve found that things get even worse if you add a high-fat diet to the mix…

A synergy between forever chemicals and dietary fat

Their study found that in combination with fat, PFAS are capable of reprogramming the metabolism of both benign and malignant human prostate cells. It’s a reprogramming that converts the cells to a more energy-efficient state that allows them to grow and replicate at three times the rate of cells in the absence of the chemicals.

“Our data suggest that exposure to PFAS synergizes with dietary fat to activate the protein-coding gene PPARa, altering cells’ metabolism in ways that escalate the carcinogenic risk in normal prostate cells while driving tumor progression in malignant cells,” said food science and human nutrition professor Zeynep Madak-Erdogan, the principal investigator on the project.

Yup, fat significantly accelerates the development of tumors when you’re exposed to these chemicals — to the tune of three times the cancer growth.

If that weren’t already bad enough, the scientists made one more scary discovery…

They found that when they exposed benign and malignant cells to a form of PFAS called perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS) the malignant cells’ viability was five times greater than the cells in the control group.

That PFBS is a chemical that is found in both polluted air and drinking water.

In other words, you could be breathing it in and drinking it down on a daily basis!

Breaking the chemical-fat cycle that leads to prostate cancer

Clearly, poor diet choices plus these dangerous chemicals is a recipe for cancer growth.

So what can you do to protect yourself?

Well, the first step is pretty clear in that by reducing the amount of fat (especially bad fats) in your diet, you can break one side of that cancer chain. The Mediterranean diet is a great start.

Next, you should try to limit your exposure to PFAS as much as possible by:

• Throwing out any old Teflon nonstick cookware.
• Skip the grease-proof paper plates and stick to glass or porcelain dishware.
• Avoid fast food and its PFAS contaminated wrappers.
• Invest in a good water filter to address PFAS in your drinking water.

Another very important step is to support the functions of your liver. In addition to being your body’s main detox organ, the liver helps break down fat to use it as energy. So a healthy liver can help you come at this problem in both directions.

But if the liver is bogged down from dealing with a high-fat diet and an overload of chemicals, it can’t do either job very well. That’s how difficult-to-remove fat gets stored in the body, especially when obesogen chemicals are in the picture.

Certain foods can support the liver and its detoxing processes, including cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and Brussel sprouts. These foods also contain DIM, short for di-indole-methane, a plant compound that works against estrogen dominance. Supplements that support the liver include milk thistle, turmeric and NAC.

Sources:

PFAS exposure, high-fat diet drive prostate cells’ metabolism into pro-cancer state — ScienceDaily

Prostate Cancer Statistics — CDC

Key Statistics for Prostate Cancer — American Cancer Society

Prostate cancer cases estimated to rise sharply in 2021 — Robotic Oncology

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Not only is your liver the second largest organ in your body, it performs more than 500 functions that keep your body at its best. From processing and storing nutrients to balancing blood sugar, fueling muscles, regulating blood clotting and filtering toxins from your bloodstream, your liver is always hard at work.

With that in mind, let’s take a deep dive into the foods that love your liver and the foods your liver would love for you to forget.

#1 – Oatmeal

Foods like oatmeal which are rich in fiber put your liver on the fast track to better health. Research has demonstrated the power of fiber in helping you shed extra pounds lurking around your belly, hips and thighs, which is a great way to keep your liver functioning at its best and ward off a fatty liver.

#2 – Broccoli

Eating plenty of fresh veggies is a must to guard your liver against disease. And broccoli is one of the best. That’s because when your body metabolizes cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, DIM or DI-indole-methane is created. This molecule regulates the actions of a number of key proteins associated with inflammation, immunity, cellular health and even hormone metabolism — making it a liver health powerhouse.

#3 – Coffee

If you can’t start your day without the jolt of caffeine from your favorite morning beverage, no worries! Studies have actually shown that coffee is liver-protective thanks to two ingredients — kahweol and cafestol. These diterpenes reduce oxidative stress and increase the expression of glutathione, your body’s most important antioxidant. Just be sure to go for ground coffee rather than instant, since it offers higher levels of both.

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#4 – Green tea

Green tea is a major source of antioxidants known as catechins. One of these catechins — epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) has been shown in research to exile hepatitis from the liver. And green tea is well-known for the protection it offers against some types of cancer, including that of the liver, due to its ability to increase levels of a natural anticancer protein known as p53.

 #5 – Almonds

Almonds are especially rich in vitamin E, an antioxidant that according to research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, may lower the risk of liver cancer. Other nuts that are superfoods for your health include walnuts, pistachios, cashews and Brazil nuts.

#6 – Asparagus

Alcohol damages your liver by causing cell toxicity and oxidative stress. However, research has shown that the minerals and amino acids in asparagus provide potent hangover prevention while guarding liver cells against toxins.

#7 – Blueberries

Fruits such as blueberries and plums and even rich indulgences such as dark chocolate are packed with compounds known as polyphenols. These compounds not only help keep your health in check by working to lower your blood pressure, boost your immune system, and fuel your brain, they may also help nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. You can increase their health effects 10 times by pairing them with milk!

Keep these foods far from your liver

French fries

Some of the most important foods to avoid to keep your liver healthy are foods that are high in saturated fats. Whether it’s French fries, potato chips or burgers, these fats make your liver work harder, accelerating inflammation which can lead to liver scarring or cirrhosis.

Sugar

Sugar might taste sweet but it’s not a sweet choice for liver health. In fact, your liver has the job of converting the sugar you eat into fat. This means that the more sugar you eat, the more fat your liver makes and the more that can stick around inside the organ causing fatty liver disease. And if you have prediabetes or prediabetes, sugar can double your risk for fatty liver. This also makes it easy to see why high sugar intake is directly linked to liver cancer.

Unfortunately, this also holds true for a sugar you might consider healthy since it comes from fruit — fructose.

Bonus tip:

We all know that drinking too much, even if only occasionally, is one of the worst things you can do to your liver. The key is to stick to just one drink per day if you’re a woman or two for men.

And always drink plenty of water, rather than fruit juices or sodas which are packed with sugar, in order to keep your body hydrated and your liver at its best.

