July 29, 2024 • 33 mins
In today’s episode' Kelly and Tiffany delve into the importance of liver health and how to support it. They explain the liver's functions, discuss common misconceptions, and share signs that your liver might need extra support. The episode also touches on relevant personal stories, the interconnectedness of liver health with overall wellness, and practical ways to support liver function, particularly for naturally-minded women.
00:00 Introduction
00:23 Episode 169 and Liver Health
00:48 Funny Memories and Conversations
03:05 Family Planning Discussion
10:54 Transition to Liver Health
12:58 Liver Health Importance and Functions
16:50 Signs Your Liver Needs Support
20:03 Ways to Support Liver Health
21:45 Nutrition and Hydration for Liver
24:01 Herbal and Supplement Support
28:24 Lab Work and Further Checks
29:24 Liver Health in Pregnancy
Links to all the extra good stuff:
Earthley- code BEAUTIFULONE for 10% off: HERE
Self-Order Labs at Rupa Health
Childbirth Education Wait List: HERE
Join our email community: HERE
Submit your answer-on-the-show questions: HERE
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to catch every episode. Follow us on Instagram for extra education and antics between episodes at: @beautifulonemidwifery
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to At Home with Kellyand Tiffany, where naturally
minded women gather together aswe pursue simplicity and
confidence in healthalternatives, so we can show up
better in our busy lives andfeel more at home in our bodies.
Join your favorite home birthmidwife duo for conversation,
candor, and community.
You are at home with Kelly andTiffany I'm Kelly.
(00:22):
I'm Tiffany.
And today we are talking about,as you can guess from the
subject title, liver supportliver health, why it matters.
What the liver even does, whyyou should care about it.
Things you can do to support it.
All of the things.
It is episode 169.
(00:43):
I don't understand how that'spossible.
It gives.
We've just been doing this forawhile.
It's, it is kind of funny to meto think about some of the first
episodes we recorded.
We used to.
Bring, we used to record it.
Video as well.
There was a point when werecorded video.
Yeah.
And we would change shirts aftereach episode.
(01:03):
If we batched, we would move.
Couches around to make it looklike we didn't batch record.
I don't know why.
Who cares.
Nobody.
Those are like in the vaults.
I don't know where that videolanded, but there we are.
Okay.
Speaking of 69.
Yep.
Let me just tell you.
(01:24):
I had to call my husbandyesterday.
To get a code for gettingsomething.
I had to get access to somethingthat he knew the code for.
And he's like, oh yeah, youknow, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
Oh, the way you remember it is.
And then he went on to say likethe, the device for him
remembering it was all around69.
And I was like, So immature,what's the matter with you?
(01:49):
And he's like, well, that's howI remember it.
And I'm like, you're such a.
That's a dirty little man,clearly our brains work
differently.
Yeah.
I don't create codes based offof sexual.
And you windows.
You know how to remember it.
69.
And then now I will never forgetthe code.
You want, so there is theliquidity to the the method.
(02:13):
Yep.
I have to say.
But I almost never see thenumber 69 and don't
automatically revert to like 13year old, like, oh yeah.
I remember the joke even beforeunderstanding what it was cause
it was in bill and Ted'sexcellent adventure.
That was like, they kept sayingthat was their favorite number.
Me having no clue what thatmeant.
(02:35):
And still saying that they'relike 69.
Yep.
Had no clue.
And then you learn what it isand as the kid, right.
You're like, that is so vital.
And then I was like, I wonderhow many places I said that, and
I have no clue how.
It's terrible.
So bad.
We do have an episode on oralsex.
If you interested in more ofthat.
(02:56):
You can enjoy that.
And then another.
And a whole nother recording.
Yes, you can.
I wanted, before we talk aboutliver support and all of the
things.
I wanted to ask you a questionbecause we get this, I've gotten
this question a lot over thelast month or so on Instagram
about people kind of likelooking at their family planning
status, trying to decide am Idone having kids or not?
(03:20):
So one.
You don't need us to tell you ifyou're done having kids or not,
or anybody else.
Right.
But just getting the question oflike, how did you know that you
were actually done having kids?
Because people are like, tryingto decide, Hey, like I have.
2 3, 4 kids.
And we're just trying to sortout like what's next in our
(03:40):
lives.
I'm not.
I'm not feeling like I'm landingsomewhere.
For certain and just kind oflike gauging other women's
responses to how they knew theywere done.
I mean.
Honestly.
We had a lot of fights about it.
And.
I wanted to keep having kids.
My husband was like, well, wealready had two.
(04:02):
And I was thinking one wouldhave been good.
Nothing.
We didn't like the next one.
But it was like, he was notinterested in growing a large
family and I was.
I don't know about Wired'sfamily, but I don't think I
would have stopped.
I think I would have had a lotof kids.
But choosing, choosing to.
(04:25):
Compromise and honor his strongfeelings.
I wouldn't say that I had strongfeelings.
I was just kind of like, yeah.
I would just like to keep havingkids That was a huge, huge, huge
piece of marriage health for us.
So we prioritized our, weprioritized our marriage and
sorting through that together.
(04:48):
Before we pray or bef instead ofprioritizing our individual
things that kind of came tolike, well, If you feel really
strongly about it, I'm not goingto say we're not going to have
more kids.
But I would like, I would liketo nod and I was in the same
space.
Like, I don't think I'm goingto.
(05:09):
Create an intense amount ofconflict over me saying
absolutely.
We're having more kids.
But it took us a few months tosort through that and having a
lot of conversations about it.
And it wasn't easy.
That was really difficult.
And I was not really acceptingof it for probably a few years.
I was still hoping that thevasectomy was unsuccessful.
(05:33):
That if my period was a coupleof days late, I'm like, oh, I
got pregnant on accident.
This is perfect.
I did that for a couple ofyears.
Before, like.
Surrendering that to be like,no, this is, this is actually
what's happening.
And probably not going to haveany more babies.
And.
That's it.
That's the end of it.
And I think that was a huge.
(05:54):
Piece of being able to go tomidwifery school.
I could not have done both.
I couldn't have continued togrow my family and become a
midwife.
So when I was, when I wasbecoming a midwife.
I remember thinking like, thisis my next little baby.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think a lot of women areexpecting to feel like.
(06:15):
The clouds open and they havethis answer of like, yes we are
for sure done, or no, we arenot, or that everybody's going
to be on the same page.
And that's how you'll know.
And it's just not always likethat.
Right.
And I always say that myexperience, so I had two closer
together and we felt verycontent with the life that we
(06:35):
had with those two.
There wasn't necessarily a hugeyearning in my heart to grow our
family.
But it also wasn't off.
It wasn't off the table becausewe weren't being as careful as
one would be if it was off thetable.
Right.
And so while it felt verycontent and I was happy with
what we had when we did getpregnant with our third, which
(06:59):
was by surprise.
I know how babies are made.
But it was a surprise just givenmy ovulation was doing wacky
things.
I was under a lot of stress andmidwifery school.
I was working out way too hard.
My cycle was just not in ahealthy place to be really
trackable.
So anyway, got pregnant.
And after having her, and eventhat pregnancy, it was just
(07:22):
harder in general.
But after having her, I waslike, oh, that's actually the
feeling of completeness whereyou're like, Yep.
I'm very much done.
