Here are some reputable excerpts and links supporting ingredients that help heal and protect your liver.
Let us start with Vitamin C
Vitamin C for your Liver No Prescription Required
Pauling, the founder of modern chemistry, holder of 48 honorary Ph.D.s, and the world's only 2-time unshared Nobel prize laureate, theorized that too little vitamin C elevates cholesterollevels, including the Lp(a) variant that causes narrowing of blood vessels.
"I think we can get almost complete control of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks andstrokes by the proper use of (vitamin C and lysine) ... even cure it." - From Linus Pauling's Last Interview Then there are the drugs used to lower blood pressure and cholesterol -- another growth industry.
These drugs are also called "preventive care" even though there are studies showing that individuals treated with them have increased overall mortality and even though an entire class of blood pressure medications have been shown to increase the risk for heart attack. - Stephen Cherniske (DHEA Breakthrough)
http://www.paulingtherapy.com/
http://www.livestrong.com/article/291554-reversing-fatty-liver-disease/
Milk Thistle or Silymarin possess wide range of in vitro and in vivo mechanisms, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, dose dependent anti-apoptotic and modifying cell transporters. Hence, it can be usedas a promising medication in complementary medicine.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3586829/
This complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) information summary provides an overview of the use of milk thistle as a treatment and adjunct agent for people with cancer.
The summary includes a brief history of milk thistle, a review of the laboratory studies and clinical trials, and a description of adverse effects associated with milk thistle use.
This summary contains the following key information: Milk thistle is a plant whose fruit and seeds have been used for more than 2,000 years as a treatment for liver and biliary disorders.
The active substance in milk thistle, silymarin, is a complex mixture of flavonolignans, primarily consisting of the following isomers: silybin (consisting of silybins A and B), isosilybin (consisting of isosilybins A and B), silychristin (also known as silichristin), and silydianin (also known as silidianin). In the literature, silybin is often referred to as silibinin.
Laboratory studies demonstrate that silymarin functions as an antioxidant, stabilizes cellular membranes, stimulates detoxification pathways, stimulates regeneration of liver tissue, inhibits the growth of certain cancer cell lines, exerts direct cytotoxic activity toward certain cancer cell lines, and may increase the efficacy of certain chemotherapy agents.
Human clinical trials have investigated milk thistle or silymarin primarily in individuals with hepatitis or cirrhosis.
Few adverse side effects have been reported for milk thistle, but little information about interactions with anticancer medications or other drugs is available.
Milk thistle is available in the United States as a dietary supplement.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0032607/
Your Liver likes Milk Thistle
Specifically, the group that took milk thistle had significantly lower levels of AST and a trend towards significantly lower levels of ALT. Taking milk thistle also seemed to help keep fewer patients from having to lower the dose of their medications: chemotherapy doses were reduced in 61 percent of the group receiving milk thistle, compared with 72 percent of the placebo group. In addition, milk thistle appeared to be safe for consumption
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091215172325.htm
Silymarin (Milk Thistle) is most well known for its purported effects on the liver. In laboratory studies, silymarin has been found to stabilize cell membranes, thus preventing toxic chemicals from entering the cell. Laboratory studies have also demonstrated that silymarin stimulates synthesis and activity of enzymes responsible for detoxification pathways and exhibits antioxidant properties.[6-17] Specifically, silymarin has been shown to stimulate the glutathione S-transferase pathway and alter the intracellular concentration of glutathione (a potent antioxidant). Silymarin has also been shown to neutralize a wide range of free radicals.
THIS MONTH FROM THE National Institute of Health "NIH"
Milk Thistle and Chronic Liver Disease
Milk thistle has been used for centuries to treat acute and
chronic liver diseases and, even today, is one of the most widely
used herbal medications. Its active ingredients appear to be
several closely related flavinoids, collectively known as silyma-
rin. Most silymarin preparations have at least a dozen molecular
components and their isomers, including silybin, isosilybin,
cis-silybin, silydianin, and silychristine. It is not clear whether
one, several, or all of these components are the active ingredi-
ent(s), and most commercial preparations represent rough ex-
tracts of the milk thistle plant (Silybum Marianum) rather than
a purified subcomponent.
