| The Liver's
Mighty Detoxification Powers
 Every
drug, pesticide, hormone, food sub-
stance and chemical is broken down or meta-bolized by the liver
cells. If these substances are not processed by the liver, they
will be stored in the fat tissues and cell membranes of the body.
The danger of these substances being stored is that they will be
released during exercise, stress, and fasting and can then hurt
the body. This can cause unwanted symptoms like headaches, stomach
pain, and nausea (feeling sick in the stomach). If these potentially
harmful substances are not broken down, they can build up in the
blood, which creates more work for the immune system.
Sometimes, when the liver processes a substance, the substance
is activated rather than broken down. If this happens, the liver
will produce toxic by-products that may hurt the body. For example,
when the liver processes acetaminophen (Tylenol®), substances
that are bad for the body are produced.
In order to break down bad substances, the liver has two detoxification
pathways. Generally, the detoxification pathways change chemicals
that dissolve in fat (fat-soluble chemicals) into chemicals that
dissolve in water (water-soluble chemicals). Only chemicals dissolved
in water can be easily removed from the body in water-based fluids
such as urine and bile. The diagram below gives a simplified version
of this process.
Detoxification Process
The first pathway in the detoxification process is called Phase
One. In this pathway, a harmful chemical is changed to a less harmful
one through a series of chemical reactions. Throughout the process,
free radicals are made. Free radicals are unstable particles that
react with the body and damage the body’s cells. Free radicals
can be caused by pollution, radiation and food preservatives as
well as sources inside the body like HIV, or even the body itself.
If there are too many free radicals, damage may occur to the liver
cells. How well your body gets rid of free radicals depends to a
large degree on the kind of food you give your body.
After the toxic chemical has gone through and been changed by the
Phase One pathway, it moves on to the second pathway called Phase
Two. In this pathway, the liver cells add a substance to the toxin
to make it water-soluble. Water-soluble substances (easily dissolved
in water) can then be removed from the body through urine and feces.
As you can see, liver detoxification is an important process that
keeps the liver and the rest of the body healthy.
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