I, we do not want to grow ourfamily.
I feel very like.
At peace with that idea.
And I know not every woman getsto that place where they're
like, I am at peace, we'd havedone the thing.
(07:43):
But that was my own personalexperience of like, okay.
Yeah.
We could have been perfectlyfine with the two.
But the Lord saw that we neededour third, which I'm so thankful
for.
Great.
But there was there was a bigshift in my own heart of like,
oh yeah.
We're we're like actually done.
Yeah.
So like when, when clients orother women, or, you know, just
(08:06):
even people on social media, askus this question.
I mean, obviously it's somethingthat everybody has to kind of.
Sort through and it's, it'sreally not common for the wife
and the husband to be on theexact same page.
I think it's more common thatthey have diff differing views,
whatever that may be.
Right.
And the, probably the best wayto go about it.
(08:28):
It's just one kid at a time, notputting a limit on it, but fam.
You know, couples who know thatthey want to have big families
and they agree on that together.
Like, yeah, you probably aregoing to do that.
And couples who know that theyprobably only want one or two
kids.
Like that's, that's a, that's agood thing to talk about ahead
of time.
Like before you start familyplanning or to at least have
(08:48):
conversations about.
At some point.
Be good to know what yourpartners strong feelings are
about.
That.
At the time.
Yeah.
And just the normal kind ofgrieving process.
Sometimes that women go throughwhen they aren't done having
kids, even if you were like, no,I feel really confident in this
decision.
(09:09):
Or yes, I can.
Surrender this idea because myhusband feels so adamantly
against it or something.
That there is an, I thinkthere's a normal process of
being like, wow, that was asweet season in life.
And now we're really ontoanother one.
But.
That feeling doesn't lastforever either.
I would.
That is a hundred percent trueand it's complicated.
(09:30):
It's not just about, does myfamily feel complete?
Is my husband at his capacityis, are the things that we want
to do in the future can do sieveto having babies around again,
like it's not all about that.
Like some of it for me was.
My last birth was the planned.
The Syrian and like, is thatgoing to be the end of my story?
(09:51):
That's the end of my breathingstories is, you know, part of
wanting to have another baby waslike, I wanted X.
I want to do over on that.
Right.
It's so complicated, but I'llalso say that like nobody ever
has another baby and looks atthat baby and is like, whoops.
One too many.
Yup.
I mean, there is, there isalways, always, always.
(10:12):
The joy and gift of anotherchild.
And so I always say if you'renot sure, just have another
baby.
And then you will become moreobvious to you as you collect
more and more children, thatthere's a stopping point where
your stopping point actually is.
Yeah, for sure.
So hopefully that gives you alittle bit of insight.
I think our clients inparticular go through a lot of
(10:34):
should we, should we, not, a lotof them are like, but I loved
the experience of pregnancy andbirth and all of that.
And I'm like, that's great.
But also that is a, that is asnippet of life.
I had a view.
So, yeah, there's just, there'sa lot to kind of manage there.
So hopefully that was a littleinsight into our own little
lives and brains.
On that one.
But we want to get into liversupport and before we fully jump
(10:58):
in, I want to make another plugfor earthly wellness.
We've talked about them before.
I have been using their lymphmassage cream.
And the love your liver tinctureover the last few months,
actually, since like thebeginning of the year when I did
a more thorough.
Cleanse that I was doing at thebeginning of the year to kind of
get rid of some toxins and heavymetals and things.
(11:19):
And I've just continued on withit because once you get into the
rhythm of kind of habitstacking, some things are just
like, I just got to keep goingwith what is working.
But those are two of the itemsamong others that they have that
are super supportive pieces insupporting your liver.
And we'll kind of get into someof what that actually means as
we move forward.
(11:41):
But I just wanted to kind ofmake a plug for them because we
have a 10% off code.
It's beautiful one.
You'll find the link in the shownotes.
If you would like to kind ofmess around with some of the
things that they have.
We've been using a bunch ofother pieces as well.
In our home, we just kind ofkeep collecting little things
and trying new things out.
And every single thing that Ihave used from them, we have
loved my husband uses theslumpy, the sleep.
(12:03):
Tincture one that they have, andhe for sure can tell a
difference, not potentially inhis sleep, but like the, the.
The downregulation that happensbefore bed, he feels the
difference.
And I'm like, that is well worthit for somebody who can often
get like, kind of worked uptowards the end of the evening.
So mostly just my, my plug.
They are a fabulous company andall of their items are just
(12:27):
really trustworthy.
Yeah.
And I'm always surprised, Iguess, just because supplement
industry can be less.
So.
But I'm always surprised when Igo to check out that it's like
really reasonably priced stufftoo.
It's like, it's a very fairprices.
It's very good formulations.
It's easy to recommend.
They, everything they make iswonderful.
(12:48):
Yeah.
So just a little, a little plugfor them again, that all that
stuff is in the show notes, butwe are going to be talking about
liver health today.
So honestly, everybody shouldactually be talking about liver
health.
They should care about itfocused on it for themselves.
So I was discussing on this iskind of what created this idea
(13:10):
of like, oh, we actually reallydo need to make an episode on
this.
I was discussing the idea ofkind of connecting liver health
to a disease.
Disease process that someone onInstagram messaged us about.
So this happens a lot and we'relike not giving medical advice,
but I'm like, here's somethingto look into.
You know, go forward down yourown rabbit hole as you would
like.
And so I was saying, wow, that'sreally interesting.
(13:32):
I absolutely would look intoyour liver health and supporting
your liver and all of that.
And her response was I actuallydon't drink alcohol.
So it couldn't, it couldn't beliver health.
Like that's not a problem forme.
And I was like, oh, that'sreally fascinating because I
think that could be apotentially a common thing that
we just associate poor liverswith.
(13:53):
Like, Alcoholics or somebodywho's consuming too much alcohol
or something like that, that itis so much deeper, so much more
than that.
Yeah.
It's so funny.
I mean, not to, not to rag onthe person.
Yes.
I said it, but it does put it inperspective where you're like,
oh yeah, we should talk aboutthis more.
Yeah, I will.
And like, there's so much.
(14:15):
That goes on.
In the liver and it is.
Probably the root cause of themajority of women, especially.
Issues.
Yeah.
Health issues.
Yeah.
It's wild.
So the liver is an organtechnically, but it's also a
gland as well.
So the organ is like doing itsthing.
(14:35):
Right.
But it's a gland because itactually makes proteins and
hormones that other parts of thebodies actually need that they
utilize.
So it's doing more things thanmaybe we even thought that it
does.
So it technically does likehundreds of things, but what are
some.
Of the things that potentiallymay impact ladies listening.
Oh, absolutely.
(14:56):
There's just like, We should,maybe we should make an entire
episode just on the functions ofthe liver.
Yeah, right.
Then go.
You know, move forward to.
How to support those things.
So your liver.
Colleen's your toxins.
It takes harmful substances outof the blood.
It's basically like a filter.
It doesn't store them in yourliver.
(15:17):
Okay.
Your liver is not just like anactual, like sludge sponge.
It helps to get them removed andout of your body, through your
detox pathways.
So that's an important thing toknow.
It also helps you to get rid ofold red blood cells.