Sources:

14 Best and Worst Foods for Your Liver – WebMD

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Yet, when your liver begins to suffer, so does the rest of your body.

Harmful substances build up in your bloodstream, your body starts packing on fluid, and your digestion and metabolism suffer.

And that’s just the beginning of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease — a condition that’s practically reaching epidemic proportions.

It’s a huge problem, but the answer may be incredibly simple… and so incredibly significant that enjoying a couple of cups of coffee may soon be considered a preventative treatment for liver problems, thanks to a study out of the Universities of Southampton and Edinburgh, UK.

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Lowering your risk of chronic liver disease by 21 percent

Few people need a healthy reason to drink coffee. After all, it’s the most popular beverage worldwide, hands down. But studies have been piling up for years about how it can improve health. And it’s looking like, as far as the health of your liver goes, coffee has definite superpowers…

This study followed over 495,000 participants who reported their consumption of both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee. And it gauged their risk of both developing and dying from a liver condition over an average of almost 11 years.

The results?

Coffee drinkers grab some serious liver protection!

In fact, according to scientists, drinking any type of coffee was associated with a reduced risk of developing and dying from chronic liver disease compared to not drinking coffee.

They found that compared to non-coffee drinkers, coffee drinkers had:

• A 21 percent reduced risk of chronic liver disease
• A 20 percent reduced risk of chronic or fatty liver disease
• A 49 percent reduced risk of death from chronic liver disease

Now, this isn’t the first study to make a strong connection between coffee and liver health. Research at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore and the National University of Singapore found that coffee reduced the risk of death from liver cirrhosis by 66 percent.

But the UK research dug into the speculations about what actually makes coffee liver protective…

They determined that the liver benefits of coffee may stem from two ingredients — kahweol and cafestol.

These are diterpenes that have been proven in previous research to guard against oxidative stress and induce the expression of glutathione, the body’s most important antioxidant.

While both ground and instant coffee contain kahweol and cafestol and contribute to liver benefits, the researchers say that those who drank ground coffee experienced the most benefit since ground coffee has higher levels of both ingredients.

The results were so impressive that Dr. Oliver Kennedy, the lead author of the study had this to say: “Coffee is widely accessible and the benefits we see from our study may mean it could offer a potential preventative treatment for chronic liver disease.”

That’s right…

Liver disease prevention in a daily cup of Joe.

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Keeping your liver lean and healthy

There’s a lot you can do to maintain optimal liver health, especially when it comes to guarding against fatty liver.

For example, one study found that adding in more protein after weight loss helped nix liver fat.

And another discovered a tree spinach that fights fatty liver like a drug.

Additionally, be sure to add in these foods that help slim your liver, as well as your chances of liver disease down the road.

You only get one liver. Take good care of it.

Sources:

Drinking any type of coffee associated with reduced risk of chronic liver disease – EurekAlert!

The Liver and Its Functions – Columbia Surgery

Liver Cancer on the Rise – American Liver Foundation

Cafestol – Science Direct

The post More proof coffee is a liver-protecting beverage appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Maybe that’s because it is totally preventable. That is — if we’re given accurate information, and unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case.

We’re talking about bisphenol-A (BPA) and its supposedly safe replacement, bisphenol-S (BPS).

These chemicals are found in common plastic products like water bottles, food storage containers, even cash register receipts.

We already know that BPA and BPS reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapy, affect your thyroid, and cause obesity and diabetes.

BPS can slow your heart rate to dangerously low levels within minutes of exposure.

Now, concerned scientists are digging even deeper, only to find that the chemicals in your plastics can cause permanent brain damage.

Chemicals in common plastics disrupt brain activity

A study by three biologists at the University of Bayreuth in Germany has shown that even small amounts of BPA and BPS disrupt the transmission of signals between nerve cells in the brains of goldfish.

Goldfish brains share many characteristics with human brains, and the researchers consider it very likely that similar interference can also occur in the brains of adult humans.

The study focused on the two largest cells in the fish brain, known as Mauthner cells. The job of these cells is to coordinate sensory input quickly and accurately, so that fish can “think” quickly and escape predators.

Because they important to survival, these particular cells have evolved to be very large and strong, which made the damage that could be caused by these chemicals even more alarming to the research team.

“We were surprised how many vital brain functions in fish are affected by the plasticizers used in numerous industries,” says Elisabeth Schirmer, a doctoral student at the University of Bayreuth.

“This damage… does not occur immediately. However, when the brain cells are exposed to small amounts of BPA or BPS for a month, the damage is unmistakable.”

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How to rid your life of BPA and BPS

Obviously, you’ll be doing yourself a favor by avoiding plastics.

But where to begin? They’re everywhere, and, let’s face it, they make life more convenient.

Like any other health changes you make, don’t expect it all to happen at once.

For starters, be aware of where BPA and BPS are hiding:

• Water bottles
• Baby bottles
• Canned foods (in the lining of most cans as a sealant)
• Pacifiers
• Store cash register receipts
• Plastic food containers (especially those marked with a #3 or #7 on the bottom)

Once you know where these toxins live, consider starting with one or two of the following steps:

• Purchase a stainless steel, BPA-free water bottle (yes, they cost more, but you’ll never have to buy bottled water again!).
• Start using frozen or fresh vegetables and fruits in place of canned.
• Get your store receipts electronically and skip the BPA-treated paper ones.
• NEVER heat plastic containers in the microwave!
• Switch out some of your plastic food containers for glass or Pyrex.
• Stop using plastic drinking cups and utensils.

You should also search the Environmental Working Group’s database of foods packaged with BPA. If your favorite food is on the list, find another favorite.

Finally, support the health of your liver. Your liver is your body’s main detox organ, responsible for filtering toxins from your bloodstream. One big problem, though: BPA causes liver damage. Some natural liver protectors are milk thistle, turmeric (which also supports memory) and selenium.

Sources:

Brain Damage Linked to Common Compound In Everyday Plastic Items — Neuroscience News

Bisphenols exert detrimental effects on neuronal signaling in mature vertebrate brains — Communications Biology

The post 7 ways to start ridding your life of brain-damaging BPA appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

The World Health Organization reports that insufficient physical activity is one of the 10 leading risk factors for death worldwide.

