When we think about the most useful organs of our body, we usually think of hands, eyes, feet, lets, hearth, or stomach. And while all of these perform very important functions, there are other organs that contribute greatly to our health, yet we never really think about them.

That is, until the day they are too sick to function because we have neglected them so much. Then we find out how important they are.

The liver is one of the most underrated organs there are, yet it serves several important functions, among those, detoxification. It’s such an important organ that a person can’t live more than 24 hours without a liver. And while modern medicine has developed some treatments that substitute some of the liver functions when it starts failing, like liver dialysis, there is nothing yet that can fully substitute a working liver.

Despite the powerhouse it is, there’s a limit to what the liver can take; especially if we keep giving it non natural substances to work with in high quantities. After a while of heavy duty, the liver, like all organs, tends to fail and get sick.

Instead of waiting for a disease like cirrhosis o a hepatitis to strike, isn’t it wiser to give a hand to our liver? One of the ways we can give it a rest is by following a liver cleansing diet

A liver cleansing diet’s aim is to reduce the ingestion of substances that our liver has a lot of trouble handling. A liver cleansing diet’s aim is NOT to lose weight, although it can happen in some cases. Therefore, it’s important to complement a liver cleansing diet with exercise, which will accelerate the elimination of toxins anyway.

There are many types of diets for this, but a really good liver cleansing diet will always have two elements.

First, the elimination of alcohol. Alcohol is one of the most difficult substances to break down for our liver. Its total elimination is hard, and it requires time, so drinking alcohol in a constant basis tends to build it up in our system. No matter how good a liver cleansing diet is, the ingestion of alcohol can set it back and quickly counter its benefits.

Second, the ingestion of water. Drinking a lot of water is an important part of any liver cleansing diet. The two main methods our body has to get rid of toxins are sweat and urine, and both require water to function.

Of course, there are many types of diets out there, but they have these two elements. And even if you decide not to follow a liver cleansing diet, try following these two habits. They will nevertheless be a great help to your liver.

Because of the sedentary lives we lead, our bodies don’t get rid of the toxins as well as they should.

Many centuries ago, man used to hunt for food and traveled long distances on foot. The internal cleansing process of the body was much easier, as individuals engaged in several physical activities that let them sweat off the toxins they ingested. And what couldn’t be eliminated through the pores, the liver took care of.

Nowadays, most of us spend our days sitting in front of a computer or a machine. Even those that get to move from place to place, take cars and spend a lot of time in traffic. All of this reduces the internal cleansing process of our bodies.

In addition to having a less effective internal cleansing process, we add to our organisms substances that are harder to process and in big quantities. The main culprit is alcohol, which taken in excess tends to harm the most important organ of our internal cleansing process: the liver.

Moreover, there are substances that our livers were never meant to process, like chemicals, colorants, and medicine residuals. We also breathe smoke particles that are poisonous and that can have very bad effects on our health.

To make matters worse, we add our own natural toxins that make it even harder for our internal cleansing process. When we stress or get angry, our body releases hormones like adrenaline that pump up our senses and prepare us for battle. Of course, we don’t hunt or fight anymore, but that means that we don’t engage in the physical activity that would have gotten rid of those natural toxins.

In order to reestablish the effectiveness of our internal cleansing process, we have to change our habits and help our bodies detox themselves.

The first thing to do is to stop ingesting more toxins. Our bodies have a hard time eliminating the ones we already have, so there’s no need to add more. Alcohol and tobacco should be eliminated from our daily lives. And we must also try to change our diet to a more natural one to make the internal cleansing process of our bodies easier.

Another thing we can do is to drink a lot of water. In fact, our bodies’ natural internal cleansing process requires water to function, so that it can eliminate toxins via or urinary or sweating system.

Finally, we should engage in physical activities. This might be hard if you work in an office. Try to join a gym where you can practice a sport you like or at least sweat off toxins in a sauna. Exercise is good for many of our body systems, but it’s specially helpful for our body internal cleansing, as sweating will eliminate those toxins in a natural way.

Detoxification is in vogue now among people who want to clean their bodies from toxins. It’s a process that takes a few days. The best way to go about it is to visit a health specialist and get a detoxification plan from him or her. However, it can be a bit expensive, depending on your budget.

While you save up for a visit to your health specialist, here are some common sense tips for a body detoxification.

The first thing on the list is to stop smoking. Smoking brings nicotine to your body, as well as a few dozen toxins more. These are extremely difficult to clear off your body, and poison your blood. We already smoke a lot of pollution particles from cars and industries as it is, so there’s no need for you to further punish your body. If you’re serious about detoxification, this is the first thing that must go.