It makes bile, which is a fluidthat helps the body break down
(15:39):
food and like fat in particular,it metabolizes proteins,
metabolizes, carbohydrates, andfat, so that your body can
actually use them.
The liver is a huge part of yourbody.
Being able to utilize nutrientsthat you put into it.
It produces substances that helpyour blood clot normally and
regulate the amount of blood inyour body.
(16:00):
It also helps you storeglycogen, which is an energy
source.
It helps you store vitamins thatneeded to be used by the body
later.
Those are some of the major,major functions.
Yeah.
And so the fact that most peoplehave overlooked how to actually
support their liver or even howliver health is connected with a
(16:24):
ton of things that I mean, we'retalking specifically about
women's health anybody's health,right.
But as we focus on women'shealth how many things kind of
come up that we're like, oh, Iwonder how your liver is
functioning.
And maybe we'll talk a littlebit about labs in a little bit,
but maybe not even necessarilyshowing up on lab work, but how
is your body, how are wesupporting the liver in doing
what it's naturally supposed tobe doing?
(16:46):
So all of those things that itdoes, how can we support it in
doing so?
So you may be sitting here andbeing like, okay, that's really
great.
Liver is doing some things.
How may you know that your livermay need some extra support?
So.
Even if you were dealing withnone of these things that I
mentioned, your liver's stillcould benefit from extra
(17:06):
support.
It always can.
So if you're living in themodern world, You should be
supporting your liver.
We have talks and input from somany different places that your
liver again, wants to helpdetoxify, wants to do all of
these things.
And so, Yeah, supporting it anddoing so it was always a good
idea.
(17:26):
But if you were somebody withconsistent headaches, which can
just be like inflammation andstagnation, if you're doing the
constipation bowel movements area huge part of the
detoxification process.
We've talked about that so manytimes we care so much about how
you poop.
In any season of life, itmatters so much, but your body
can get really stagnant, evenlike good things like hormones,
(17:49):
right.
That those things can build upwhen that is not You know,
happening at a normal rateinsomnia.
So if you're dealing with anykind of sleep issue for the most
part that toxic burden on yourbody can interfere with your
normal sleep rhythms, right?
If you're somebody who's wakingup during the hours of like one
to 4:00 AM, some people will saylike three to 4:00 AM.
(18:09):
That's something to consider aswell.
Brain fog, more stagnation.
You can think of a lot of thingsas like where in my body does
something just feel like it'snot moving well.
That can be a sign that the erabody needs a little more support
in that.
Anybody dealing with hormonalimbalances or any kind of
digestive problems, we are like,Hey, that is something to
(18:32):
consider.
Always just kind of extrasupport on your for your liver
itchy skin, which can just be alot of like a buildup, toxic
stuff, lots of stuff with yourskin in particular.
If you're dealing with any kindof swelling, high blood pressure
as well, those things we cankind of come back and be like,
okay, let's foundationally workon this, start supporting your
liver.
(18:52):
So that then we.
Start working up from there.
So it's not just like, oh, I'mdealing with itchy skin.
Let me do something topically.
Yeah.
That can be helpful, but what'sactually going on underneath
everything.
So that then that kind ofsupport can spring forth,
positive fruit for you.
(19:12):
You know, do you know.
Okay, so rhythms and thoughtsthat need to be considered as
you're supporting your liver andnot to, not for you to feel
overwhelmed.
But for you to recognize thatthere's options, there's many,
many options and how you kind oflike tackle this and it doesn't
need to be all or nothing.
(19:34):
There's definite, any amount ofsupport that you give to your
body holistically is going tohave.
Domino effect and.
I think the, the reallyimportant piece of taking on
some of these thought ideas inhow we pursue wellness is.
What is sustainable and thatusually a small change over
(19:56):
time.
But some things to kind of justget you started is decreasing
the toxin.
Load decreasing the toxic burdenon your body.
So understanding endocrinedisruptors and how those are in
your environment, decreasingcontact with problematic
chemicals in the air or in yourfood or in water.
(20:17):
In your personal care items andthings in your home and just the
purchases you make, the thingsthat you have around you.
Committing yourself to, tostarting to get safer, safer
food options, safer productsaround you is going to give your
body.
A break and having to processthe toxins constantly.
(20:40):
Yeah.
And again, we always go back tolike, okay, well, how does, how
is physiology working?
Right?
What, when we talk about this inpregnancy and labor and birth
and all of that, like what isnormally going to happen?
And then how come, how can wesupport that if something gets
out of the zone there.
And so, because like we weresaying, there's just so many
places where toxins can seepinto our lives.
(21:00):
The idea is not to take it downto zero because.
You will not be able to, andthat will drive you absolutely
insane.
But the idea is to figure out,Hey, where are some places that
I can make some of these shifts?
So the idea of not gettingoverwhelmed with it, but being
like, Hey.
What's in my what's underneathmy sink.
Let me just start there.
(21:20):
Or maybe I don't want to changeout all of my makeup quite yet,
but my foundation goes over allof my skin.
So maybe that's the one that I,you know, take out and swap for
something like that.
Right.
Small steps.
That eventually you'll be likelooking back, oh, look at all
this progress I've made, but itwasn't didn't happen over one
weekend.
Right?
Some of the things to consideras well, you know, kind of
(21:42):
mentioned food and water and allof that, but nutrition
supporting your body throughnutrition, happy gut foods, lots
of protein, lots of fiber.
This matters so much because theliver is going to be basically
the metabolic powerhouse in yourbody.
And so it's working very hard inorder to support it, doing what
(22:03):
it needs to do, that protein,that fiber, and just really
focusing on gut.
Health.
All of those things interactwith, I mean, every piece of
what's going on in our body,since nothing happens in a
vacuum, it's all interrelatedsupporting that piece.
We'll absolutely.
Then go ahead and support theliver to be able to go ahead and
do what it.
Is designed to do yep.
(22:23):
And hydration.
I know you had mentioned that,but there's ways that you can
kind of like supercharge yourwater with a little bit of apple
cider vinegar or lemon, both ofthose support liver cell
function, they help to eliminateliver fat, which.
You know, of course just makesit a more optimally.
Charged Oregon and just allowsthe liver to function better.
(22:47):
Yeah.
We did an episode about astrength.
Rebuilding, you know, likemuscle mass and women and
talking about the differencebetween building muscle and like
losing fat, but how importantthat idea of fat around organs
actually is because it's not,it's not about the outward
appearance of the fat, right?
It is about the burden that thefat around organs can put on
(23:12):
that organ in order to be ableto let it.
Let it do its job efficiently.
Right.
And so that visceral fat aroundour bellies in particular.
Very very common and can be alittle stubborn, especially when
we're not looking at it fromthat metabolic lens.
And so, yeah, really.
It really does matter for sure.
Trying to just get out.
(23:32):
There's no blood flow andthere's no limp flow through
fatty tissue.
So.
It's literally sitting thereblocking things.
From moving.
Yes.
So that it's like, right.
If you're like, oh, apple cidervinegar, there's some actual
research that supports likeapple cider vinegar, lemon in
your water to help see.
Some of that elimination ofthat.
(23:54):
So anything that you can do alsobeyond just that to support.
That visceral fat will beimportant.
You know, you have heard us manytimes talk about herbal support.
So Nora tea that nettles oatstraw, red raspberry leaf,
alfalfa tea kind of mixture is agreat one.