We know that remaining active can help you maintain balance and flexibility and avoid falls and debilitating injuries. Exercise can help you “keep on keeping on” so you can enjoy your favorite activities into your golden years.

It’s also not a secret that moving makes your brain young. But recently, we’ve found out that an organ never suspected before is an important key player in preserving our cognitive abilities well into our older years.

Exercise and neurogenesis

A team of researchers from the University of California San Francisco have been busy uncovering a surprising connection between the liver and cognitive health.

As if your liver didn’t already have enough work to do, Dr. Saul Villeda and his team have shown that this hard-working organ can also help keep your brain young. Here’s how…

Dr. Villeda and his team looked at the brains of “old” mice (18 months old). Some had access to a running wheel in their cage for six weeks, while others were sedentary.

The researchers looked at age-related molecular and cellular changes in an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which plays a big part in emotional regulation, as well as learning and memory.

They concluded that older mice that were active showed increased generation of new brain cells (neurons). The active mice also made fewer errors in learning and memory tasks that involved the hippocampus, for example, learning and remembering associations between new and unfamiliar items.

As far back as 2016, research had been showing that the amount of neurogenesis (new brain cell growth) in adult humans could be increased with consistent aerobic exercise, so these findings in mice were not a huge surprise.

What was surprising was the role of the liver in keeping the brain young…

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The liver “tells the old brain to get young”

As a next step, the researchers collected blood and plasma samples from both younger and older mice who were either active or sedentary, and injected the plasma into two separate groups of older mice, eight times over three weeks.

Not surprisingly the aged mice that received blood from the active groups showed increased neurogenesis, similar to that of the active mice themselves. The researchers also noticed improvement on learning and memory tasks in this group.

But the researchers took it one step further.

They isolated a protein called GPLD1 in the blood of the active mice. GPLD1 is made in the liver. Then they injected the gene for this protein into older mice, causing their livers to start producing GPLD1.

After three weeks, the aged mice had new brain-cell growth and exhibited improvements in learning and memory similar to those seen in active mice.

But here’s the surprise …

GPLD1 did not appear to enter the brain, suggesting that it acts through other molecules that interact with the brain.

Dr. Villeda and his team also found a similar effect in humans. They took blood samples of healthy older people (ages 66 to 78) and found that levels of GPLD1 were indeed higher in those who walked more than 7100 steps per day, as compared to those who walked less.

“Through this protein, the liver is responding to physical activity and telling the old brain to get young,” Dr. Villeda says. “This is a remarkable example of liver-to-brain communication that, to the best of our knowledge, no one knew existed.”

The time to get moving is now!

You don’t need to run marathons to keep your brain young. Just walk! Consider getting yourself a pedometer to keep up with your steps — or just time your daily walks.

A 30-minute walk equates to about 5000 steps. To get the 7100 steps that Dr. Villeda’s team found could result in higher amounts of GPLD1, try walking twice a day: at lunchtime for half an hour, then take a 15-minute walk in the evening following dinner. That should get you there, or close enough, for those brain benefits.

And remember to take extra care of your liver. It’s one of the hardest working organs in your body — responsible for energy metabolism, the processing of substances from vitamins to cholesterol and cleansing toxins from your bloodstream. For starters, that means drinking little alcohol and avoiding fatty foods and sneaky added sugars that can double your liver’s fat production.

Sources:

Exercise-induced protein may reverse age-related cognitive decline — National Institute on Aging

Exercise becomes brain: sustained aerobic exercise enhances hippocampal neurogenesis — The Journal of Physiology

The post While you walk, your liver makes your brain younger appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Studies have shown curcumin can help relieve serious skin inflammation, control ulcerative colitis and reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The compound also has shown the potential to fight a variety of cancers, including blood cancer, stomach cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer.

As if these health benefits weren’t enough, it may also help protect the health of another vital organ — your liver.

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The spice that fights liver disease

Researchers at Saint Louis University (SLU) discovered curcumin could potentially prevent or treat damage caused by an increasingly common advanced form of fatty liver disease.

The in-vitro laboratory study identified curcumin as having promise in staving off nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a liver disease connected with obesity and weight gain.

You may be more familiar with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). About 25 percent of adults in the U.S. have NAFLD, and of those, about 20 percent have NASH (five percent of adults). NASH can lead to liver fibrosis and potential cirrhosis, liver cancer and death.

Dr. Anping Chen, director of research in SLU’s pathology department, notes his laboratory is studying the molecular mechanism of liver fibrosis and searching for natural ways to prevent and treat it.

“While research in an animal model and human clinical trials are needed, our study suggests that curcumin may be an effective therapy to treat and prevent liver fibrosis, which is associated with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH),” he says.

Human patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes commonly have high levels of leptin, glucose and insulin in their blood, all of which could contribute to liver fibrosis caused by NASH. The researchers found high levels of leptin activate hepatic stellate cells, causing them to overproduce a type of collagen protein that’s a major feature of liver fibrosis.

During the SLU study, researchers discovered curcumin kept leptin from activating these hepatic stellate cells, interrupting the development of liver damage.

A separate study of curcumin in mice with NASH found it also reduced the level of fibrosis and fat retention in the liver and significantly reduced several inflammatory markers. In addition, treatment with curcumin stopped NASH from progressing to liver cancer in the mice.

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Getting your body to absorb curcumin

For all its excellent benefits, curcumin has one big drawback. It’s difficult for the body to absorb because it’s fat-soluble rather than water-soluble. Researchers are working on developing nanoparticle formulations of curcumin, which can increase absorption rates anywhere from 100 to 400 percent.

For now, one way to increase its bioavailability is to consume it with piperine, a compound in black pepper. Many supplements already combine curcumin with piperine or black pepper to increase the effectiveness of the curcumin.

It also helps to take curcumin with healthy fats such as those found in avocados, olive oil or coconut oil.

