spring cleansing

Better Nutrition, March, 2000 by J. Jamison Starbuck

7 herbs for your liver

Spring, for many people, brings with it a desire to clean up, clean out, freshen, and get rid of winter's unwanted accumulation. This is a healthy instinct, and one that has been with the human population for ages. Countless cultures, and many medical traditions, promote "spring cleaning," utilizing techniques such as fasting, purification, cleansing herbs, sweats, pilgrimages, meditation, and solitude to achieve health and well-being.

My profession, naturopathic medicine, draws on a variety of both traditional and modern medical traditions. As a result of this, students in naturopathic medical school are encouraged to explore and experience for themselves the myriad methods of natural healing. During my time in medical school, spring semester would invariably bring with it renewed interest in all things loosely grouped under the titles `cleansing' or `detoxifying': things like green juice, fruit fasts, sprouts of all sorts, liver herbs, and skin brushing. Hydrotherapy, a required year-long course, became quite popular in spring, offering great opportunities for revitalizing -- saunas, colonic therapy, steam, sitz baths and, my favorite, dew walking -- the practice of walking barefoot in wet, early morning grass.

Botanical detox

Among all the ways to enliven the body, liver herbs are perhaps the most popular. And while lots of botanical medicines can help heal the human body, liver herbs are the big powerhouses in getting the `spring cleaning' job done.

The liver is essential to digestion and to the assimilation of nutrients. It helps us get what we need from our food, and allows us to cope with our tendency to over-eat, over-drink, and over-medicate. The liver is also the body's major detoxifier -- the organ primarily responsible for converting toxins into manageable, excretable substances. In addition to the harm we cause ourselves, life in the 21st century brings with it an enormous volume of detrimental environmental exposure from places out of our control, like air, water, and the job site. To successfully cope with this, we need our livers to be as healthy as possible. Thankfully the list of herbs which aid and assist the liver is a long one.

Know your liver health!

Before embarking on a course of liver herbs, take the time to know a few basics about your own liver. If you want to do a "spring cleanse," I recommend you visit your doctor, and get a physical exam and a fasting blood draw for a laboratory evaluation of blood fats, cholesterol, and liver enzymes. Ask your doctor to palpate your abdomen, in particular the area of your liver -- the upper right side, just under the rib cage. Rule out liver disease, gall stones, or an enlarged or tender liver because these conditions require special care, and particular herbs for treatment.

If you have liver or gall bladder disease, herbal medicine is quite effective in treating these conditions. However, you should not do a `liver cleanse,' and should only take liver herbs with your doctor's approval, and in conjunction with a knowledgeable herbalist or naturopathic physician.

It is also smart to review all the medications you are currently taking with your medical or naturopathic doctor. Some liver herbs have effects similar to prescription medication and should not be taken at the same time. An example is Taraxacum, also known as the common dandelion. Taraxacum is a mild liver tonic, supportive to both liver and gallbladder function. Dandelion is also a powerful diuretic. In some ways similar to the prescription medication Lasix. People taking a prescription diuretic should not use dandelion as a liver herb without talking to their doctor first because of the risk of excessive diuretic activity.

Other prescription medications pose some risk to the liver; while the drugs may be necessary to save one's life, people taking them might want to discuss the value of liver herbs as an adjunct therapy to mitigate damage to the liver. Still other medications interfere with digestion and absorption; therapeutic herbs and vitamins should be taken at a different time than these medications.

7 botanicals for the liver

If you've decided that liver herbs are right for you, you have many from which to chose. Almost all medical traditions recognize the importance of a robust liver to overall health; today the astute consumer can easily locate a wide variety of herbs from Western, Asian, and Ayurvedic traditions in most health food stores. Most can be found individually, in teas, capsules, and extracts, or combined with other liver herbs for specific indications.

While there aren't any rules about mixing and matching herbs from each of these cultures, it is smart to know just what. each so-called `liver herb' can and cannot do. Some of them simply protect the liver from damage. Others enhance the health of liver cells, while others increase the flow of bile from the liver to and through the gall bladder, improving not only liver but gall bladder function, as well. Some support digestion, while still others relieve acute abdominal pain.