Results of studies in experimental animal models suggest
that silymarin has a broad spectrum of hepatoprotective effects.
Thus, silymarin can protect experimental animals against injury
from several toxins, including amanita phalloides, carbon tet-
rachloride, ethanol, and galactosamine. Silymarin is partially
protective even when given after exposure. The basis for this
hepatoprotective activity may be the antioxidant qualities of the
several flavinoids, but antifibrotic, antiinflammatory and im-
mune modulatory actions of silymarin may also be important.
A safe and effective, broad-spectrum hepatoprotective agent
would likely be very useful in the management of liver disease
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hep.20787/pdf
Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) has been used for 2,000 years as an herbal remedy for a variety of ailments, particularly liver, kidney, and gall bladder problems. Several scientific studiessuggest that substances in milk thistle (especially a flavonoid called silymarin) protect the liver from toxins, including certain drugs, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol), which can cause liver damage in high doses. Silymarin has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. And it may help the liver repair itself by growing new cells
Source: Milk thistle | University of Maryland Medical Center
http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/milk-thistle#ixzz3kWOjWuIe
University of Maryland Medical Center
Silybum marianum (milk thistle) is one of the most popular forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapy for patients with liver disease. In animal models, hepatoprotective effects of CAM in several forms of liver injury (toxic hepatitis, fatty liver, cirrhosis, ischemic injury, radiation toxicity, and viral hepatitis) have been shown
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3036962/
Pharmacological actions of curcumin (tumeric) in liver diseases or damage.
Rivera-Espinoza Y1, Muriel P.
Since 1900 bc, several therapeutic activities have been attributed to the rhizomes of the plant Curcuma longa for a variety of diseases, including liver disorders. Curcumin, the main active compound obtained from this plant, was first isolated two centuries ago and its structure as diferuloylmethane was determined in 1910. Curcumin has shown anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, antifungal, antibacterial and anticancer activities. The pharmacological properties of curcumin were reviewed recently and focused mainly on its anticancer properties. However, its beneficial activity on liver diseases (known centuries ago, and demonstrated recently utilizing animal models) has not being reviewed in depth until now. The curcumin ability to inhibit several factors like nuclear factor-kappaB, which modulates several pro-inflammatory and profibrotic cytokines as well as its anti-oxidant properties, provide a rational molecular basis to use it in hepatic disorders. Curcumin attenuates liver injury induced by ethanol, thioacetamide, iron overdose, cholestasis and acute, subchronic and chronic carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)) intoxication; moreover, it reverses CCl(4) cirrhosis to some extent. Unfortunately, the number of studies of curcumin on liver diseases is still very low and investigations in this area must be encouraged because hepatic disorders constitute one of the main causes of worldwide mortality.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19811613
Curcumin (Turmeric) also helps the body to destroy mutated cancer cells, so they cannot spread through the body and cause more harm. A primary way in which curcumin does so is by enhancing liver function
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=78
Turmeric curcumin inhibits entry of all hepatitis C virus genotypes ...
Gut. 2014 Jul;63(7):1137-49. Turmeric curcumin inhibits entry of all hepatitis C virus genotypes into human liver cells. Anggakusuma, Colpitts CC, Schang LM,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23903236
Attenuation of fatty liver and prevention of hypercholesterolemia by extract of Curcuma longa through regulating the expression of CYP7A1, LDL-receptor, HO-1, and HMG-CoA reductase.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21535835
Sugar is loaded into your soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks, and hidden in almost all processed foods—from bologna to pretzels to Worcestershire sauce to cheese spread. And now most infant formula has the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola, so babies are being metabolically poisoned from day one of taking formula.