Always even if it's justnettles, if you're putting
(24:15):
something together yourself isalways a good idea, but
dandelion as well, dandelioninfusion that sort of if you're
looking for one thing to add inspecifically for liver function,
if you are.
Struggling with the functioningof your liver.
Dandelion is a great one.
To really focus on, but the Norablend, or even just nettles by
(24:35):
themselves, incrediblynourishing, really helpful for
organ functioning.
That's something that's supersimple.
To add in daily, right?
And so in the show notes, wealso have a link to our starter
guide for herbalism becausesometimes that just feels like a
lot to take on.
If you're not somebody who usesherbs consistently, you might
(24:58):
not realize it's actuallyincredibly easy to make your own
kind of herbal infusions fromhome, set it and forget it sort
of thing.
And so that is in there in caseyou are somebody who is
interested in such things.
Yeah.
And the next thing that you canstart to digest is just getting
moving 30 minutes of dailywalking just for starters is
(25:22):
just cover so many bases of ourrecommendations in general, but
getting that good blood flow,getting your body.
Moving, it's all a part of thatgood metabolic health and will
absolutely impact your liver.
Yeah.
And so, you can also beconsidering certain supplements
as well.
Calcium and magnesium are kindof the top ones for liver
(25:44):
support.
So the liver is going to producethe major plasma protein in your
blood, which is albumin.
And so you may have heard thissometimes.
We relate it mostly to talkabout it a lot in pregnancy, as
it deals with swelling, but itwill bind to water and cat ions,
like calcium to kind of likeregulate the pressure in the
(26:05):
blood.
But a liver that is strugglingwill not produce enough.
And so then that's going toaffect the pressure within your
own vascular system.
And it's going to allow fluid toleak out of the blood vessels,
which can create swelling.
And other issues in your body.
And then when those levels fallin that liver, that's just not
able to produce enough, lesscalcium can actually remain in
(26:28):
the bloodstream, which leads toissues with low calcium in your
body, which can impact so manyother pieces as well.
Right.
So we see how many, right?
Like how many pieces are allactually interconnected.
So why the recommendation to eata lot of protein and move your
body and support your systemhere, right?
It, it comes together.
(26:49):
To support so many other thingsthat go just beyond quote, just
liver function.
Yeah.
And I think like an importantpiece of that is just the
foundational health pieces thatyou just end up hearing over and
over again.
And it's because it really is sovital stress impacts liver
health, poor sleep impacts liverhealth.
(27:10):
And so being on top of thosepieces is only going to help
you.
Your liver actually like in theChinese medicine model
regenerate.
It's overnight.
And if you're missing sleep, Ifyou're not, I think even if
you're not getting into your REMby like 11:00 PM or something
like that, your body is just notable to properly recover and.
(27:33):
Help your liver to regenerate atthose points.
Some other things to be thinkingabout is just some daily rhythms
that support liver health.
And it's so easy to just add indry brushing before you get into
the shower or taking an Epsomsalt bath once a week, or
getting in your sauna or findinga sauna or just sweating in
(27:56):
particular and finding any wayto sweat, either outside in the
hot weather, working out,getting.
Getting in a hot bath, etcetera.
And then red light also has somereally good research backing its
ability to help keep lymphflowing and support liver health
that way.
Yet we have an entire episodeabout red light support and
(28:17):
sauna and sweating and all ofthat good stuff as well, and all
of this right.
Kind of interrelates with thosethings.
If you are somebody who's like,okay, that's all great.
But I kind of want some morelike firm information about
what's going on in my body.
You absolutely can get some labwork, done, some blood work done
to really check in on what isgoing on.
And I will list out in the.
(28:38):
Shown up to where that werecommend to kind of get those
labs done.
If you cannot find a providerwho will run them for you.
But a comprehensive metabolicpanel prothrombin time, which is
basically like how long it takesyour blood to clot.
Those two in particular can bereally helpful in understanding
how your liver's actuallyfunctioning.
And so, like I mentioned in theshow notes, you'll see where you
(29:00):
can order your own labs which isthey're actually a really great
just cash pay price, reallystraightforward process.
And I think it's extra helpful.
If you are somebody whoquestions either your own
history in a previous pregnancywith liver health or.
It has something going on inyour life that you're like, I
feel like I should really knowabout this before I get
(29:22):
pregnant.
Absolutely.
If you can kind of deep dive onthis before getting pregnant.
You your pregnancy and thehealth of your pregnancy and the
risk status of your pregnancyand the issues that come up in
your pregnancy will absolutelybe impacted by your decision to
kind of deep dive into this now.
Yeah, I mean, during pregnancy,the liver undergoes a
(29:44):
significant amount of changes tosupport your baby, to adapt to
the increased demands on yourbody.
And it plays a really key rolein detoxification metabolizing.
Regulating hormones and makingit like completely essential for
a healthy pregnancy.
Yeah.
All so many things come back toliver health and sometimes.
(30:06):
The body doesn't send all ofthese signals until pregnancy
it's like, oh, I'm, you know,this is the drop in the bucket
that is like completelyoverflowing.
And complications in pregnancyhave been related to liver
health in one way or another,like gestational hypertension,
preeclampsia, HELLP syndromeeven hyperemesis blood sugar
regulation, gestationaldiabetes, Cola status.
(30:29):
I mean the list.
Those are all the main pregnancycomplications that have some.
Effect on how the liver is ableto process and optimize health
for you in your pregnancy.
So such an important thing toknow that supporting the liver
in pregnancy.
Can look a little bit differentthan what we mentioned.
(30:50):
You'll have to speak with yourcare provider about safe things
that you can do for liversupport in pregnancy.
But you can focus on some gentleliver support, like dry
brushing, like lemon in yourwater, like exercising, eating
good food, all of that.
And we know that women who gointo pregnancy with really
(31:11):
healthy livers, prevent some ofthese disease processes, improve
your outcomes for your pregnancyand your birth.
They help you feel better.
And just avoid complications ingeneral.
Yeah.
And so that's like true in anypart of life.
Right.
We see women who are likefocusing on liver health and all
of a sudden their periods feelbetter, or they're not dealing
with their hormonal migraines oryou know, the list goes on and
(31:33):
how all of a sudden they'relike, I can see, I can think
more clearly, right?
Like all of the things in mybody are just working on all
cylinders and so that it reallycan impact again, so much
another reason that we justreally wanted to make sure this
episode got out.
To you just as a starting point,now that you get to jump off
from, do more research beyondthe trajectory towards liver,
(31:55):
just vitality and health.
There's so many episodes eventhat we've mentioned already,
but even other ones that we'lldeep dive into women's health
topics that kind of touch onliver health as well, because
that impact is just so farreaching it.
It has been woven in throughmany, many episodes in different
ways.
And then again, in the links inthe.
(32:15):
Show notes, you will find allkinds of good stuff.
Everything that we mentioned.
We do want to highlight thefactor though that Tiffany and I
have been working.
So dang hard on this childbirtheducation class, that we are
very excited, very, very soon topush out into the world.
We do talk about liver health inpregnancy in that In that
(32:36):
course, and it's going to beready to be launched very, very,
very, very soon.
And the waitlist will get allkinds of good perks, including
some information and earlyaccess to that course.
So you will find the link tosign up for that in the show
notes.
