|
March
02, 2001
Issue
# 36
LIVER
DETOXIFICATION
Part
I
“Maybe, It’s time to give your Liver a break!”
By:
Bryan K Taunton, PFI
President:
STA-FIT, Inc.
Scientifically, Technologically Advanced Fitness
Do you find yourself feeling tired, achy, have
frequent headaches, dizzy spells, see sparkles, feeling foggy
headed, experience frequent illness, dysfunctional or irritable
bowel, occasional rashes, loss of vitality or stamina, irritable or
moody, have a problem maintaining focus or mental acuity, experience
sexual problems, lack motivation, and/or find it hard to remain calm
under pressure? If you have any or all of the above you may be experiencing
signs of liver stress. I’m
sure most everyone has experienced a portion of these symptoms at
some point and time, though hopefully not all at once.
A person experiencing even mild liver stress may exhibit any
one or several of these symptoms or more at some point and time.
In fact, I could go as far to say that everyone reading this
article is experiencing some form of undue liver stress.
About
The Liver
The liver is the largest organ in the human body.
Weighing in at approximately 3 lbs it serves as the body’s
filtering plant. Filtering
out all sorts of impurities, toxic matter, chemicals, microorganisms
(viruses, fungi, parasites, and bacteria), dead cells, and drugs on
a daily basis the liver protects your life.
In this day and time of chemical warfare, food additives,
livestock fed enhanced foods, genetically engineered foods, plant
fertilizers and pesticides, food processing, antibiotics, and the
hundreds/millions/billions of possible other contaminants the liver
is pushed to its maximum efforts.
Within the Sinusoidal System (liver filter) special cells
call Kupffer Cells are produced to ingest and
breakdown various
contaminants or toxic matter which enter the body. Absolutely every drug, chemical, hormone, pesticides, and
numerous other toxins are broken down or metabolized inside
detoxification pathways, which produce special enzymes within the
liver.There are two major pathways in
which the liver goes about its work of detoxification.
Phase
One: Detoxification
Pathway
The
Oxidase Enzymic Cytochrome P-450 mixed function would be an example
of this pathway. This
pathway operates by converting toxic chemicals into less harmful
chemicals, through various chemical reactions such as oxidation,
reduction, and hydrolysis. This
is a disruptive process during which time further damage may be done
to the liver due to the free radicals produced during this action.
Numerous anti-oxidants of which we will discuss further will
assist in reducing this damage.
Phase
Two: Detoxification Pathway
The
Conjugation Pathway during which time the liver cells add another
substance such as cysteine, glycine, or sulpher to the toxin making
it water-soluble, thereby enabling it to be excreted via bile or
urine. Supplementation
of products containing these substances such as amino-acids
containing sulpher, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower,
cabbage, etc) will assist the liver in phase two detoxification.
During Phase Two detoxification both UDP-glucuronyl
transferase (GT) and glutathione-S-transfrase (GSH-T) are needed.
Gluthaione is the most powerful of internal anti-oxidants in
the liver. It can be
depleted by large amounts of toxins, drugs, stress, and fasting (a
popular detoxification therapy and ritual).
If
either one of these pathways become overloaded a build up of toxins
will occur. Many toxins
are fat-soluble. Meaning
that they can only be dissolved in fatty or oily solutions and not
water. At the point and
time at which toxin or chemical overload begins to occur these
Fat-soluble Toxins will begin to incorporate themselves into fatty
tissue where they could be harbored for years or even a lifetime.
Fatty tissue would include adipose tissue and fatty organs
such as the Brain and Endocrine system.
Many of these toxins, being carcinogenic in nature, have been
implicated in the rising increase of cancer.
As toxin overload occurs, these chemicals, agents,
microorganisms, and etc. begin to spill over and build up in the
blood stream thereby overloading the immune system.
As irritations begin to occur in this hyper-stimulated state,
the body begins to produce corticoids (cortisol the enemy of muscle
growth), depleting nitrogen stores, and producing autoantibodies.
Despite the immediate ramifications, long term left unchecked
this could have all sorts of ramifications including auto immune
disease, CFS, cancer, arthritis, cirrhosis, vasculitis, recurrent
infections, lupus, and much more.
.
Why
should you be concerned?
Naturally
as athletes we are concerned about our health more so than the
average man or woman. Poor
liver health not only affects your general health but as an athlete
it affects your athletic performance.
Clarity of mind, readiness, complete exertion, preparedness,
endurance, and more all come together when competition time arrives.
The condition of liver function will affect the outcome of
your competition especially in that of the performance athlete when
the pressure is on. This
also includes the high stress days of the competitive body builder
who probably puts as much or more stress on his/ her liver than any
other athlete. When
liver toxicity is high, performance will drop.
This means high levels of fatigue, stress, inability to
recuperate, lack or loss of appetite, poor nitrogen retention, and
catabolism. These will
definitely impair your success in achieving or how quickly you
achieve your body building goals.
As
athletes we tend to do many things which can be detrimental to the
health of our livers. Often
our diets fluctuate dramatically and various points/times of the
training year. Additionally
we place high stress on the liver through the various supplements
and drugs we routinely use. Not
to mention the high level of stress placed on the liver in daily
living alone. I read
somewhere recently that drinking water from a faucet alone can
contain upwards to 600 or more toxins or contaminants, which could
inhibit liver function. Then
there is the amount of prepared/processed foods we routinely put in
the body containing pesticides, preservatives, collagens, dead
cells, microorganisms, and the like.
