(BPT) - Your liver works as hard as you do, processing the food you eat and performing several vital functions for your body, including cleaning toxins from your blood and metabolizing proteins, carbs and fat for your body to use every day. After exerting itself performing all these critical functions, the liver regenerates. Because it's such a fundamental component of your overall health, it's important to help support it by making sure you're getting essential nutrients to keep regenerating and working for you, day after day.
"Nutrition is one of the most important factors to promote liver health, along with regular exercise, stress management and healthy weight management," said Dr. David Kahana, board certified in pediatrics and gastroenterology through the American Board of Pediatrics as well as medical nutrition through the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists. "While the best way to aid your liver is with a balanced diet, you can benefit from supplements that provide nutrients that are hard to get enough of from food every day."
To help ensure you're supplying your liver with the support it needs, 1MD Nutrition's LiverMD® has you covered. Here are the doctor-recommended nutrients contained in this supplement that help promote optimal liver function.
1. Milk thistle
An active compound in milk thistle called Silybin helps reduce occasional oxidative stress your liver experiences as it processes everything you ingest. It also supports liver cell strength, helping keep everyday environmental toxins from crossing into cells while promoting your liver's natural detoxification process. For optimal liver function, the silybin in the patented Siliphos® extract used in LiverMD® is a great place to start. With higher bioavailability than traditional milk thistle extracts, you can be assured your liver is getting the support it needs.
2. Vitamin E
Tocotrienols found in vitamin E are powerful cleansing compounds known to help reduce everyday oxidative stress and support healthy liver cell division. You can find vitamin E in foods like spinach, almonds, pumpkin, cereals, meat, poultry, eggs and fruits. However, if you don't get enough vitamin E from your food, a supplement can help ensure that your body gets what it needs. As you age, the ability to retain vitamin E diminishes, so it's important to maintain healthy levels as part of your daily routine. LiverMD® contains patented TocoGaia™, a full-spectrum tocotrienol vitamin E extract.
3. Selenium
As a purifying mineral, selenium helps reduce typical oxidative stress to promote the liver's natural detoxification process. It also supports liver cell and tissue elasticity to maintain proper shape and function. The most common food sources for selenium include seafood, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, poultry and eggs, but many Americans don't get the recommended daily amounts through food.
4. Zinc
This mineral helps aid the body's detoxification process to support both liver and digestive health. By helping reduce unwanted immune responses, zinc also supports healthy liver cell division and function. Zinc is found in foods like poultry, seafood, legumes, whole grains, avocados, berries, mushrooms and pumpkin seeds. You can also add a liver health supplement that contains an effective dose of zinc to your routine to enhance your overall well-being.
5. N-acetyl cysteine
When your diet is low in essential amino acids, N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) becomes vital. You can find NAC in foods like poultry, eggs, cheese, sunflower seeds, lentils, yogurt and oatmeal. NAC helps to reduce occasional oxidative stress, allowing time for healthy liver cell production and regeneration when needed, and also promotes healthy detoxification.
In addition to providing the five crucial nutrients described above, LiverMD® also contains alpha-lipoic acid, which promotes antioxidant capacity in and around the liver, and helps liver enzymes create energy from the nutrients you consume.
While a well-balanced diet provides adequate nutrition for many, life can get in the way, and you don't want your liver health to miss out on essential nutrients. Fortunately, 1MD Nutrition's LiverMD® is a scientifically formulated liver health solution packed with naturally sourced ingredients to help nourish and support liver function.
Learn more about how to maintain your liver health at 1MD.org.