We hope that you have like somegreat goodie that you can take
(32:57):
away from this episode today,even if it's just like, I'm
going to get to bed before 11o'clock.
I'm going to squeeze a lemoninto my water.
I mean, all of those littlechanges, they really do add up
and create like a.
A cascade of wellness, and wehope that you are able to take
one little thing away from thattoday.
(33:17):
Cascade of wellness.
Cascade of wellness.
I'm here for that.
But we will catch you next week.
And we're, we're chatting aboutpreventing some birth
complications, which again isprobably going to talk about
liver health.
So here we, here we go.
Welcome to At Home with Kellyand Tiffany, where naturally
minded women gather together aswe pursue simplicity and
confidence in healthalternatives, so we can show up
better in our busy lives andfeel more at home in our bodies.
Join your favorite home birthmidwife duo for conversation,
candor, and community.
You are at home with Kelly andTiffany I'm Kelly.
(00:22):
I'm Tiffany.
And today we are talking about,as you can guess from the
subject title, liver supportliver health, why it matters.
What the liver even does, whyyou should care about it.
Things you can do to support it.
All of the things.
It is episode 169.
(00:43):
I don't understand how that'spossible.
It gives.
We've just been doing this forawhile.
It's, it is kind of funny to meto think about some of the first
episodes we recorded.
We used to.
Bring, we used to record it.
Video as well.
There was a point when werecorded video.
Yeah.
And we would change shirts aftereach episode.
(01:03):
If we batched, we would move.
Couches around to make it looklike we didn't batch record.
I don't know why.
Who cares.
Nobody.
Those are like in the vaults.
I don't know where that videolanded, but there we are.
Okay.
Speaking of 69.
Yep.
Let me just tell you.
(01:24):
I had to call my husbandyesterday.
To get a code for gettingsomething.
I had to get access to somethingthat he knew the code for.
And he's like, oh yeah, youknow, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
Oh, the way you remember it is.
And then he went on to say likethe, the device for him
remembering it was all around69.
And I was like, So immature,what's the matter with you?
(01:49):
And he's like, well, that's howI remember it.
And I'm like, you're such a.
That's a dirty little man,clearly our brains work
differently.
Yeah.
I don't create codes based offof sexual.
And you windows.
You know how to remember it.
69.
And then now I will never forgetthe code.
You want, so there is theliquidity to the the method.
(02:13):
Yep.
I have to say.
But I almost never see thenumber 69 and don't
automatically revert to like 13year old, like, oh yeah.
I remember the joke even beforeunderstanding what it was cause
it was in bill and Ted'sexcellent adventure.
That was like, they kept sayingthat was their favorite number.
Me having no clue what thatmeant.
(02:35):
And still saying that they'relike 69.
Yep.
Had no clue.
And then you learn what it isand as the kid, right.
You're like, that is so vital.
And then I was like, I wonderhow many places I said that, and
I have no clue how.
It's terrible.
So bad.
We do have an episode on oralsex.
If you interested in more ofthat.
(02:56):
You can enjoy that.
And then another.
And a whole nother recording.
Yes, you can.
I wanted, before we talk aboutliver support and all of the
things.
I wanted to ask you a questionbecause we get this, I've gotten
this question a lot over thelast month or so on Instagram
about people kind of likelooking at their family planning
status, trying to decide am Idone having kids or not?
(03:20):
So one.
You don't need us to tell you ifyou're done having kids or not,
or anybody else.
Right.
But just getting the question oflike, how did you know that you
were actually done having kids?
Because people are like, tryingto decide, Hey, like I have.
2 3, 4 kids.
And we're just trying to sortout like what's next in our
(03:40):
lives.
I'm not.
I'm not feeling like I'm landingsomewhere.
For certain and just kind oflike gauging other women's
responses to how they knew theywere done.
I mean.
Honestly.
We had a lot of fights about it.
And.
I wanted to keep having kids.
My husband was like, well, wealready had two.
(04:02):
And I was thinking one wouldhave been good.
Nothing.
We didn't like the next one.
But it was like, he was notinterested in growing a large
family and I was.
I don't know about Wired'sfamily, but I don't think I
would have stopped.
I think I would have had a lotof kids.
But choosing, choosing to.
(04:25):
Compromise and honor his strongfeelings.
I wouldn't say that I had strongfeelings.
I was just kind of like, yeah.
I would just like to keep havingkids That was a huge, huge, huge
piece of marriage health for us.
So we prioritized our, weprioritized our marriage and
sorting through that together.
(04:48):
Before we pray or bef instead ofprioritizing our individual
things that kind of came tolike, well, If you feel really
strongly about it, I'm not goingto say we're not going to have
more kids.
But I would like, I would liketo nod and I was in the same
space.
Like, I don't think I'm goingto.
(05:09):
Create an intense amount ofconflict over me saying
absolutely.
We're having more kids.
But it took us a few months tosort through that and having a
lot of conversations about it.
And it wasn't easy.
That was really difficult.
And I was not really acceptingof it for probably a few years.
I was still hoping that thevasectomy was unsuccessful.
(05:33):
That if my period was a coupleof days late, I'm like, oh, I
got pregnant on accident.
This is perfect.
I did that for a couple ofyears.
Before, like.
Surrendering that to be like,no, this is, this is actually
what's happening.
And probably not going to haveany more babies.
And.
That's it.
That's the end of it.
And I think that was a huge.
(05:54):
Piece of being able to go tomidwifery school.
I could not have done both.
I couldn't have continued togrow my family and become a
midwife.
So when I was, when I wasbecoming a midwife.
I remember thinking like, thisis my next little baby.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think a lot of women areexpecting to feel like.
(06:15):
The clouds open and they havethis answer of like, yes we are
for sure done, or no, we arenot, or that everybody's going
to be on the same page.
And that's how you'll know.
And it's just not always likethat.
Right.
And I always say that myexperience, so I had two closer
together and we felt verycontent with the life that we
(06:35):
had with those two.
There wasn't necessarily a hugeyearning in my heart to grow our
family.
But it also wasn't off.
It wasn't off the table becausewe weren't being as careful as
one would be if it was off thetable.
Right.
And so while it felt verycontent and I was happy with
what we had when we did getpregnant with our third, which
(06:59):
was by surprise.
I know how babies are made.
But it was a surprise just givenmy ovulation was doing wacky
things.
I was under a lot of stress andmidwifery school.
I was working out way too hard.
My cycle was just not in ahealthy place to be really
trackable.
So anyway, got pregnant.
And after having her, and eventhat pregnancy, it was just
(07:22):
harder in general.
But after having her, I waslike, oh, that's actually the
feeling of completeness whereyou're like, Yep.
I'm very much done.
I, we do not want to grow ourfamily.
I feel very like.
At peace with that idea.
And I know not every woman getsto that place where they're
like, I am at peace, we'd havedone the thing.
(07:43):
But that was my own personalexperience of like, okay.
Yeah.
We could have been perfectlyfine with the two.
But the Lord saw that we neededour third, which I'm so thankful
for.
Great.
But there was there was a bigshift in my own heart of like,
oh yeah.
We're we're like actually done.
Yeah.
So like when, when clients orother women, or, you know, just
(08:06):
even people on social media, askus this question.
I mean, obviously it's somethingthat everybody has to kind of.
