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Conjuction Junction, How’s Your Liver Function?

Posted on July 5, 2016 by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 7 Comments on Conjuction Junction, How’s Your Liver Function?

Read this before you do anything else for your overall well-being. The GEM Liver Health

Do you give much thought to your liver? You should, because it may be the reason you aren’t feeling your best. The liver is the body’s most important organ–with more than 500 known functions. It’s involved with digestion, blood sugar control, and protein and fat metabolism. It functions as a living filter to cleanse the system of toxins, metabolize proteins, control hormonal balance and produce immune boosting factors. These functions are essential to your overall health.

Do you love your liver, or abuse it? Abuse in the form of:

  • Poor food choices: think preservatives, junk, excess sugar, overeating, fried food.
  • Pharmaceuticals: Toxins are fat soluble so they remain in your fat cells. Chemotherapy too.
  • Environmental: We are exposed daily to high levels of toxins (chemicals, pesticides, water contaminants, heavy metals) through our food, water, air, body and home products.
  • Excess caffeine and alcohol. This one is self explanatory.

When your liver becomes overloaded, congestion occurs. If the liver can’t properly filter the blood, you end up with recycled toxins flowing through your body. This can damage your heart and immune and endocrine system, wreak havoc on your optimal health, even lead to rapid aging.

This sluggishness causes problems you might not think are related,  I couldn’t believe it! Do you have:

  • High sensitivity to chemical smells
  • Trouble digesting fatty foods
  • Increased intolerance to alcohol. This was a big sign for me that something was wrong.
  • Bloating around the upper abdomen
  • Chronic indigestion. Have you been downing those antacids???
  • Wake up at 2 – 3 a.m. for no reason
  • Moodiness/depression/anger. For real, it can be connected to your liver.
  • Fatigue
  • Blotchy skin
  • Gallbladder issues, or removal
  • Constipation, IBS
  • BRAIN FOG
  • Trouble losing weight—your liver plays a critical role in metabolism
  • More ominous symptoms include high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglycerides, sleep apnea and fatty yellowish lumps around eyes. (CALL YOUR DOCTOR FOR THESE!)

If you have more than three of these symptoms, it is possible you have a sluggish liver — blocked or clogged up with unhealthy fat (in extreme cases it’s called fatty liver). These are signs you need to take action! Once I figured out I had a problem, (which came from a year-long stint with some chemo), I immediately set out to restore my liver health. My changes have really made a positive effect on my health. I sleep better, think better and am a more pleasant person to be around—just to name a few!

How can you remedy this and feel better?

You need to give some love to your liver. Here’s how.

REDUCE exposure to air and food borne toxins:

  • Creepy room fresheners and synthetic perfumes are SOOOOO BAD.
  • Think of it as embalming fluid for food.
  • No one needs electric blue GATORADE!
  • Go organic. Eat at The GEM!
  • Heavy metals in large fish – say goodbye tuna, swordfish
  • Unfiltered water. Get a filter!
  • Chlorinated and brominated products found in almost all commercially produced breads and bread products. I mean … WTF.
  • Switch to non-toxic and plant-based, cleaning and personal care products. This is a BIG deal. If you can’t eat it, don’t use it on your skin.

CHANGE your habits and, “Let food be thy medicine.”

  • Eliminate processed foods, poor quality fats, simple carbohydrates and sugar.
  • Limit or eliminate alcohol. Duh.
  • Drink 32 ounces of filtered water each morning.
  • Eat detoxifying, liver loving foods to help repair the damage to your liver. Dark leafy greens, pastured eggs, beets, garlic, onions, cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts.
  • Check out our new FANTASTIC DANDELION SALAD chocked full of liver detoxifying love. I’ve been eating this everyday. DAILY, ORGANIC GREEN JUICE contains living enzymes, vitamin C and anti-cancer phyto-nutrients. carrot, celery, beet, dandelion, apples, any green leafy veggie!!

REPAIR & RESTORE

We DON’T SUBSCRIBE TO overloading the body with supplements—they can actually be harmful to the liver! Stay away from those cryptic boxes of powders and pills heralding a “liver cleanse.”  That kind of cleanse is best left to a functional medicine practitioner.

BUT, there are a few supportive herbs and nutrients you can use DAILY to rebuild health.

  • Boosts of chorella and spirulina remove heavy metals and toxins. (Grab a BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND AND NEW PERFORMANCE SHOT!)
  • Essential fatty acids–plentiful amounts are required for healthy liver function. High quality fish oil. Wild fish. Avocado, raw nuts and seeds. Strict low-fat diets are not beneficial for general health, weight control or liver function.
  • MILK THISTLE and DANDELION tonics for liver cleansing, TURMERIC for inflammation can make a difference. Anima Mundi Bitters is a kick ass addition to your daily supplement routine. I saw immediate improvement in my sleep pattern. It helps remove stagnation, increase absorption. It stimulates bile production, enhances digestion and revitalizes liver function by eliminating accumulated toxins. GRAB SOME NOW.

