Liver Health

How can you improve your liver health?

There are things that you can do to reduce potential liver damage and to treat and aid healing of existing liver damage. Some of the key ways to look after your liver are through following a healthy balanced diet, reducing or cutting out alcohol, prescribed medications and treatments recommended by your doctor, and making smart lifestyle choices such as quitting smoking and practicing safe sex and needle use.

Regular exercise and maintaining a moderate weight are beneficial for your whole body as well as the liver specifically. Even if your weight and body fat remains constant, as you get older the distribution of fat changes and is more likely to shift to the abdominal area. Ensuring you have a healthy level of visceral fat directly reduces the risk of certain diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure and may delay the onset of type 2 diabetes, and of course, keep your liver healthy. Maintain healthy bones by having a balanced diet rich in calcium and by doing plenty of weight-bearing exercise to strengthen bone mass. 

The Liver Foundation provides a wealth of valuable resources regarding liver health.

In simple terms, eating a nutrient dense healthy diet, drinking plenty of water and reducing alcohol will all aid in keeping your liver healthy. Reduce processed food, saturated fats and sugars. Eat a range of whole foods including fruit and vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats, dairy and whole grains.

Coffee lovers celebrate! Coffee is shown to protect the liver from disease and to have positive effects on liver inflammation.

Fruits such as citrus and berries contain antioxidants which have many health benefits, and sometimes anti-inflammatory effects.

Vegetables that are high in fibre and nutrients will benefit the digestive process.

Healthy fats such as olive oil, avocado, nuts, fatty fish are important in a healthy diet.

Many liver issues are impacted by alcohol consumption, particularly excessive drinking. The chemical ethanol within alcoholic drinks is a toxin that needs to be processed by the liver. It is the liver’s job to break down and rid the body of toxins and it has to work harder to do so. Continuous an/or excessive consumption of alcohol puts considerable strain on the liver and over time causes inflammation leading to liver damage.

People diagnosed with advanced liver disease or cirrhosis should cease drinking completely.

The Australian alcohol guidelines advise that healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks in a week and no more than 4 standard drinks in a day, to reduce the risk of alcohol related disease. https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/health-advice/alcohol

Regular moderate exercise, preferably daily, will aid in losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight, and to strengthen and maintain muscle strength. Increasing muscle mass will speed up your basal metabolic rate (BMR). A person with a high BMR burns more calories at rest. About 70% of calories consumed every day are used for your basal metabolism. Increasing your muscle mass helps raise your BMR, which increases the number of calories you burn and helps to decrease body fat levels. 

Exercise is one of the most important things in reducing and treating fatty liver disease. Any exercise is better than none!

Some liver impacting diseases such as Hepatitis B and Hepatitis can be contracted through semen or blood transfer from an infected person. Practicing safe sex with the use of condoms, and not sharing needles will greatly reduce the risk of infection from these diseases.

Quitting smoking will reduce the risk of liver cancers, as well as other cancers within the body.