Sort through and it's, it'sreally not common for the wife
and the husband to be on theexact same page.
I think it's more common thatthey have diff differing views,
whatever that may be.
Right.
And the, probably the best wayto go about it.
(08:28):
It's just one kid at a time, notputting a limit on it, but fam.
You know, couples who know thatthey want to have big families
and they agree on that together.
Like, yeah, you probably aregoing to do that.
And couples who know that theyprobably only want one or two
kids.
Like that's, that's a, that's agood thing to talk about ahead
of time.
Like before you start familyplanning or to at least have
(08:48):
conversations about.
At some point.
Be good to know what yourpartners strong feelings are
about.
That.
At the time.
Yeah.
And just the normal kind ofgrieving process.
Sometimes that women go throughwhen they aren't done having
kids, even if you were like, no,I feel really confident in this
decision.
(09:09):
Or yes, I can.
Surrender this idea because myhusband feels so adamantly
against it or something.
That there is an, I thinkthere's a normal process of
being like, wow, that was asweet season in life.
And now we're really ontoanother one.
But.
That feeling doesn't lastforever either.
I would.
That is a hundred percent trueand it's complicated.
(09:30):
It's not just about, does myfamily feel complete?
Is my husband at his capacityis, are the things that we want
to do in the future can do sieveto having babies around again,
like it's not all about that.
Like some of it for me was.
My last birth was the planned.
The Syrian and like, is thatgoing to be the end of my story?
(09:51):
That's the end of my breathingstories is, you know, part of
wanting to have another baby waslike, I wanted X.
I want to do over on that.
Right.
It's so complicated, but I'llalso say that like nobody ever
has another baby and looks atthat baby and is like, whoops.
One too many.
Yup.
I mean, there is, there isalways, always, always.
(10:12):
The joy and gift of anotherchild.
And so I always say if you'renot sure, just have another
baby.
And then you will become moreobvious to you as you collect
more and more children, thatthere's a stopping point where
your stopping point actually is.
Yeah, for sure.
So hopefully that gives you alittle bit of insight.
I think our clients inparticular go through a lot of
(10:34):
should we, should we, not, a lotof them are like, but I loved
the experience of pregnancy andbirth and all of that.
And I'm like, that's great.
But also that is a, that is asnippet of life.
I had a view.
So, yeah, there's just, there'sa lot to kind of manage there.
So hopefully that was a littleinsight into our own little
lives and brains.
On that one.
But we want to get into liversupport and before we fully jump
(10:58):
in, I want to make another plugfor earthly wellness.
We've talked about them before.
I have been using their lymphmassage cream.
And the love your liver tinctureover the last few months,
actually, since like thebeginning of the year when I did
a more thorough.
Cleanse that I was doing at thebeginning of the year to kind of
get rid of some toxins and heavymetals and things.
(11:19):
And I've just continued on withit because once you get into the
rhythm of kind of habitstacking, some things are just
like, I just got to keep goingwith what is working.
But those are two of the itemsamong others that they have that
are super supportive pieces insupporting your liver.
And we'll kind of get into someof what that actually means as
we move forward.
(11:41):
But I just wanted to kind ofmake a plug for them because we
have a 10% off code.
It's beautiful one.
You'll find the link in the shownotes.
If you would like to kind ofmess around with some of the
things that they have.
We've been using a bunch ofother pieces as well.
In our home, we just kind ofkeep collecting little things
and trying new things out.
And every single thing that Ihave used from them, we have
loved my husband uses theslumpy, the sleep.
(12:03):
Tincture one that they have, andhe for sure can tell a
difference, not potentially inhis sleep, but like the, the.
The downregulation that happensbefore bed, he feels the
difference.
And I'm like, that is well worthit for somebody who can often
get like, kind of worked uptowards the end of the evening.
So mostly just my, my plug.
They are a fabulous company andall of their items are just
(12:27):
really trustworthy.
Yeah.
And I'm always surprised, Iguess, just because supplement
industry can be less.
So.
But I'm always surprised when Igo to check out that it's like
really reasonably priced stufftoo.
It's like, it's a very fairprices.
It's very good formulations.
It's easy to recommend.
They, everything they make iswonderful.
(12:48):
Yeah.
So just a little, a little plugfor them again, that all that
stuff is in the show notes, butwe are going to be talking about
liver health today.
So honestly, everybody shouldactually be talking about liver
health.
They should care about itfocused on it for themselves.
So I was discussing on this iskind of what created this idea
(13:10):
of like, oh, we actually reallydo need to make an episode on
this.
I was discussing the idea ofkind of connecting liver health
to a disease.
Disease process that someone onInstagram messaged us about.
So this happens a lot and we'relike not giving medical advice,
but I'm like, here's somethingto look into.
You know, go forward down yourown rabbit hole as you would
like.
And so I was saying, wow, that'sreally interesting.
(13:32):
I absolutely would look intoyour liver health and supporting
your liver and all of that.
And her response was I actuallydon't drink alcohol.
So it couldn't, it couldn't beliver health.
Like that's not a problem forme.
And I was like, oh, that'sreally fascinating because I
think that could be apotentially a common thing that
we just associate poor liverswith.
(13:53):
Like, Alcoholics or somebodywho's consuming too much alcohol
or something like that, that itis so much deeper, so much more
than that.
Yeah.
It's so funny.
I mean, not to, not to rag onthe person.
Yes.
I said it, but it does put it inperspective where you're like,
oh yeah, we should talk aboutthis more.
Yeah, I will.
And like, there's so much.
(14:15):
That goes on.
In the liver and it is.
Probably the root cause of themajority of women, especially.
Issues.
Yeah.
Health issues.
Yeah.
It's wild.
So the liver is an organtechnically, but it's also a
gland as well.
So the organ is like doing itsthing.
(14:35):
Right.
But it's a gland because itactually makes proteins and
hormones that other parts of thebodies actually need that they
utilize.
So it's doing more things thanmaybe we even thought that it
does.
So it technically does likehundreds of things, but what are
some.
Of the things that potentiallymay impact ladies listening.
Oh, absolutely.
(14:56):
There's just like, We should,maybe we should make an entire
episode just on the functions ofthe liver.
Yeah, right.
Then go.
You know, move forward to.
How to support those things.
So your liver.
Colleen's your toxins.
It takes harmful substances outof the blood.
It's basically like a filter.
It doesn't store them in yourliver.
(15:17):
Okay.
Your liver is not just like anactual, like sludge sponge.
It helps to get them removed andout of your body, through your
detox pathways.
So that's an important thing toknow.
It also helps you to get rid ofold red blood cells.
It makes bile, which is a fluidthat helps the body break down
(15:39):
food and like fat in particular,it metabolizes proteins,
metabolizes, carbohydrates, andfat, so that your body can
actually use them.
The liver is a huge part of yourbody.
Being able to utilize nutrientsthat you put into it.
It produces substances that helpyour blood clot normally and
regulate the amount of blood inyour body.
(16:00):
It also helps you storeglycogen, which is an energy
source.
It helps you store vitamins thatneeded to be used by the body
later.
Those are some of the major,major functions.
Yeah.
And so the fact that most peoplehave overlooked how to actually
support their liver or even howliver health is connected with a
(16:24):
ton of things that I mean, we'retalking specifically about
women's health anybody's health,right.