It’s time to clean up the liver. These changes will improve digestion, sleep, better skin, weight loss and promote optimal function of your entire body!

Invest wisely into your health to feel your best and proactively prevent future chronic illness. After adding the extra beets, dandelions, Anima Mundi, milk thistle I’ve been sleeping like a baby….and slowly clearing the brain fog–one thought at a time!


Your Biggest Enemy: Stress. By Way of Sugar

Posted on May 23, 2016 by diamondsonyourinside and currently has 1 Comment on Your Biggest Enemy: Stress. By Way of Sugar

We know the visible suspects of stress: hectic schedules, poor relationships, lack of sleep. In addition, there are invisible factors that trigger the same stress response. It’s as ubiquitous as the air you breathe. It’s called sugar …

Photo cred: Vig Foto

Photo cred: Vig Foto

What you’re about to learn should change how you think about stress and, if you’re smart, how you interact with sugar—especially when stressed.

Surprisingly, one of the biggest causes behind stress could be your blood sugar. The more time spent outside of a healthy blood sugar range, the more your body feels stressed. Excess sugar causes the same physiological changes that external stresses do!

Blood sugar spikes seriously affect stress and inflammation levels in your body. I’ll spare you the physiology lesson, but spiked blood sugar causes stress in your body, which causes your adrenal glands to produce cortisol. Cortisol manages stress and it also manages blood sugar. When blood sugar levels change too fast, your cortisol is used to pull it back up again. Unstable blood sugar can make you feel the same as you feel when an event makes you angry, frustrated, frightened, i.e., STRESSED. So … sugar makes your stress response worse.

We already know stress is a really bad thing when it comes to your health and happiness. Chronic stress can be as fatal as smoking and a predictor of weight gain even more than genetics.

Even when you can’t control every cause of stress in your world, the simple act of keeping your blood sugar levels stable will make you more resilient, less irritable, better able to “deal.”

When I’m stressed AND sugared up, I become the most irritable lunatic. Everyone benefits from me steering clear of sugar! In addition, stable blood sugar levels help you stay lean and energized. This is because unstable blood sugar (and cortisol) causes you to make fat storage hormones like insulin and affects sleep patterns, which causes weight gain and fatigue.

Photo cred: Vig Foto

Photo cred: Vig Foto

If some of this sounds like you, let’s talk about management. What can you do to keep your blood sugar stable?

Throughout the day, many factors protect or damage your blood sugar. However, what happens in the morning affects your day than any other time. So …

START YOUR DAY OFF RIGHT.

Your morning routine can start the downward spiral that keeps you in a constant state of stress– raising stress hormones from the get go.

  1. Eat a high quality protein filled breakfast – Kick Captain Crunch out of your kitchen, because he, along with high sugar breakfast foods (bagels, overly sweetened yogurts, junk smoothies), sabotage your blood sugar, your mood, your waistline. You will function SO MUCH better when you stay under seven grams of sugar from all sources combined. Stick with high quality protein, pastured eggs, raw plant protein powders, paired with good fat sources like coconut oil or avocados.
  1. Don’t skip breakfast – Having no food lowers your metabolism in preparation for famine. This makes you less able to burn fat for fuel. The “Amazing Crown Jewel” smoothie gives you the fat and protein you need to power through your morning!
  1. Drink green juice – The phytonutrients from alkalizing greens and vegetables help maintain blood sugar while flooding your system with immunity boosting, inflammation quelling, energizing enzymes and nutrients. Look for juices that are a minimum of 70% vegetables, like the Flawless, or Disco. Even the classic Green Glow packs a punch!

CONSIDER A 3 DAY JUICE CLEANSE TO REBOOT YOU SYSTEM—GET RID OF THOSE CRAVINGS. Want to chew too? Reserve a Juice Then Dinner Cleanse and enjoy a little mastication!

  1. LAY OFF high amounts of caffeine – Why does caffeine give you energy? Because it causes you to raise your blood sugar in the same way that sugary food does. Then THE CRASH. Drink organic green tea instead
  1. Physical activity – Anything works: walking, running, yoga, you name it. It helps regulate your blood sugar too.
  1. Stay psychologically centered – Start a gratitude journal. Mentally rehearse your day, and set your intention to be healthy, happy and calm. Grab our GEM Journal for amazing prompts to maintain a health-filled day.

 

Your body and mind strive to reach states of balance and happiness. Even though you cannot control the world around you, you can help yourself become healthier and more resilient by making easy adjustments in your daily habits.