In short daily living puts enough stress on the liver and by
leading an active lifestyle we place more.
Intense exercise, while being overall good for the body, also
produces chemical byproducts, which must be processed by the liver.
As
of late the high protein/ high fat diets are used more and more to
get that ripped look you are looking to achieve.
Rest assured when taken to excess the left over unassimilated
or excreted fat and protein become toxins themselves.
The metabolism of fat results in the production of ketones,
which are toxic to both the liver and the kidneys.
Many high fat diets do not specify a better selection of
dietary fat. These fats
especially saturated fats contribute to high LDL cholesterol levels
which again in turn places the liver in a more stressful environment
and can lead to the build up of fatty tissue inside the liver itself
resulting in poor liver circulation. It results in similarly having a few blocked sections in your
car air filter. The car
just doesn’t run as well and loses power.
This gives reason to believe that using more MCT’s would be
more beneficial to the high fat diet.
By obtaining calories from these and similar sources at least
they are metabolized immediately and not stored.
It should be understood using MCT’s exclusively would not
be a good idea as it would prove to be expensive and the body does
need some fat that is not immediately assimilated for energy such as
flax seed, omega 3 fatty acids (fish oil), and others.
Regarding
Androgenic/Anabolic Steroid- Induced Hepatoxicity:
Performance
enhancing drugs, AAS in particular, have been noted for their
harmful effects on the liver. In
recent years with Cancer, Cardiac, and wasting diseases such as AIDS
a new interest in AAS has risen in the medical community for their
ability to assist in enhancing LBM, strength levels, and protein
synthesis. Much
of this research has also given rise to a new attitude regarding the
side effects of these products.
Commonly
injectable AAS are referred to as being the lesser of two evils the
other being oral 17-alkylated complexes.
Injectable AAS are viewed by most as having little or no
effect on the liver (Illustrated in a comment by Dr. Caroline
Becker, endocrinologist in Mt. Kisco, NY saying, “Even with
individuals with pre-existing liver disease I would have no
compunction in giving them injectable testosterone.”) and have
been the preferred method of treatment.
*The
study below suggest the exercise alone may be enough to induce or
offset normal AST (SGPT) or ALT (SGOT) levels while a GGT levels are
left normal. Testing
for these levels is explained further in this article.
Anabolic
steroid-induced hepatotoxicity: is it overstated?
Dickerman RD; Pertusi RM; Zachariah NY; Dufour DR; McConathy WJ.
Clin J Sport Med, 9(1):34-9 1999 Jan.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: There have been numerous reports of hepatic dysfunction
secondary to anabolic steroid use based on elevated levels of serum
aminotransferases. This study was conducted to distinguish between
serum aminotransaminase elevations secondary to intense resistance
training and anabolic steroid-induced hepatotoxicity in elite
bodybuilders. DESIGN: This was a case-control study of serum
chemistry profiles from bodybuilders using and not using anabolic
steroids with comparisons to a cohort of medical students and
patients with hepatitis. PARTICIPANTS: The participants were
bodybuilders taking self-directed regimens of anabolic steroids (n =
15) and bodybuilders not taking steroids (n = 10). Blood chemistry
profiles from patients with viral hepatitis (n = 49) and exercising
and nonexercising medical students (592) were used as controls. MAIN
OUTCOME MEASURES: The focus in blood chemistry profiles was
aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT),
gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT), and creatine kinase (CK) levels.
RESULTS:
In both groups of bodybuilders, CK, AST, and ALT were elevated,
whereas GGT remained in the normal range. In contrast, patients with
hepatitis had elevations of all three enzymes: ALT, AST, and GGT.
Creatine kinase (CK) was elevated in all exercising groups. Patients
with hepatitis were the only group in which a correlation was found
between aminotransferases and GGT.
CONCLUSION:
Prior reports of anabolic steroid-induced hepatotoxicity based on
elevated aminotransferase levels may have been overstated, because
no exercising subjects, including steroid users, demonstrated
hepatic dysfunction based on GGT levels. Such reports may have
misled the medical community to emphasize steroid-induced
hepatotoxicity when interpreting elevated aminotransferase levels
and disregard muscle damage. For these reasons, when evaluating
hepatic function in cases of anabolic steroid therapy or abuse, CK
and GGT levels should be considered in addition to ALT and AST
levels as essential elements of the assessment.
Next
week we will conclude with:
Testing for Liver Problems:
Liver Detoxification Test, SGOT, SGHT, etc.
And
Methods
of Detoxification
References:
-
Jekot
WF, et al. Treating HIV/AIDS patients with anabolic steroids.
AIDS Patient Care, 1003 (April) 7; 2: 11-17
-
Michael
Mooney, et al. Commentary: Steroids and the Liver, Issue No. 1,
(August) ‘99
-
AIDS
Treatment News, Jan.1, 1993:166:5
-
Frank
A. Mitros, M.D., et al. Atlas of Liver Pathology: Ch.6, ‘99
-
Cabot,
Sandra, M.D., et al Liver Detoxification, www.LiverDr.com
-
Lark,
Susan M, M.D. / Richards, James A., M.B.A., et al. Secrets of
Peak Performance, circa 2000, ch. 5-8
BACK
TO CURRENT ISSUE
|