Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
The incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is on the rise due to poor dietary intake and lack of exercise. This disease puts people at risk of developing additional medical issues and also severely impacts the body’s primary detoxifying organ.
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milk thistle
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH
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The liver is a very important organ and it is critical to nearly all biological functions in the body. There is a high rate of chemical reactions that make the liver uniquely susceptible to chemical stresses and inflammation, as well as loss of energy balance and function, which can lead to a number of progressive liver disorders and diseases. None are more important than when we look at non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
This is very very important because when we realize that over the course of the last 15 years, liver-related deaths have jumped 65% in this country. When we look at mortality due to cirrhosis and liver cancer in the United States between the years of 1999 and 2006, it has gone up more than 65%. That is incredibly scary. We can look at a lot of different factors in terms of why the rate has gone up so high and so fast. Certainly diet plays a very big role into this when you look at the rate of metabolic syndrome in this country, which is a perfect example as to why this has become such a major problem.†
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We used to always think that the main threat was alcohol and alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. Then, of course we know about the different viruses that target the liver such as hepatitis, but we don’t often think about the foods that we’re eating and how detrimental those can be. We also have to look at other things because the liver is our detoxifying organ. We have to look at air pollution, toxins from what we put on our skin and toxins from what we put on our foods. This is why we have to take care of our liver as we get older. This is something that we don’t want to wait until something goes haywire and then decide to act.†
Obesity and that excess body weight can also contribute to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. 40% of adults are clinically obese in this country and that’s a major problem.
Learn more about various factors that can negatively impact your liver health by tuning into the full podcast episode.
So what should we be doing that would be beneficial for us? First, we want to make sure that we have a healthy lifestyle. We want to make sure that we have foods that have powerful antioxidants that can help the liver cells called hepatocytes be able to do what we need them to do and go through all those different phases of detoxification. Many people have probably heard of milk thistle. Milk thistle contains several natural compounds that have been shown to have the ability to basically defend the liver from injury. These compounds work by multiple different mechanisms in terms of enhancing liver function and leading to liver protection.†
When we think about milk thistle, I want us to look at some of the clinical science behind it. We know that milk thistle and its constituent silymarin in particular are very powerful ways in which the liver can utilize that as kind of a scrubber. It goes through and helps scrub out those bloated-up hepatocytes. Milk thistle itself contains all of these different compounds. It has really powerful antioxidants in it and these powerful phytochemicals including things such as silibinin and silymarin. It is these two constituents that really yield an enormous amount of antioxidant capabilities, which are important to fend off oxidative stress within the liver.†
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Tune into the full podcast episode to hear about studies discussing the benefits of milk thistle, silibinin and silymarin for the liver.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
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alpha-lipoic-acid
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Amanda Williams, MPH.
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When we think of all of the amazing things that the human body does for us on an everyday basis, there is one area that we certainly cannot overlook and that is the role of antioxidants. Today, I want to talk about specifically what is known as the universal antioxidant in the human body – Alpha-Lipoic-Acid.
What is Alpha-Lipoic-Acid?
Alpha-Lipoic-Acid (ALA) is a fat- and water-soluble antioxidant, meaning that it’s going to work throughout the body in every single cell. It plays such a critical role in supporting healthy aging. It’s one of those naturally indogenous-occurring antioxidants that we so frequently overlook. It plays this significant and critical role in the regeneration of other antioxidants in our body, including things such as Vitamin C and Vitamin E.
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We know that the core antioxidants that help to support our health and to fend off harmful free radicals and toxins are so incredibly crucial. We can think about Glutathione, for example. Alpha-Lipoic-Acid can really help in terms of the regeneration of Glutathione, which is important for metabolic detoxification, so just keeping us clean and healthy on a daily basis. Alpha-Lipoic-Acid is really important to this process.
We also know that Alpha-Lipoic-Acid does many other functions in the body, including supporting longevity, helping to maintain lean body mass, supporting healthy blood sugar already within a normal range, supporting nerve and brain health, and supporting memory function. Being that it is this very powerful antioxidant, we know that it is playing a critical role in metabolic detoxification. Those are those different phases that occur each and every single day in order to maintain our body’s ability to rid itself of harmful chemicals, as well as toxins.†
Learn more about how Alpha-Lipoic-Acid works inside the body by tuning into the full podcast episode.
Some research on Alpha-Lipoic-Acid
Alpha-Lipoic-Acid has also been studied for its impact on specific disease states. There was a study that was done out in Oregon at the Oregon Health and Science University looking at the utilization of Alpha-Lipoic-Acid in MS patients, so patients who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. This was published in the Journal of Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation. This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial where they took a group of multiple sclerosis patients, and over the course of two years, gave them 1200mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid daily. They wanted to see if this would have any type of an impact, because we know that in multiple sclerosis, we get this breaking down of that protective covering around the nerves. As that happens, you end up getting more and more damage that is occurring, which slows or blocks the electrical signals from firing from the brain, which is why they can end up having problems when it comes to muscles and eye function. If we can try to slow that process down by having a means to fend that off, this can be really, really important. In this study that they did at Oregon Health and Science University, they found a 68% improvement over the placebo group in terms of slowing the rate of whole brain atrophy in patients who had multiple sclerosis, which is absolutely fascinating.†
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In an interesting study they did at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, they found that the benefits of Alpha-Lipoic-Acid actually went beyond that of supporting kidney cells themselves. They actually found it could prevent kidney stones. This was in animal studies, but what they did was they led this clinical trial in patients who had chronic recurrent kidney stones. They published their findings in the Nature Medicine journal. They were able to determine that Alpha-Lipoic-Acid, this antioxidant that naturally occurs in the body, when given in terms of supplementation could limit the kidney from developing those harmful, painful, damaging kidney stones. I think this just shows the power of the human body.†
Tune into the full podcast episode for more details on the benefits of Alpha-Lipoic-Acid.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.