Sources:

Spice in curry could prevent liver damage — ScienceDaily

Curcumin ameliorates liver damage and progression of NASH in NASH-HCC mouse model possibly by modulating HMGB1-NF-κB translocation — International Immunopharmacology

What is fatty liver disease — LiverFoundation.org

I recently read that turmeric is only effective if it is combined with black pepper. Is this true? — ConsumerLab.com

Authentic Indian Curry Recipes — The Spruce Eats

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Research shows that fructose triggers the accumulation of fat in the liver… and even the ancient Egyptians knew it. They used to feed ducks and geese dried fruit (which contains fructose) to make their version of foie gras (fattened duck or goose liver).

Of course, nowadays fructose from fruit is less of a problem than all the added fructose we get in our diets. Americans have been eating a ton of fructose since the 1970s when high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) started popping up in everything from cereals to soft drinks to ketchup to crackers.

And new research shows that this excessive dose of dietary fructose could be triggering a chain of events that leads to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which can then lead to liver damage, liver cancer or even liver failure.

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Fructose fuels leaky gut and liver fat

A recent study from researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine shows that fructose may cause leaky gut, which triggers non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

In the study, researchers fed mice an excessive amount of fructose to see what effect it had on their livers. The mice received an amount of fructose that was equivalent to the 95th percentile of relative fructose intake by American adolescents, who get up to 21.5 percent of their daily calories from fructose.

They found that this excessive fructose consumption caused the gut barrier — which prevents bacteria and other microbes from escaping into the blood — to deteriorate. When this barrier is compromised, those microbes escape and trigger a chronic inflammatory condition called endotoxemia. Endotoxemia has been found in animals and children with NAFLD in previous studies.

When the microbes from the gut (also known as endotoxins) reach the liver, they triggered the creation of more inflammatory cytokines in the liver. They also caused the liver to turn fructose and glucose into fatty acid deposits.

So, in other words, researchers believe fructose’s impact on the gut barrier is the main reason it fuels NAFLD. If it didn’t compromise the gut lining, it wouldn’t trigger those extra fat deposits that eventually turn in to fatty liver disease.

“It is very clear that fructose does its dirty work in the intestine,” said senior study author Michael Karin, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Pathology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “and if intestinal barrier deterioration is prevented, the fructose does little harm to the liver.”

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Eliminate added fructose and get your gut barrier in shape

According to past research, fructose increases liver fat two to three times more than glucose does. So even though limiting all sweets is a good idea, if you want to prevent non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, focusing on fructose is a great first step.

Like I said earlier, you probably don’t have to worry about the fructose found in fruit. As long as you’re not consuming a ton of fructose in processed foods, the fructose in fruit shouldn’t trigger any liver problems. Plus, fruit is filled with antioxidants, fiber and nutrients that support overall health.

So, start making a serious effort to avoid high fructose corn syrup and other forms of added fructose in the foods you buy. Based on this study, you’ll also want to take action to support a healthy intestinal barrier too.

One of the best ways to do that is to eat more fiber. One study found that eating more fiber strengthened the gut barrier by 50 percent. You may also want to try a spore-based probiotic. Research shows that it can reduce the number of toxins seeping into the blood from the gut by 42 percent.

Sources:

Excessive fructose consumption may cause a leaky gut, leading to fatty liver disease — EurekAlert!

Fructose and Sugar: A Major Mediator of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease — Journal of Hepatology.

The post How to keep fructose from setting off a chain reaction that leads to liver disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Sure, those factors put your liver in a much more precarious position, but anyone can develop liver disease. In fact, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) — a type of liver disease that occurs in people who drink little to no alcohol — is very common.

It impacts one in four people worldwide and is the most common cause of liver damage. As you may know, liver damage can lead to liver cancer or liver failure, both of which can be deadly.

There are a lot of well-known risk factors for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, sleep apnea, hypothyroidism. But there’s a new, surprising risk factor for NAFLD that research has just uncovered… menopause.

A recent research review shows that postmenopausal women are much more likely to develop nonalcoholic fatty liver disease than premenopausal women. Why? It all comes down to hormones…

Hormonal changes after menopause take a toll on the liver

Researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) just performed a research review on the connection between menopause and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. In their review, they looked at more than 60 studies, and here’s what they found…

After women go through menopause, they have a much higher risk of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease thanks to an endocrine hormone called estradiol (E2).

Now, E2 is the major female sex hormone. It regulates the estrous and menstrual female reproductive cycles. It’s produced in the ovaries, but it’s production tanks after menopause. And that’s where the liver risks come into play, according to researchers.

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They say that E2 has a protective effect on the liver. Without enough, the liver is more prone to take on too much fat. This excess fat is toxic to liver cells and can cause inflammation in the liver or even scarring.

In fact, based on the rising mortality rate for women with NAFLD, and the fact that more women with NAFLD are dying from cirrhosis, researchers suspect that NAFLD is turning into an even more dangerous liver condition in many women — nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Once liver inflammation and liver cell damage occur, NAFLD is recategorized as NASH. And NASH is much more serious. It’s now the leading indicator for a liver transplant.

How to protect your liver post-menopause

Here’s the good news…

Even though you can’t control the fact that you’ve already gone through, or will eventually go through, menopause (if you’re a woman, anyway), you can strongly influence other risk factors for NAFLD like your weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and insulin levels. Eating a healthy diet comprised mostly of whole foods and exercising regularly can go a long way toward protecting women from liver disease after menopause.

Researchers also believe hormone replacement therapy (HRT) could be a method of lowering post-menopausal liver disease risk down the line. Of course, there needs to be more research to know for sure what timing, dosage and duration of hormone therapy would work to counteract liver disease risk. And there’s also the fact that HRT comes with its own set of risks.

For now, do everything you can to give your liver the support it needs to stay healthy. You may even want to consider supplements that support a healthy liver, like N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), milk thistle, turmeric and alpha lipoic acid (ALA). And even though alcohol and medications aren’t the driving factors behind NAFLD, they do add extra stress to your liver. So, think carefully before you pour that glass of wine or start a new prescription.

Sources:

1. TGen review suggests postmenopausal women at risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease — EurekAlert!
2. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease — Mayo Clinic.

The post Why menopause may put you at risk for liver damage appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

No, I’m not talking about my weight. I’m talking about my feet.

Here lately, my insteps are definitely looking puffy. It’s been cause for some alarm. I try and keep my feet up while at my desk, and it seems to be helping a bit.

