Liver Disease Risk Factors

These risk factors have been time tested and studied for over 20 years and are clearly disruptful and destructive to the daily function of the liver. It is unlikely that most people will be able to avoid these risk factors, so we recommend as a basic rule to consume only in moderation. If that moderation becomes more than twice weekly, then it would be best to try and consciously focus on what you put into your body. Sometimes it is difficult to realize how much we really consume throughout the day. Keeping a log and making small notes about your daily intake may help you trade the junk for nutritionally dense products.

• Junk Foods: such as french fries, doughnuts, fried chicken and snack foods are cooked in overheated, overused, hydrogenated fats. Fried foods are a major source of liver-toxic lipid peroxides (rancid fats) and trans-fatty acids. Lipid peroxides are immune suppressive and damage liver cell membranes. Trans-fatty acids suppress production of PGE1, an important liver-protecting anti-inflammatory prostaglandin.
• Alcohol: The liver converts alcohol into toxic acetaldehyde during its alcohol detoxification process. Acetaldehyde inhibits PGE1, production, is a powerful free radical inducer, and is largely responsible for the liver, brain, heart, kidney, skin, and blood vessel lining damage associated with chronic alcoholism.
• Coffee: Coffee crops are sprayed with pesticides. Almost all the coffee beans in the U.S. are imported, there is no way to determine which pesticides were used. Carcinogenic hydrocarbons are produced during roasting and the highest levels are found in dark roasts.
• Smoking: Tobacco smoke contains toxic benzopyrene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, cyanide, acetaldehyde, tars, etc. As the body's main detoxifying organ, the liver must work overtime to remove this stew of toxins.
• Fuel Exhaust: Auto and diesel exhaust contain dozens of liver damaging poisons such as lead, sulfur and nitrogen oxides, acetaldehyde, cadmium, and peroxyacetylnitrile.
• Birth-Control Pills: There have been some cases where as little as two to three weeks of use have been documented to severely reduce the ability of the liver to detoxify naturally produced estrogen. The livers of women on B vitamin/protein deficient diets may have difficulty metabolizing estrogen to nontoxic estriol, leaving it instead in the form of liver-toxic estradiol.
• Candida: Candida yeast ferments dietary sugars into liver-toxic acetaldehyde in the process of turning sugar into energy. Candida also appears to increase gut and urinary levels of ammonia, another liver toxin.
• Pesticides: such as PDT, Aldrin, chlordane, lindane, 2,4,5-T dioxin, and toxaphene can cause chronic liver damage even at levels measured in parts per billion because they tend to accumulate in body fat over a lifetime.
• Long-Term Drug Use: whether prescribed or illegal are potentially liver-toxic. Potential liver damage is a common warning found in prescription drug descriptions. Anabolic steroids. Liver damage is a major side effect of chronic steroid abuse by athletes.
• Acetaminophen: Tylenol, Anacin-3, Arthritis Pain Formula Aspirin Free, Datril Liquiprin Elixir, and St. Joseph Aspirin Free Fever Reducer for Children are just a few of the OTC (Over The Counter) products containing acetaminophen. People should be careful not to take too many drugs containing acetaminophen at the same time. Taking more than 15 grams can lead to irreversible liver disease. Whether smaller doses over long periods of time (such as those recommended for relieving arthritis symptoms) harm the liver has not been determined, but prolonged use increases the risk of kidney damage. Additional research is needed, but some reports indicate that fasting (i.e., you stop eating because of a bad cold or influenza) while taking acetaminophen may contribute to liver damage. People who consume large amounts of alcohol are at highest risk of developing liver damage from overuse of acetaminophen.
• Patient Alert: Acetaminophen was originally introduced in 1955 for children's fever and pain relief. Please note that the 15 grams mentioned above is for an adult;. Read all labels completely before giving your child any medication. It's not uncommon for infant formulas to contain higher amounts of active ingredients than children's formulas.

While there are many other liver disease risk factors, we have found these to be the most common in causing liver disfunctions. Overall, we recommend avoiding processed foods, products with lengthy lists of ingredients that are not recognized as whole or pure, and chemically produced products. Although it isn't always possible to consume only natural and good-for-you products, it is possible to limit the amount of nutritionally deficient and chemically enhanced products that you consume.