In today’s clinical insights, we’re going to take a deeper dive into detox and specifically what it can do for our liver. When it comes to the liver, there’s no single medication you can take, so it’s often overlooked. In addition, when you’re improving your liver function, it’s hard to pinpoint any instant change, it’s more subtle, so people forget about it. It’s affected by alcohol, the food we eat, the water we drink, and even our emotions. In Chinese medicine, it’s believed that all of our emotions can deeply affect our liver!

Since the year started, I’ve noticed really eager and positive energy in the patients I’ve seen. People are saying “That’s it, I’m taking over!” and taking responsibility for their life and health. We’re able to help people develop strategies and fight back against the virus and other obstacles they might face. It’s exciting to see!

I’ve also been recently reminded how much our emotional health affects our physical health. I was blessed to have an amazing family and childhood, I’m very grateful for it. But, when you’re young, you’re under the tutelage of your parents and then we spread our wings and become different people than we were then. And when you return into the family setting, often, your energy downregulates into being the person you were before you left. And dysfunction can follow.

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Things like this force me to ask uncomfortable questions when I see patients. They come in and are broken down, sore, and aching in ways they weren’t before and I have to ask what’s really going on. Often, it’s much different than what’s just on the surface. If we as practitioners can step back and see what’s really going on, ask deep questions, and get to the root of the problem, we can help people in more permanent ways. 

The captain of the team when it comes to detoxification is the liver. Everything that comes into your body heads to your liver and it decides what passes through and what gets bound up and stored in fat cells. The first thing your liver tries to do is to break everything down and make it water-soluble. That’s where we use things like Milk Thistle Forte and other vitamins and herbs to help. 

Next, the liver wants to grab onto and bind those broken down things, a process called conjugation. This is where we need sulfur, which we get from vegetables. We need a 3/1 or better ratio of vegetables to anything else we put into our bodies. If you want one thing to do better this year, eat more cruciferous vegetables! They bind up the unhealthy things that enter your body and help get them out. 

Lastly, it wants to transport things out of the body. This is why we need to stay hydrated and full of electrolytes. 

If you’ve ever gotten a thyroid panel, the primary thing they test for is TSH, if it’s high, they’ll diagnose you with hyperthyroidism. If your liver is clogged up or you have high estrogen, it’s going to block out your receptor sites for hormones, which will cause that test result. So, often you’re going to be put on thyroid medications, without ever understanding the underlying cause. If you’re low on T3, but normal on T4, all that’s going on is that your receptors are blocked and you need to cleanse your liver. The majority of thyroid cases are secondary to the liver, gut, and adrenal glands. If you’ve got high TSH, but your energy levels are fine, it’s often something else upstream causing that issue. There could be any number of traumas affecting your hypothalamus or pituitary glands. This includes emotional trauma like divorce, job loss, or any other thing that could disrupt the “HP Access” or the overall health of your hypothalamus and pituitary gland. 

This is why it’s absolutely essential to see a doctor you trust and have a healthy and open relationship with. You want to see someone who wants to work with you and treat root causes rather than just slap a diagnosis on you and move on. There are many different ways they can miss the full picture, especially if they’re not looking at a complete panel. 

It’s all an essential part of taking control of your own health.

If you just start improving how you move, eat, and think, you will see results. Even if you do a small bit, day by day, at the end of the year, you’ll see huge wins. When it comes to the liver, it has impressive regenerative powers, even if you’ve been putting a beat down on it for decades, you can make a change. You can simply cut out that nightly alcohol intake, and make a huge difference to improve your liver function and overall health. Even things like cutting out tap water and moving towards exclusively bottled water will make a big difference. 

1. I want to get off birth control for health reasons, but I don’t want to become pregnant, Are there any holistic alternatives for healthy sex without risking becoming pregnant.

First, good for you for getting off birth control. Often it’s used as hormone replacement therapy and not as pregnancy prevention. We need hormone balancing and not replacement therapy. You can mess up your cycle and hormonal rhythm to the point where you won’t ever be able to conceive. Even if it was a long time ago, it can still have an effect. However, coming off cold turkey is not a practice I recommend. There’s a weaning process that includes supporting the liver, hypothalamus, and pituitary. You’ll need to both restart your hormones and detox the excess things in your body. 

As far as holistic alternatives, the only guaranteed way to prevent pregnancy is abstinence. There are many methods and techniques, but they are risky and carry no guarantees. 

2. hould I get genetic testing done?

My quick answer is no, but it deserves some explanation because I do genetic testing. We’re in a time where lab testing has become more and more advanced and it still has a long way to go. If you are not ready for the answer to be positive, you will respond with fear and that’s not the way to make health decisions. I personally only want to know things I’m capable of biohacking. I do genetic testing with clients if they want it, but they almost have to earn the right. They need to be dialed in on their eating, able to fast successfully and be able and willing to improve their mitochondrial functions. I typically lean away from it unless we have specific solutions.

3. What are wearable electronic devices doing to our bodies? My wrist became emaciated after wearing a Fitbit for a long time, is this common?

Yes, often we are doing damage. Not everyone is going to feel it, but I had a similar experience with a device and had to stop using it because it was causing all sorts of pain and soreness in my arm and hand. The least invasive device I’ve found is my Aura system, but many of them are affecting your central nervous system. If you like the data you’re receiving, you can use grounding mats, meditate, use the sauna, and try to counteract them in other ways. 

Last, but certainly not least, this week’s action to become superhuman is…

Give Yourself More Credit

Recognize that you probably have enough education and tools to become a better version of yourself. With just the data you have, you could become awesome on every level. In the categories of eating, moving, and thinking, just do something and move forward.

What’s Next?

We have put together a dashboard of all of Dr. Bart’s videos, based on health topics, in our Level-Up Health Membership.

This library of health content is low cost, so we can help you on your journey to becoming superhuman! 

Not only is it extensive, but it will continue to expand with new videos each month. Also, you will have the opportunity to share these videos with your friends and family!

Medically reviewed and written by:

Dr. Bart Precourt

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