But I know that a number of more serious conditions could be behind my swollen feet, so I’ll be placing a call to my doctor soon.

Swollen feet may seem like just an annoyance, but they can signal other health problems that you should not ignore.

6 reasons your feet may be swollen

Edema. This is when your body holds onto too much water. It’s usually noticeable after a long plane flight or if you are forced to remain standing for hours at a time. Your hands may be puffy, too. Edema is sometimes a sign of heart failure, kidney or liver disease or low protein levels.

Lymphedema. When your lymph nodes are damaged or removed, for example during cancer treatment, your body also gets rid of less fluid. Swelling in the feet, legs and arms could indicate an abnormality in the lymphatic system. Pneumatic compression is often the treatment of choice for lymphedema. A sleeve is worn over the arm or leg and periodically pumped full of air to create enough pressure to move accumulated fluid.

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Chronic venous insufficiency. As blood circulates back to your heart from your legs and feet, it moves through “one-way valves” that keep it from flowing back down. These valves can get damaged with age or if you sit or stand for long periods of time causing blood to collect in your legs and feet and cause swelling.

Heart trouble. If you notice that your heartbeat is fast or irregular, you have a hard time catching your breath and your feet or ankles are swollen, seek medical help immediately. This combination of symptoms is usually indicative of heart failure.

Kidney trouble.  If your kidneys aren’t working properly, too much salt is left in your blood and you’ll retain more water. Gravity pulls the water down causing your feet and ankles can swell. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure and your ankles are swollen, your doctor will want to look at your kidney function.

Liver trouble. If you have hepatitis, drink alcohol often or have a fatty liver (which is becoming increasingly common), your liver is constantly repairing itself. When this happens, scar tissue can replace healthy tissue and your liver doesn’t function as it should. This can cause fluid to pool in your legs, feet, hands or belly.

What to do for swollen ankles and feet

The first thing to do is to make sure your swollen feet or ankles are not the symptom of a more serious medical condition.

Once you rule that out, try one of these techniques to alleviate any swelling and pain…

R.I.C.E. This stands for “rest, ice, compression and elevation.” If you’ve had an ankle injury, this is standard procedure, but it also works for swelling caused by other conditions. When you rest and elevate your feet, fluid flows away from your feet. Ice makes blood vessels narrower and keeps blood away from the feet (and it helps with pain) and special, extra-tight compression socks made for this purpose also help push fluid away from the feet.

Move around. I try and leave my desk every hour, just for a brief walk around the house or outside. It makes it harder for fluid to pool in any one place in my body and keeps blood circulating well.

Medication. Talk to your doctor if your swollen feet don’t improve. They may recommend a diuretic, better known as a “water pill” and also used for hypertension. Diuretics help your body get rid of fluids by making you urinate more often.

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When to see your doctor

If your feet are swollen and you have chest pains or are short of breath, get medical help right away. This combination could be due to a blood clot in the lungs.

Also, see your doctor if pain and swelling do not resolve within a few days of trying the above.

Some other symptoms of concern:

• Skin looks stretched or breaks, or if you can press on your swollen foot and the skin doesn’t bounce back
• Aching muscles or stiff joints that have no other apparent explanation (could be due to the sudden change in weight around parts of your body)
• An unexplained bulge in your neck muscles or veins
• Increased pulse or higher-than-normal blood pressure

Clearly, all these symptoms could result from other conditions, so check with your doctor to see what’s really going on with your body.

Sources:

1. Why Are My Feet Swollen? — Web MD
2. Pressing Your Skin to Test Your Water Retention — littlethings.com

The post 6 reasons you shouldn’t ignore swollen feet appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Unfortunately, with all of the time we spend looking to our hearts, other organs can get overlooked. Now, new research is demonstrating just how linked our organs are and how one particular organ, the liver, could play a big role in heart disease protection — if you treat it right.

The heart-health liver link

The research, by a team at Iowa State University, started as an attempt to fill in gaps in how scientists understand the links between heart health and other tissues.

But why did they start with the liver? For starters, there was already significant data suggesting that liver function actually is a risk factor for cardiac disease. And that information tied into the fact that patients with liver dysfunction often develop cardiac disease.

However, the direct link between liver and heart disease remained elusive…

So, the scientists decided to build on their past research where the team had been able to demonstrate that when they manipulated genes in the cardiac muscles of flies, they could restore the heart function of older flies to that of younger flies — essentially turning back the clock on cardiac tissue.

That went so well, they decided to test the same method on the liver — and here’s where it got really interesting…

When the scientists manipulated the flies’ livers, not only did their liver function improve but so did their heart muscle function — without any cardiac intervention whatsoever!

In other words, simply by helping the liver to work better, the team was able to help the heart work better too.

It all comes down to the peroxisomes

So how did the scientists accomplish this?

By keying in on organelles in the liver known as peroxisomes, which are responsible for lipid metabolism and detoxification. Remember, the liver is your body’s main detoxing organ.

And it worked so well that the researchers feel that their results have opened up an entirely new field of study on how those little detoxification powerhouses can regulate the aging process.

While that brand-new field of study is exciting and could lead to big breakthroughs down the road, what’s most important now though is just what this research could mean for those of us who are especially heart-health conscious: If you want to keep your heart healthy, your liver needs to be part of the equation that includes pump, cleanse… and repeat.

Liver-health helpers

So where do you start? With the liver experts, of course! To keep your liver function in tip-top shape, The American Liver Foundation recommends:

• Maintaining a healthy weight
• Getting your exercise.
• Limiting alcohol.
• Washing your hands well after preparing or eating food or going to the restroom.
• Eating a balanced diet with plenty of fiber from fruits and veggies.
• Avoiding toxins from insecticides, chemicals and cigarette smoke.

That last one can be harder than committing to a daily exercise regimen. That’s because our homes, the offices where we work and the cars we drive are packed full of harmful chemicals. Not to mention the food we eat.

Even clean-living enthusiasts will tell you that it’s almost impossible to avoid the very real danger of hidden chemicals. That means your liver is working harder than ever to do its main job of detoxing the body. And now we know that wear and tear on the liver could eventually lead to wear and tear on the heart.