Second in the detoxification list, and very close to smoking, is alcohol. While not as polluting as smoking, alcohol still needs to be broken down into simpler elements by our liver. However, not being designed to handle it, our liver has a hard time dealing with alcohol. In fact, with time, alcohol will hurt parts of the liver and transform it into scar tissue, which if left uncontrolled can develop into severe cirrhosis.

Third on the detoxification list is drinking water. Water is very important for out body’s natural detoxification process, as it is the vehicle that our body has to eliminate toxins naturally. After the liver does its job of decomposing toxins into smaller elements, these are taken by the blood to the kidneys or the pores of the skin, where they are expelled via urine or sweat. A good detoxification program will include the ingestion of at least half a gallon of water everyday.

Finally, you need to do exercise. The best option is to engage in an activity that makes you sweat to the point your shirt gets wet. This allows you to sweat at a higher rate and thus eliminate toxins faster. If this is not possible because of work, try a lighter activity on weekdays, like walking 15 or 20 minutes and combine it with 30 minutes of a high activity on weekends. A good tip if you have children is to play a group sport with them, like football or basketball, or something appropriate for their age.

These are just some detoxification tips that are based on common sense and that don’t cost a cent.

Today we are discovering that the lifestyles we lead aren’t as healthy as we think they are. Of course, we know that smoking and drinking aren’t good for us, but even other things that used to be innocuous are turning to be bad for us in the long run, like red meat and coffee.

It also turns out that all the medicines that we’ve been getting all these years have chemicals that affect us or that remain in our systems. We’re also vulnerable to pollution particles, both in the air and water, as well as chemicals, colorants and conservatives that our food is processed with.

Our liver is the main defense we have against all these toxins. This underrated organ is responsible for the natural detoxing of our bodies. It cleans our system by breaking down toxins into smaller and simpler elements so that they can be eliminated from our bodies.

However, we usually give our liver a hard time. It wasn’t designed to work under high quantities of alcohol, pollution, smoke, or chemicals, so from time to time we have to give it some help.

The best liver detox is the cheapest one and the simplest one. Unfortunately, it can be the hardest one if you don’t have the willpower or are too addicted to a legal drug. In any case, you don’t need a doctor or specialist to tell you how to go about this kind of liver detox. You know the drill, no alcohol or tobacco, fruits and vegetables, lots of exercise and water, and reduce meat consumption.

There are other liver detox methods, for those who want a shortcut. For example Milk thistle is a very common recommended liver detox substance. There are several presentations. I recommend the natural, organic ones, like tea. However, this is just a personal preference and pills will be as effective.

Vitamin pills and supplements are also used by a lot of people as another alternative for liver detox. These are aimed at more specific situations, for example, Vitamin B is an often advised liver detox option for people who drink often or after a night of excessive drinking. Of course, in my opinion, no alcohol intake would be a better liver detox solution.

Finally, there are liver detox supplements that vary greatly in content and presentation, so greatly that it would be impossible to talk about all of them in this article. In any case, I recommend you buy them only if you have been advised to by someone whom you can trust. And of course, people who make commissions by selling them don’t fall in that category.

In case you feel your body and liver are suffering from bad food, drinking, smoking, and little sleep, you should then think of adopting a cleanse detox diet to clear your body of toxins that will give you long term health risks.

Before you adopt a cleanse detox, you should consult a health specialist or nutritionist. This is specially true if you have a medical condition or are under medication. In general, if you’re taking medication for a limited period of time, you should probably wait to finish that treatment before considering adopting a cleanse diet. This is because your body may still not be strong enough or because some cleanse diets include hormones or substances that can interfere with the effectiveness of medication, or vice versa.

In addition, before adopting a cleanse detox, you should research the specific benefits you will get. A cleanse detox that is too general in its promises, for example “you’ll feel better” is very difficult to measure. Moreover, if you don’t see results, there’s no way you can complain or make the specialist be held accountable.

Another good idea is to verify the nutritional value of the cleanse detox. This involves researching the quantities of proteins, minerals, vitamins, fats, fiber, and carbs that the cleanse diet includes. These values are important as they let you check the veracity of a cleanse diet very easily against a nutritional chart. It also lets you make certain that you’re getting all the nutrients your body needs. Some cleanse detox diets will include a low number or a total elimination of certain elements, such as fats and carbs. If this is the case, you should ask your health specialist why those elements are missing and how they are going to be replaced.

Finally, if you’re going to follow through a cleanse treatment with a health specialist, you should also get a calendar or schedule of visits and how much it will cost IN ADVANCE. It’s very discouraging to have to interrupt a treatment because you ran out of money in the middle of it or because the therapist just realized that “more sessions are needed.” You must also ask about the price of any extras, like teas, pills, patches, or similar that may appear later, so as not to have any unpleasant surprises. Following a cleanse detox with a specialist will always be the most expensive option, but on the other hand, the fact that you’re putting your hard earned money at stake will make you think twice about dropping it halfway.