Happy Thanksgiving with Love!
Herbal Recipe to Clean the Liver from Holiday Eating and Imbibing!
Simple Liver Nourishment Cleanse
Liver Nourishment: This is a very simple way to nourish the liver as it goes about its non-stop job of filtering your blood. Your liver is not “dirty.” Spending a few days focusing on nourishing this important organ is a good way to prevent disease and heal your body. Love your liver with good food, liver specific herbs, and relaxation. Oh yeah, did I mention fun and laughter? Anger is a toxin to the liver; let go of anger and revel in fun, love, and laughter.
Raw food fast for 3 days: lots of local and seasonal berries / fruit in AM with nuts and seeds and then vegetable salads and raw nuts and seeds at noon & PM meals.
***If pre-diabetic, diabetic, or you have any metabolic syndrome issues (where you need to not have high levels of blood sugar surging through your system) keep your intake of fruit conservative and eat more vegetables.
Raw root veggie and cabbage slaws are great in fall and winter for the raw, seasonal veggies.
AM liver flush before any food: juice of 1 whole lemon, 1-2 tsp olive oil, pinch of unrefined sea salt. You can use this simple liver flush in the PM and/or the AM.
I have clients who do it in the AM because they drink their Essiac detox tea at night.
Detox infusion: purchase an ounce of each of these herbs: cut burdock root, cut dandelion root, nettle leaf, dandelion leaf, and red clover blossom.
Each night heat 1 quart of water, stainless steel pot please. When water is simmering turn to very low heat and simmer 1 tsp. each of the burdock and dandelion roots for 10 minutes. This is a very gentle simmer with the cover on the pot.
After the ten minutes, shut off the heat and have 1 tsp. each of the dandelion, nettle, and red clover. Add to pot, stir to get wet and cover pot. Let it sit over night to steep, pot covered. Strain into quart canning jar in AM and drink 3-4 cups over the course of the day.
Relaxing habits when doing a liver nourishing cleanse: Plenty of fluids; lots of good, restful sleep, eating in a calm environment (without screens) and chewing very slowly and thoroughly, yoga, massage, relaxing by the fire or under a favorite tree (seasonally dependent behaviors!) while reading a good book…the point is to nurture the whole you and make your liver feel at peace and loved.
When to nourish the liver: Ideally 4 times a year at the spring and fall equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices. I recommend waiting past the Winter Solstice, after the December holidays, for obvious reasons!
Milk thistle is a good herb to take for liver nourishing and rebuilding. It can be added to the above dandelion, etc. herb tea. Milk thistle is a seed and needs to be added and simmer with roots and/or barks.
http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/making-herbal-infusions-teas/
Capsules, tinctures, teas of milk thistle are good options as a single herb or as a combination herbal formula with turmeric and perhaps ginger…
Taking milk thistle for a couple of weeks after a three day nourishing cleanse can help to nourish and rebuild the liver. You can make milk thistle into a tea with nettles. Again, simmer the milk thistle seeds, very gently for 10 minutes before adding the nettle leaves. Shut off the heat before you add nettle leaves and allow the herbs to infuse, covered, for at least 4 hours.
If you would prefer to do a more intense liver nourishing (that is pre-packaged for you, creating ease), go to this website: www.herbdoc.com and search under the 5 day detox programs for the liver cleanse. It is a very complete liver cleanse kit with a well written book explaining liver cleansing and its benefits to your health and longevity. Think of it as nourishing your liver, fortifying it with the nutrients it needs to do its blood filtering job well.
Dr. Schulze’s products are top of the line and use high quality herbs. They tend to be a bit more expensive but quality is quality.
You can do a more intense, longer, liver / organ cleanse by putting the materials together yourself and following the cleanse for more than 3 days
- Whole foods, raw
- Herbal teas
- Fresh made juices
- Lots of pure water (no chlorine and flouride from municipal water supply; both are toxins to body cells and your liver.)
- AM flush
If you have diabetic tendencies do not do a "juice or herbal tea" only liver cleanse. Eat food and keep your protein level up.
Need help? Give me a shout.