Many people choose to do regular salt-water cleanses or water fasts to ease the liver’s load. But in my research, I’ve found an easier way.

Some of the most powerful detoxing agents and liver supporters can be supplemented…

No doubt you’ve heard of milk thistle, a purple flower and an ancient liver-booster, milk thistle has been found to help support the elimination of heavy metal buildup, medication residue, environmental pollutants and alcohol that can accumulate in and damage your liver. But there are more…

• N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) — NAC is a little-known amino acid that has been shown to help support the gentle detoxification of your liver, to rid it of tobacco and other types of carbon monoxide-rich smoke, alcohol and the air pollutants you’re exposed to daily.
• Turmeric — This 4,000-year-old Indian herb helps balance inflammation and protect your liver from oxidative stress while promoting healthy liver function.
• Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) — ALA is a potent antioxidant that helps keep fats from accumulating in your liver.

Clearly, the health of your liver and the health of your heart are indelibly intertwined.

Sources:

1. Link between liver and heart disease could lead to new therapeutics — EurekAlert!
2. 13 Ways to a Healthy Liver — American Liver Foundation
3. What foods protect the liver? — MedicalNewsToday

The post Love your liver for a healthier heart appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Snacking on donuts, cookies, cakes, sugary cereals and other sweets too often is bad for every organ and system in your body — especially your liver.

High sugar intake is directly linked to liver cancer, liver scarring and fatty liver disease — a condition that can lead to cirrhosis. But there is a zero-calorie savior that can satisfy your sweet tooth and save your liver — stevia.

In case you’re not familiar with stevia, it’s a natural sugar alternative that comes from a shrub called Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. Stevia is 200 to 300 times sweeter than regular sugar, which means you need far less of it to provide the same level of sweetness. It also contains no calories, and it doesn’t cause the same blood sugar spike conventional sugar does.

All this makes stevia a good sugar replacement for people looking to cut calories, lose weight and keep their blood sugar in check. But stevia’s benefits go beyond its ability to satisfy a sweet tooth without calories or a blood sugar spike. It’s also been linked to a reduced risk of pancreatic cancer, better blood pressure and even an ability to kill the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

Now, based on a brand-new study, researchers believe stevia might be able to prevent fatty liver disease and even reverse some of the damage that it causes too.

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How stevia slays fatty liver disease

A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports found that stevia can reduce the signs of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a condition where the liver stores too much fat. Diet plays a big role in the development of this disease, particularly diets filled with processed and sugary foods. So, researchers wanted to see what effect (if any) the alternative sweeteners stevia and sucralose had on the liver.

They compared the effects of each of these sweeteners to the effects of sugar, and here’s what they found…

Stevia lowered glucose levels and reduced the markers of fatty liver disease. The markers it had the greatest impact on were fibrosis (the formation of scar tissue on the liver) and fat levels in the liver. That means stevia has the potential to reverse the negative effects of fatty liver disease. Pretty amazing, huh?

But how does stevia help heal a fatty liver, exactly?

Researchers don’t know for sure. But they noticed that stevia decreased the signs of cellular stress and triggered positive changes in the gut microbiome, so they suspect it has something to do with those changes. And just so you know, sucralose didn’t have the same benefits.

Sources:

1. Non-caloric sweetener reduces signs of fatty liver disease in preclinical research study — MedicalXpress.
2. Rebaudioside affords hepatoprotection ameliorating sugar sweetened beverage- induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis — Scientific Reports.
3. What is stevia? — Medical News Today.
4. 12 Foods to Help Fatty Liver Reversal — Healthline.
5. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease — Mayo Clinic.
6. Everything You Need to Know About Stevia — Healthline.

The post Stevia: The natural, zero-calorie sweetener that slays fatty liver appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

But, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, right?

Not always…

A new study by scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine provides new insight into a diet that has not only been proven to be great for your health — especially your heart — but it can also stop you from overeating… and help you lose weight… without feeling deprived.

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Protects against obesity

The study, published the journal Obesity, compared the standard Western diet (appropriately called the SAD diet) to the Mediterranean diet, known for its focus on healthy fats, like olive oil, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and oily fish.

This was the first trial to measure the effects of long-term consumption of a Western versus Mediterranean diet on obesity-related diseases under controlled experimental conditions.

The team used primates for the study so that their diets could be closely monitored for a long period of time. This is especially significant since previous research on the effects of diet in human studies relied largely on self-reported food intake, which is often unreliable.

The team studied two sets of primates for 38 months (about 9 years in human years) and formulated their diets to closely reflect either the Western diet or the Mediterranean diet.

However, it’s important to note that the two diets contained comparable amounts of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. The difference, however, came down to whether they were from healthy sources or not — which is one of the differences between the SAD and the Mediterranean diet.

And, here’s where it gets interesting…

Both groups were matched on their baseline weight and body fat and were allowed to eat as much as they wanted throughout the study. But, guess what…

The primates on the Mediterranean diet chose to eat far less, even though they had access to just as much food.

“What we found was that the group on the Mediterranean diet actually ate fewer calories, had lower body weight and had less body fat than those on the Western diet,” said the study’s principal investigator, Carol A. Shively, Ph.D., professor of pathology at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

“By comparison, the animals on a Western diet ate far more than they needed and gained weight,” she said. That speaks volumes about the difference between real nutrition and empty-calorie foods!

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Saves you from chronic disease

And, the fact that the diet provided protection from overeating and accelerated weight loss weren’t its only benefits…

The research also showed that it protected the primates from prediabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, known as NAFLD, compared to a Western diet. If you haven’t heard of it before, NAFLD is a growing concern in the U.S. and other developed countries since a major cause of the disease is obesity and it can lead to cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer and require a transplant.

In fact, by 2030, one-third of adults in this country are expected to have the disease, and it is the fastest-growing reason for liver transplants in young adults in the United States.

According to Shively, it all comes down to this, “The Western diet was developed and promoted by companies who want us to eat their food, so they make it hyper-palatable, meaning it hits all our buttons so we overconsume. Eating a Mediterranean diet should allow people to enjoy their food and not overeat, which is such a problem in this country.”