No wonder there is an obesity epidemic in this country.
There are two overall reasons fructose is so damaging:
Your body metabolizes fructose in a much different way from glucose. The entire burden of metabolizing fructose falls on your liver.
People are consuming fructose in enormous quantities, which has made the negative effects much more profound.
Today, 55 percent of sweeteners used in food and beverage manufacturing are made from corn, and the number one source of calories in America is soda, in the form of high fructose corn syrup.
Food and beverage manufacturers began switching their sweeteners from sucrose to corn syrup in the 1970s when they discovered that HFCS was not only far cheaper to make, but is also about 20 percent sweeter than conventional table sugar that has sucrose.
HFCS contains the same two sugars as sucrose but is more metabolically risky to you, due to its chemical form.
The fructose and the glucose are not bound together in HFCS, as they are in table sugar, so your body doesn't have to break it down. Therefore, the fructose is absorbed immediately, going straight to your liver.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/20/sugar-dangers.aspx
And yet the scientific data on fructose says it is one of the most egregious components of the western diet, directly contributing to heart disease and diabetes, and associated with cancer and dementia. Nature magazine has just published a scathing indictment of fructose by Dr Lewis Cantley, one of the US's leading cancer researchers. But the EFSA says it sees no harm, justifying its stance on the basis that fructose has a lower glycaemic index than glucose.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/21/fructose-poison-sugar-industry-pseudoscience
5 Reasons High Fructose Corn Syrup Will Kill You
by Mark Hyman, MD
HFCS is almost always a marker of poor-quality, nutrient-poor disease-creating industrial food products or “food-like substances”. The last reason to avoid products that contain HFCS is that they are a marker for poor-quality, nutritionally-depleted, processed industrial food full of empty calories and artificial ingredients. If you find “high fructose corn syrup” on the label you can be sure it is not a whole, real, fresh food full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and antioxidants. Stay away if you want to stay healthy
http://drhyman.com/blog/2011/05/13/5-reasons-high-fructose-corn-syrup-will-kill-you/
It did not start out like this. For eons, humans sweetened their food with cane or beet sugar containing sucrose. Sucrose is metabolized into dextrose and fructose by disaccharidases in the gut and is the only sweetener allowed to label as commercial sugar. By the mid-19th century, however, the use of cornstarch as a laundry stiffener ushered in a new era for agrocorn.4 Chemists figured out how to make dextrose and anhydrous sugar from cornstarch after the Civil War, and the marketplace for corn-based sweeteners became a nascent industry. Corn syrups came next. Syrup manufactured from the dregs of corn germ led to the development of commercial dextrose, which quickly became an economical competitor of natural sucrose by the early 1900s, but that is not the end. With better corn syrup technology, chemists were eventually able to isomerize dextrose into fructose, producing a commercially successful derivative known as high-fructose corn syrup.
So what is the problem with fructose? Fructose is metabolized differently than glucose. Unlike glucose, which is stored as glycogen, fructose is absorbed by the gut and converted into triglycerides by the liver. Fructose also elevates uric acid levels through effects on an ADP-IMP pathway in hepatocytes. The resulting dyslipidemia and hyperuricemia facilitate insulin resistance, aggravate hypertension, and accelerate endothelial dysfunction. Attenuation of nitric oxide levels is an important pathogenic mechanism as a final common pathway to poor blood flow. What we end up with is a familiar caloric additive provoking a new spate of metabolic dysfunction.
Your liver needs good fat
Studies using animals are helping researchers find other dietary supplements that may help in thetreatment of liver disease. For example, eating certain healthy fats (called medium–chain triglycerides, or MCTs) may help to reduce the buildup of harmful fats in the liver. MCTs generally are available only in health food stores as a dietary supplement.
