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How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver
Plus: is oil-pulling a healthy practice for your teeth and gums?
The 10almonds Team
August 16, 2023
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⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:
Oral hygiene is very important for a lot of other health factors, including against heart disease and inflammation.
Today’s featured video looks at how oil pulling might help you keep yours in optimal health.
Our liver has incredible regenerative abilities, but even it can only do so much, especially if we’re still doing it harm (such as with alcohol and/or a poor diet)
If we still have 51% of our liver present and correct, the other 49% will regenerate, given the chance
We can support our liver’s regeneration in a few ways, especially:
Cutting, or ideally eliminating, alcohol consumption
Being mindful about the medications we take (please do not make any medication changes without consulting your doctor, though)
Enjoying what mostly amounts to a Mediterranean diet (see main feature for more specific features of a liver-healthy diet, though)
Hydration is a critical and often-neglected part of good health, and healthy habits are (by science!) best picked-up when they’re made more convenient and easy.
Today’s sponsor, Hint Water, are offering 10almonds subscribers 45% off and free shipping, on their already very reasonably-priced flavored waters and vitamin waters
They are, by the way, free from sugar and artificial sweeteners, so these are different from ones you’ve probably tried before
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
Oil Pulling—A One-Year Case Study | Joanna’s Story
Oral hygiene is very important for a lot of other health factors, including against heart disease and inflammation. Is oil pulling worth adding to your oral hygiene repertoire, and can it replace the floss, toothbrush, and/or mouthwash? This video is one person’s one-year findings, and it may be a useful starting point for learning more:
Oil pulling menu:
🦅 MAIN FEATURE
How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver
In Greek mythology, Prometheus suffered the punishment of being chained to a rock, where he would have his liver eaten by an eagle, whereupon each day his liver would grow back, only to be eaten again the next day.
We mere humans who are not Greek gods might not be able to endure quite such punishment to our liver, but it is an incredibly resilient and self-regenerative organ.
In fact, provided at least 51% of the liver is still present and correct, the other 49% will regrow. Similarly, damage done (such as by trying to store too much fat there due to metabolic problems, as in alcoholic or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) will reverse itself in time, given the chance.
The difference between us and Prometheus
In the myth, Prometheus had his liver regrow overnight every night. Ours don’t recover quite so quickly.
Indeed, the science has good and bad news for us:
❝Liver recolonization models have demonstrated that hepatocytes have an unlimited regenerative capacity. However, in normal liver, cell turnover is very slow.❞
If it regenerates, why do people need transplants, and/or die of liver disease?
There are some diseases of the liver that inhibit its regenerative abilities, or (as in the case of cancer) abuse them to our detriment. However, in the case of fatty liver disease, the reason is usually simple:
If the lifestyle factors that caused the liver to become fatty are still there, then its regenerative abilities won’t be able to keep up with the damage that is still being done.
Can we speed it up at all?
Yes! The first and most important thing is to minimize how much ongoing harm you are still doing to it, though.
If you drink alcohol, stop. According to the WHO, the only amount of alcohol that is safe for you is zero.
You might like our previous article: How To Reduce Or Quit Alcohol
Consider your medications, and find out which place a strain on the liver. Many medications are not optional; you’re taking them for an important reason, so don’t quit things without checking with your doctor. Medications that strain the liver include, but are by no means limited to:
Many painkillers, including acetaminophen (Tylenol), paracetamol, and ibuprofen
Some immunosuppresent drugs, including azathioprine
Some epilepsy drugs, including phenytoin
Some antibiotics, including amoxicillin
Statins in general
Note: we are not pharmacists, nor doctors, let alone your doctors.
Check with yours about what is important for you to take, and what alternatives might be safe for you to consider.
Dietary considerations
While there are still things we don’t know about the cause(s) of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, there is a very strong association with a diet that is:
high in salt
high in refined carbohydrates
e.g. white flour and white flour products such as white bread and white pasta; also the other main refined carbohydrate: sugar
high in red meat
high in non-fermented dairy
high in fried foods.
So, consider minimizing those, and instead getting plenty of fiber, and plenty of lean protein (not from red meat, but poultry and fish are fine iff not fried; beans and legumes are top-tier, though).
Also, hydrate. Most people are dehydrated most of the time, and that’s bad for all parts of the body, and the liver is no exception. It can’t regenerate if it’s running on empty!
How long will it take to heal?
In the case of alcoholic fatty liver disease, it should start healing a few days after stopping drinking. Then, how long it takes to fully recover depends on the extent of the damage; it could be weeks or months. In extreme cases, years, but that is rare. Usually if the damage is that severe, a transplant is needed.
In the case of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, again it depends on the extent of the damage, but it is usually a quicker recovery than the alcoholic kind—especially if eating a Mediterranean diet.
Take good care of yourself!
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
No sugar, no sweeteners, just hydration bursting with fruit flavors
Hydration is a critical and often-neglected part of good health, so this is one where convenience really pays and keeps your body and brain nourished.
Hint Water specialize in flavored water infused with fruit essences. By using purified water and natural fruit essences, Hint Water provides surprisingly accurate fruit flavors—not the “sickly sweet with a strange aftertaste” flavored waters you might otherwise know.
Best of all, they offer 8 delicious flavors to choose from, and have a “Hint+vitamin” range too.
Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
🌍 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
Does an apple a day really keep the doctor away? A nutritionist explains the science behind functional foods
COVID-19 vaccination and boosting during pregnancy found to benefit pregnant people and newborns
Listeria cases spur recall of Soft Serve ice cream
The form of food we eat may have more impact than we think
"I refuse to get old": how readers strive to keep dementia at bay
Don’t feel pressured, learn to simmer, and keep experimenting: how to have great sex at every stage of life
The psychological immune system: four ways to bolster yours
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism, and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100 – by Marta Zaraska
This one will be a slightly mixed review, but we think the book has more than enough of value to make it a very worthwhile read.
The premise of the book is that, as the subtitle suggests, positive social qualities increase personal longevity.
Author (and science journalist) Marta Zaraska looks at a lot of research to back this up, and also did a lot of travelling and digging into stories. This is of great value, because she notes where a lot of misconceptions have arisen.
To give one example, it's commonly noted that marriage (or as-though-marriage life partnerships) is generally* associated with longer life.
*Statistics suggest that marriage-related longevity is enjoyed by men married to women, and people in same-sex marriages regardless of gender, but is not so much the case for women married to men.
However! Zaraska notes a factor she learned from Gottman's research (yes, that Gottman), that what matters is not the official status of a relationship, so much as the sense of secure lifelong commitment to it.
These kinds of observations (throughout the book) add an extra layer beyond “common wisdom”, and allow us to better understand what’s really going on. The book's main weaknesses, meanwhile, are twofold:
The author is (in this reviewer’s opinion) unduly dismissive of physical health lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise, because they "only" account for a similar bonus to healthy longevity.
Like many, she does not always consider where correlation might not mean causation. For example, she cites that volunteering free time increases healthspan by 22%, but neglects to note that perhaps it is having the kind of socioeconomic situation that allows one free time to volunteer, that gives the benefit.
Bottom line: the book has its flaws, but we think that only serves to make it more engaging. After all, reading should not be a purely passive activity! Zaraska's well-studied insights give plenty of pointers for tweaking the social side of anyone's quest for healthy longevity.
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
Wishing you a wonderfully restorative day,
The 10almonds Team