In case you’re not familiar with the Mediterranean diet, here are a few of the delicious foods you can eat to get healthy and lose weight:

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Legumes
• Wholegrain breads, pastas, and cereals
• Fish
• Red wine (in moderation)
• Minimal amounts of red meat, sweets, and processed foods

Editor’s Note: You’re invited to join a tiny handful of Americans who enjoy rare, fresh-pressed olive oil all year long. Take my word for it, there’s a difference in taste, quality and benefit! Try it for $1! Click here to learn more…

Sources:

1. Study: Mediterranean diet deters overeating — EurekAlert!

The post How the Mediterranean diet deters overeating, weight gain and disease appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Just ask the 14 people who were poisoned this past winter in California after mistaking one of the world’s most poisonous mushrooms — the death cap mushroom — for something innocent and edible.

Luckily, no one died. But three people did need liver transplants, and an 18-month old girl was left with permanent neurological damage.

Right now, all doctors can do to help people who have mistakenly consumed the dangerous death cap is pump them full of intravenous fluids that will hopefully flush the poison out of their bodies. In some cases it works, but other times the liver just can’t handle the heavy load of poison it’s been dealt.

But there’s hope on the horizon…

Scientists are looking at a popular herbal remedy as a possible antidote to the death cap… milk thistle. Now, if you know anything about milk thistle, you know exactly why it has the potential to help people with mushroom poisoning…

It offers powerful support to the exact organ poisonous mushrooms attack hardest — the liver.

Uncontrolled observational studies show that a compound in milk thistle known as silibinin reduces the risk of death for people who’ve eaten the death cap. And now researchers are conducting a clinical trial to see if silibinin could act as an antidote to the death cap.

Of course, you don’t need to bite into a death cap to benefit from this amazing herb. Milk thistle has a lot of potential uses that could leave a positive mark on your health, including:

Cancer fighting

Several studies show that the same compound in milk thistle that purifies the liver — silibinin — also kills cancer cells. Its cancer-fighting power extends to tongue, skin, bladder, colon and small intestine cells. These studies were performed on cells in a Petri dish or animals, but hopefully, clinical trials on how silibinin impacts cancer in humans aren’t far off. There have already been a few small clinical trials showing that silibinin can help reduce the side effects associated with cancer treatment. So keep your fingers crossed for more research on this cancer-fighting herb, especially in light of the recent news about chemotherapy promoting metastasis in breast cancer patients. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to add a small daily dose of milk thistle to your cancer prevention plan.

Blood sugar balancing

Milk thistle’s miracle compound (silibinin) is an active component of silymarin, a powerful antioxidant. For a long time, antioxidants have been studied for their effect on blood sugar and diabetes, and the results have been promising. In 2006, for example, a study demonstrated that 200 mg of silymarin three times daily significantly lowered blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin (a test that shows what a person’s blood sugar’s been like for the past 2 to 3 months) in people with type II diabetes.

Anti-aging

Because milk thistle contains the powerful antioxidant silymarin, it fights off the free radicals that contribute to aging. Not only does silymarin help keep your organs young (especially your liver), but it could also fight the external signs of aging. A 2007 study in mice found that a topical silymarin treatment prevents oxidative stress to the skin caused by UV rays from the sun…the kind that causes premature skin aging.

Brain health

The beneficial compounds in milk thistle — silibinin and silymarin — have also been shown to protect against neurodegenerative diseases. In fact, preliminary research shows that these compounds are beneficial for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.

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Everyday liver support

I know I already mentioned that milk thistle offers fantastic liver support. But it bears repeating…milk thistle is the best remedy for an overburdened liver. And it’s not just great for serious liver problems like mushroom poisoning. It’s also great for times when you’ve had one too many cocktails, when your liver’s sluggish due to prescription medications or if you’ve been eating a lot of junk food. Heck, if it can help people with cirrhosis, liver disease and hepatitis (which it’s been shown to do in several studies), it can handle a few too many glasses of wine and a big mac too.

Tips for taking milk thistle

If you want to experience the benefits of milk thistle for yourself, you’re in luck…

It’s available in tinctures, tablets, soft gels, liquids and capsules at many health food stores. Just steer clear of milk thistle tea. It only contains a small dose of the beneficial compound silymarin, which doesn’t dissolve well in water anyway.

Your best bet is to find a supplement that contains 70 percent to 80 percent silymarin as its active ingredient. Once you get your hands on a high-quality supplement, you can take anywhere between 300 mg and 900 mg per day. Although people who are using it to treat liver issues can take as much as 400 to 600 mg three times per day. Side effects are rare, but it could cause diarrhea. Make sure to check with a trusted health care professional if you’re on any medications before you start taking it.

Sources:

1. “The world’s most dangerous mushroom and what it did to an 18-month-old girl.” — The Washington Post. Retrieved June 9, 2017.

2. “Amanita phalloides Mushroom Poisonings — Northern California, December 2016.” — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved June 9, 2017.

3. “Milk Thistle (PDQ®)–Patient Version.” — National Cancer Institute. Retrieved June 9, 2017.

4. “Herbal Medicine Silymarin May Help Sugar-control In People With Type II Diabetes.” — ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 9, 2017.

5. K. Katiyar, et al. “Silymarin, a Flavonoid from Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum L.), Inhibits UV-induced Oxidative Stress Through Targeting Infiltrating CD11b+ Cells in Mouse Skin.” — Photochemistry Photobiology. 2008; 84(2): 266–271.

6. “Milk thistle (Silybum marianum).” — Mayo Clinic. Retrieved June 9, 2017.

7. “Milk Thistle.” — Whole Health Chicago. Retrieved June 9, 2017.

The post Milking the many benefits of milk thistle appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, it’s even worse for you than that extra abdominal fat  you’ve been worried about for all these years. That’s because it puts you at an even higher risk of developing insulin resistance, high cholesterol, heart disease, and diabetes.

But do you know the worst part about liver fat? You may not even know you have it…

Unlike belly fat you can gauge with your waistband, liver fat is hidden. The only way you’ll know about it is if you experience symptoms like fatigue, weakness, nausea or upper right abdominal pain. Or if your doctor happens to notice elevated liver enzymes on a blood test.

If one of these two things does happen to you, there’s a good chance you’ll be diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) — which is just a fancy name for excess fat on your liver that’s not caused by drinking too much alcohol.