But as we focus on women'shealth how many things kind of
come up that we're like, oh, Iwonder how your liver is
functioning.
And maybe we'll talk a littlebit about labs in a little bit,
but maybe not even necessarilyshowing up on lab work, but how
is your body, how are wesupporting the liver in doing
what it's naturally supposed tobe doing?
(16:46):
So all of those things that itdoes, how can we support it in
doing so?
So you may be sitting here andbeing like, okay, that's really
great.
Liver is doing some things.
How may you know that your livermay need some extra support?
So.
Even if you were dealing withnone of these things that I
mentioned, your liver's stillcould benefit from extra
(17:06):
support.
It always can.
So if you're living in themodern world, You should be
supporting your liver.
We have talks and input from somany different places that your
liver again, wants to helpdetoxify, wants to do all of
these things.
And so, Yeah, supporting it anddoing so it was always a good
idea.
(17:26):
But if you were somebody withconsistent headaches, which can
just be like inflammation andstagnation, if you're doing the
constipation bowel movements area huge part of the
detoxification process.
We've talked about that so manytimes we care so much about how
you poop.
In any season of life, itmatters so much, but your body
can get really stagnant, evenlike good things like hormones,
(17:49):
right.
That those things can build upwhen that is not You know,
happening at a normal rateinsomnia.
So if you're dealing with anykind of sleep issue for the most
part that toxic burden on yourbody can interfere with your
normal sleep rhythms, right?
If you're somebody who's wakingup during the hours of like one
to 4:00 AM, some people will saylike three to 4:00 AM.
(18:09):
That's something to consider aswell.
Brain fog, more stagnation.
You can think of a lot of thingsas like where in my body does
something just feel like it'snot moving well.
That can be a sign that the erabody needs a little more support
in that.
Anybody dealing with hormonalimbalances or any kind of
digestive problems, we are like,Hey, that is something to
(18:32):
consider.
Always just kind of extrasupport on your for your liver
itchy skin, which can just be alot of like a buildup, toxic
stuff, lots of stuff with yourskin in particular.
If you're dealing with any kindof swelling, high blood pressure
as well, those things we cankind of come back and be like,
okay, let's foundationally workon this, start supporting your
liver.
(18:52):
So that then we.
Start working up from there.
So it's not just like, oh, I'mdealing with itchy skin.
Let me do something topically.
Yeah.
That can be helpful, but what'sactually going on underneath
everything.
So that then that kind ofsupport can spring forth,
positive fruit for you.
(19:12):
You know, do you know.
Okay, so rhythms and thoughtsthat need to be considered as
you're supporting your liver andnot to, not for you to feel
overwhelmed.
But for you to recognize thatthere's options, there's many,
many options and how you kind oflike tackle this and it doesn't
need to be all or nothing.
(19:34):
There's definite, any amount ofsupport that you give to your
body holistically is going tohave.
Domino effect and.
I think the, the reallyimportant piece of taking on
some of these thought ideas inhow we pursue wellness is.
What is sustainable and thatusually a small change over
(19:56):
time.
But some things to kind of justget you started is decreasing
the toxin.
Load decreasing the toxic burdenon your body.
So understanding endocrinedisruptors and how those are in
your environment, decreasingcontact with problematic
chemicals in the air or in yourfood or in water.
(20:17):
In your personal care items andthings in your home and just the
purchases you make, the thingsthat you have around you.
Committing yourself to, tostarting to get safer, safer
food options, safer productsaround you is going to give your
body.
A break and having to processthe toxins constantly.
(20:40):
Yeah.
And again, we always go back tolike, okay, well, how does, how
is physiology working?
Right?
What, when we talk about this inpregnancy and labor and birth
and all of that, like what isnormally going to happen?
And then how come, how can wesupport that if something gets
out of the zone there.
And so, because like we weresaying, there's just so many
places where toxins can seepinto our lives.
(21:00):
The idea is not to take it downto zero because.
You will not be able to, andthat will drive you absolutely
insane.
But the idea is to figure out,Hey, where are some places that
I can make some of these shifts?
So the idea of not gettingoverwhelmed with it, but being
like, Hey.
What's in my what's underneathmy sink.
Let me just start there.
(21:20):
Or maybe I don't want to changeout all of my makeup quite yet,
but my foundation goes over allof my skin.
So maybe that's the one that I,you know, take out and swap for
something like that.
Right.
Small steps.
That eventually you'll be likelooking back, oh, look at all
this progress I've made, but itwasn't didn't happen over one
weekend.
Right?
Some of the things to consideras well, you know, kind of
(21:42):
mentioned food and water and allof that, but nutrition
supporting your body throughnutrition, happy gut foods, lots
of protein, lots of fiber.
This matters so much because theliver is going to be basically
the metabolic powerhouse in yourbody.
And so it's working very hard inorder to support it, doing what
(22:03):
it needs to do, that protein,that fiber, and just really
focusing on gut.
Health.
All of those things interactwith, I mean, every piece of
what's going on in our body,since nothing happens in a
vacuum, it's all interrelatedsupporting that piece.
We'll absolutely.
Then go ahead and support theliver to be able to go ahead and
do what it.
Is designed to do yep.
(22:23):
And hydration.
I know you had mentioned that,but there's ways that you can
kind of like supercharge yourwater with a little bit of apple
cider vinegar or lemon, both ofthose support liver cell
function, they help to eliminateliver fat, which.
You know, of course just makesit a more optimally.
Charged Oregon and just allowsthe liver to function better.
(22:47):
Yeah.
We did an episode about astrength.
Rebuilding, you know, likemuscle mass and women and
talking about the differencebetween building muscle and like
losing fat, but how importantthat idea of fat around organs
actually is because it's not,it's not about the outward
appearance of the fat, right?
It is about the burden that thefat around organs can put on
(23:12):
that organ in order to be ableto let it.
Let it do its job efficiently.
Right.
And so that visceral fat aroundour bellies in particular.
Very very common and can be alittle stubborn, especially when
we're not looking at it fromthat metabolic lens.
And so, yeah, really.
It really does matter for sure.
Trying to just get out.
(23:32):
There's no blood flow andthere's no limp flow through
fatty tissue.
So.
It's literally sitting thereblocking things.
From moving.
Yes.
So that it's like, right.
If you're like, oh, apple cidervinegar, there's some actual
research that supports likeapple cider vinegar, lemon in
your water to help see.
Some of that elimination ofthat.
(23:54):
So anything that you can do alsobeyond just that to support.
That visceral fat will beimportant.
You know, you have heard us manytimes talk about herbal support.
So Nora tea that nettles oatstraw, red raspberry leaf,
alfalfa tea kind of mixture is agreat one.
Always even if it's justnettles, if you're putting
(24:15):
something together yourself isalways a good idea, but
dandelion as well, dandelioninfusion that sort of if you're
looking for one thing to add inspecifically for liver function,
if you are.
Struggling with the functioningof your liver.
Dandelion is a great one.
To really focus on, but the Norablend, or even just nettles by
(24:35):
themselves, incrediblynourishing, really helpful for
organ functioning.
That's something that's supersimple.
To add in daily, right?
And so in the show notes, wealso have a link to our starter
guide for herbalism becausesometimes that just feels like a
lot to take on.