To prevent these deficiencies, clinicians should provide alcoholics with a balanced diet. Dietary supplements may prevent or relieve some of alcohol’s harmful effects. For example, brain damage resulting from a lack of vitamin B1, which can lead to conditions such as Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome, can be reversed to some extent. Because vitamin B1 generally can be administered safely, clinicians often recommend that all alcoholics undergoing treatment receive 50 milligrams of thiamine per day (either by injection if the patients are hospitalized or by mouth). Alcoholics also should receive supplements of vitamins B2 (riboflavin) and B6 (pyridoxine) in dosages found in standard multivitamins. Vitamin A, however, can be toxic when combined with alcohol and should be given only to those alcoholics who have a well–documented deficiency and who can stop or significantly reduce their drinking (15)
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa64/aa64.htm
The brain thrives on a fat-rich, low-carbohydrate diet, which unfortunately is relatively uncommon in human populations today, Two forms of fat that are vitally important for brain health are cholesterol and saturated fat. In the Mayo Clinic study mentioned above, it was found that those individuals consuming the most saturated fat experienced a 36% reduction in risk for developing dementia. And this comes on the heels of data now indicating that saturated fat consumption has absolutely no relevance in the area of cardiovascular risk as recently described by Dr. Glen Lawrence in the journal, Advances in Nutrition
so yes, I am absolutely an advocate for grass-fed beef, pasture raised eggs, and coconut oil is on the top of my list. Getting these life sustaining, brain nurturing fats back on the plate while substantially reducing carbohydrates paves the way to brain preservation, enhancement of function and reducing the risk for Alzheimer’s disease – a disease for which there is no treatment whatsoever.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-optimalist/201310/your-healthy-diet-could-be-quietly-killing-your-brain
The human brain is nearly 60 percent fat. We've learned in recent years that fatty acids are among the most crucial molecules that determine your brain's integrity and ability to perform. Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are required for maintenance of optimal health but they can not synthesized by the body and must be obtained from dietary sources. Clinical observation studies has related imbalance dietary intake of fatty acids to impaired brain performance and diseases
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20329590
After eleven months, the diets significantly changed the profile of fats within the brain. Essentially, a diet high in monounsaturated fats altered the basic chemistry and electrical properties of the brain in such a way that learning was enhanced, age-related cognitive decline slowed and the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease was reduced. A diet high in monounsaturated fats is often referred to as the Mediterranean diet.
A diet high in monounsaturated fats also lead to an increase in the production and release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is critical for learning and memory; the loss of acetylcholine production in the brain leads to the memory problems associated with Alzheimer’s disease. These findings support the addition of canola and olive oils to the diet and further demonstrate that sensible nutritional choices are vital for optimal brain function and good mental health.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-food/201205/dietary-fats-improve-brain-function
Improved liver health
Saturated fat has been shown to protect the liver from alcohol and medications, including acetaminophen and other drugs commonly used for pain and arthritis
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/22/7-reasons-to-eat-more-saturated-fat.aspx
Dietary saturated fat reduces alcoholic hepatotoxicity in rats by altering fatty acid metabolism and membrane composition.
Thus, saturated fat protected rats from alcoholic liver disease in a dose-responsive fashion.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15051845
If you are looking for supplements for supporting your liver, below are some good sources
http://www.amazon.com/Viva-Labs-Bioflavonoids-Vegetarian-Capsules/dp/B00C6C3GCY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441149556&sr=8-1&keywords=non+gmo+vitamin+c
http://www.amazon.com/Full-Spectrum-Milk-Thistle-Caps/dp/B003QB0QIQ/ref=sr_1_sc_1?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1441149734&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=swansenn+milk+thistle
http://www.amazon.com/Turmeric-720-mg-240-Caps/dp/B0017OFR5Q/ref=sr_1_sc_1?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1441149783&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=swansen+turmeric
http://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Light-Advanced-Nutritional-Tablets/dp/B000EEDZB8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441149925&sr=8-2&keywords=rainbow+light+complete+nutritional+system