And a fatty liver is prone to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

NAFLD is usually caused by diet… especially a diet high in carbs, unhealthy fats and sugar — like the standard American diet. That’s the perfect recipe for extra fat on your liver. If your mom was obese or followed this unhealthy diet too, your risk goes up even more.

Since NAFLD is largely influenced by diet, changing your diet can help turn the disease around. And there’s one thing, in particular, you should eat if you want to trim or prevent liver fat… the antioxidant pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ).

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What you need to know about PQQ

Researchers from the University of Colorado recently found that PQQ (an antioxidant found in breast milk, soil and a lot of foods) can protect mice from fatty liver disease.

In their study, researchers gave PQQ to obese mice who were pregnant. Since the risk of NAFLD is higher in the offspring of obese mothers (mice and human), they wanted to see if PQQ impacted whether their offspring developed the disease.

And sure enough, it did. The offspring of mothers who received PQQ did not develop excess fat on their liver — even when they were fed an unhealthy, Western-style diet. They also had lower levels of liver inflammation.

Of course, this isn’t the first study that demonstrates PQQ’s powerful ability to protect the liver. A 2015 study showed that PQQ not only protects against liver disease, it also helps reverse existing damage caused by liver disease. Remember, liver disease can lead to liver cancer, so this really is a huge break.

Mind your Ps and Qs and PQQs

If you’re dealing with a fatty liver already — or just want to actively keep your liver in tip top shape — you should eat a diet that includes vegetables, fruit, whole grains, fish and high-quality meat.

But don’t forget the most important component… liver-protecting PQQ. Some foods that contain PQQ include:

• Fermented soybeans
• Parsley
• Green pepper
• Tofu
• Carrot
• Celery
• Fava bean
• Kiwi
• Cabbage
• Papaya
• Sweet potato (which can help you lose weight too)
• Tomato (also protective against high blood pressure)
• Orange

Sources:

1. “Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.” The American Liver Foundation. http://www.liverfoundation.org. Retrieved January 4, 2017.

2. “Common antioxidant may guard against liver disease, says researcher.” MedicalXpress. http://medicalxpress.com. Retrieved January 4, 2017.

3. Huang, et al. “Biological effects of pyrroloquinoline quinone on liver damage in Bmi-1 knockout mice.” Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, Aug 2015; 10(2): 451–458.

4. Kumazawa, et al. “Levels of pyrroloquinoline quinone in various foods.” Biochemistry Journal, Apr 1995; 307(Pt 2): 331–333.

The post Special antioxidant food reduces risk of fatty liver appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

If you see you need to lose a few pounds, you might think about going on a diet or adding in some regular exercise.

But I bet the last thing you think about is how being overweight can prematurely age you… starting with your liver.

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Your liver and aging

A study at UCLA shows that if your liver is aging too quickly, your health may be in serious danger.

According to the researchers, letting your weight climb burdens your liver with an overload of physiological tasks that makes it old before its time.

The scientists used what they call an “epigenetic clock” in coordination with researchers in Germany to investigate how gaining weight quickens the aging of the liver. They believe their findings indicate why being very overweight and obese significantly increases your risk for liver problems that can cut your life prematurely short.

Researcher Steve Horvath says that this research shows how carrying around extra pounds creates physiological problems inside the body that accelerate aging.

“This is the first study that evaluated the effect of body weight on the biological ages of a variety of human tissues,” Horvath said. “Given the obesity epidemic in the Western world, the results of this study are highly relevant for public health.”

For this analysis, Horvath examined about 140 liver samples. He discovered that when you carry around extra pounds your liver function deteriorates.

As an example, he says that a woman who is 5 feet 5 and weighs 200 pounds has a liver that is about three years older than a woman of the same height who weighs 140 pounds.

“This does not sound like a lot, but it is actually a very strong effect,” Horvath says. “For some people, the age acceleration due to obesity will be much more severe, even up to 10 years older.”

The cycle of liver dysfunction and weight gain

Your liver is the main organ responsible for getting rid of all of the toxins that accumulate in your body each day from the food you eat and from the environment.

But, if it can’t keep up — if it’s overworked or beaten down by things like alcohol, junk food and other pollutants — it can’t flush out the toxins so instead it stores them.

Where? In your fat!

Chemicals such as pesticides, industrial compounds and cosmetic ingredients become absorbed into your body and if they don’t get sufficiently detoxified and eliminated via your urine or stool, then they will be stored in your fat for years. Obesogens, the worst offenders, are chemicals that disrupt the function of hormonal systems and lead straight to weight gain.

Fat cells on your body that store obesogens are much harder to lose. That’s why liver dysfunction and weight gain can happen in a toxic loop.

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How to support your liver for weight loss and healthier aging

Weight loss is important for your liver to function well, but when it’s not functioning as it should, weight loss is difficult.

So start with a look at what you eat that can harm your liver and cut back on those foods first. They include:

• White bread, pasta and rice
• Too much red meat
• Added sugars
• Fried foods
• Alcohol

Next, feed your liver supportive nutrients so it can do its job more efficiently, including:

• N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) – To help support gentle detoxification and guard against future damage.
• Milk Thistle – A liver booster that promotes the elimination of heavy metal build-up, medication residue, environmental pollutants and alcohol.
• Turmeric – A powerful antioxidant to promote healthy liver function and the health of liver cells.
• Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) – A potent antioxidant to help keep fats from accumulating in the liver.
• Selenium – To help promote detoxification and rid the body of toxic mercury buildup.
• Schisandra – Helps activate enzymes in the liver cells that produce glutathione – the master antioxidant that detoxifies the body and recycles vitamins C and E, so they can protect cells from free radicals.

Exercise is a “must-have” for a healthy liver. Researchers at the University of Tsukuba have discovered that exercise changes circulating concentrations of specific organokines, molecules that regulate bodily functions like inflammation, oxidative stress, glucose and lipid metabolism, fat distribution and endothelial function, by activating an oxidative stress sensor. Exercise also enhanced the protective capacity of Kupffer cells, which help maintain liver function.

The post Keep your liver from aging you too fast appeared first on Easy Health Options®.