If you're not somebody who usesherbs consistently, you might
(24:58):
not realize it's actuallyincredibly easy to make your own
kind of herbal infusions fromhome, set it and forget it sort
of thing.
And so that is in there in caseyou are somebody who is
interested in such things.
Yeah.
And the next thing that you canstart to digest is just getting
moving 30 minutes of dailywalking just for starters is
(25:22):
just cover so many bases of ourrecommendations in general, but
getting that good blood flow,getting your body.
Moving, it's all a part of thatgood metabolic health and will
absolutely impact your liver.
Yeah.
And so, you can also beconsidering certain supplements
as well.
Calcium and magnesium are kindof the top ones for liver
(25:44):
support.
So the liver is going to producethe major plasma protein in your
blood, which is albumin.
And so you may have heard thissometimes.
We relate it mostly to talkabout it a lot in pregnancy, as
it deals with swelling, but itwill bind to water and cat ions,
like calcium to kind of likeregulate the pressure in the
(26:05):
blood.
But a liver that is strugglingwill not produce enough.
And so then that's going toaffect the pressure within your
own vascular system.
And it's going to allow fluid toleak out of the blood vessels,
which can create swelling.
And other issues in your body.
And then when those levels fallin that liver, that's just not
able to produce enough, lesscalcium can actually remain in
(26:28):
the bloodstream, which leads toissues with low calcium in your
body, which can impact so manyother pieces as well.
Right.
So we see how many, right?
Like how many pieces are allactually interconnected.
So why the recommendation to eata lot of protein and move your
body and support your systemhere, right?
It, it comes together.
(26:49):
To support so many other thingsthat go just beyond quote, just
liver function.
Yeah.
And I think like an importantpiece of that is just the
foundational health pieces thatyou just end up hearing over and
over again.
And it's because it really is sovital stress impacts liver
health, poor sleep impacts liverhealth.
(27:10):
And so being on top of thosepieces is only going to help
you.
Your liver actually like in theChinese medicine model
regenerate.
It's overnight.
And if you're missing sleep, Ifyou're not, I think even if
you're not getting into your REMby like 11:00 PM or something
like that, your body is just notable to properly recover and.
(27:33):
Help your liver to regenerate atthose points.
Some other things to be thinkingabout is just some daily rhythms
that support liver health.
And it's so easy to just add indry brushing before you get into
the shower or taking an Epsomsalt bath once a week, or
getting in your sauna or findinga sauna or just sweating in
(27:56):
particular and finding any wayto sweat, either outside in the
hot weather, working out,getting.
Getting in a hot bath, etcetera.
And then red light also has somereally good research backing its
ability to help keep lymphflowing and support liver health
that way.
Yet we have an entire episodeabout red light support and
(28:17):
sauna and sweating and all ofthat good stuff as well, and all
of this right.
Kind of interrelates with thosethings.
If you are somebody who's like,okay, that's all great.
But I kind of want some morelike firm information about
what's going on in my body.
You absolutely can get some labwork, done, some blood work done
to really check in on what isgoing on.
And I will list out in the.
(28:38):
Shown up to where that werecommend to kind of get those
labs done.
If you cannot find a providerwho will run them for you.
But a comprehensive metabolicpanel prothrombin time, which is
basically like how long it takesyour blood to clot.
Those two in particular can bereally helpful in understanding
how your liver's actuallyfunctioning.
And so, like I mentioned in theshow notes, you'll see where you
(29:00):
can order your own labs which isthey're actually a really great
just cash pay price, reallystraightforward process.
And I think it's extra helpful.
If you are somebody whoquestions either your own
history in a previous pregnancywith liver health or.
It has something going on inyour life that you're like, I
feel like I should really knowabout this before I get
(29:22):
pregnant.
Absolutely.
If you can kind of deep dive onthis before getting pregnant.
You your pregnancy and thehealth of your pregnancy and the
risk status of your pregnancyand the issues that come up in
your pregnancy will absolutelybe impacted by your decision to
kind of deep dive into this now.
Yeah, I mean, during pregnancy,the liver undergoes a
(29:44):
significant amount of changes tosupport your baby, to adapt to
the increased demands on yourbody.
And it plays a really key rolein detoxification metabolizing.
Regulating hormones and makingit like completely essential for
a healthy pregnancy.
Yeah.
All so many things come back toliver health and sometimes.
(30:06):
The body doesn't send all ofthese signals until pregnancy
it's like, oh, I'm, you know,this is the drop in the bucket
that is like completelyoverflowing.
And complications in pregnancyhave been related to liver
health in one way or another,like gestational hypertension,
preeclampsia, HELLP syndromeeven hyperemesis blood sugar
regulation, gestationaldiabetes, Cola status.
(30:29):
I mean the list.
Those are all the main pregnancycomplications that have some.
Effect on how the liver is ableto process and optimize health
for you in your pregnancy.
So such an important thing toknow that supporting the liver
in pregnancy.
Can look a little bit differentthan what we mentioned.
(30:50):
You'll have to speak with yourcare provider about safe things
that you can do for liversupport in pregnancy.
But you can focus on some gentleliver support, like dry
brushing, like lemon in yourwater, like exercising, eating
good food, all of that.
And we know that women who gointo pregnancy with really
(31:11):
healthy livers, prevent some ofthese disease processes, improve
your outcomes for your pregnancyand your birth.
They help you feel better.
And just avoid complications ingeneral.
Yeah.
And so that's like true in anypart of life.
Right.
We see women who are likefocusing on liver health and all
of a sudden their periods feelbetter, or they're not dealing
with their hormonal migraines oryou know, the list goes on and
(31:33):
how all of a sudden they'relike, I can see, I can think
more clearly, right?
Like all of the things in mybody are just working on all
cylinders and so that it reallycan impact again, so much
another reason that we justreally wanted to make sure this
episode got out.
To you just as a starting point,now that you get to jump off
from, do more research beyondthe trajectory towards liver,
(31:55):
just vitality and health.
There's so many episodes eventhat we've mentioned already,
but even other ones that we'lldeep dive into women's health
topics that kind of touch onliver health as well, because
that impact is just so farreaching it.
It has been woven in throughmany, many episodes in different
ways.
And then again, in the links inthe.
(32:15):
Show notes, you will find allkinds of good stuff.
Everything that we mentioned.
We do want to highlight thefactor though that Tiffany and I
have been working.
So dang hard on this childbirtheducation class, that we are
very excited, very, very soon topush out into the world.
We do talk about liver health inpregnancy in that In that
(32:36):
course, and it's going to beready to be launched very, very,
very, very soon.
And the waitlist will get allkinds of good perks, including
some information and earlyaccess to that course.
So you will find the link tosign up for that in the show
notes.
We hope that you have like somegreat goodie that you can take
(32:57):
away from this episode today,even if it's just like, I'm
going to get to bed before 11o'clock.
I'm going to squeeze a lemoninto my water.
I mean, all of those littlechanges, they really do add up
and create like a.
A cascade of wellness, and wehope that you are able to take
one little thing away from thattoday.
(33:17):
Cascade of wellness.
Cascade of wellness.
I'm here for that.
But we will catch you next week.
And we're, we're chatting aboutpreventing some birth
complications, which again isprobably going to talk about
liver health.
So here we, here we go.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.