Can Your Liver Be Affected By Anger?? YES!!

A fellow member asked about emotions that are not suppressed.  And what if emotions such as anger come up constantly, even with little or no provocation?  

This was such a great question; I thought I'd write a bit on this, as I'm sure many of you have similar questions.




Body organs and emotions
In ancient theory, the liver is the seat of anger.  Whether anger causes liver disruption or liver disruption causes anger is likely of no consequence.  Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  

If mind and body are one, rather than two completely separate entities, then anger is liver imbalance and liver imbalance is anger. 


Our filtration machine
The liver is an amazing organ and we often take it for granted.  Its job requires the filtration of EVERY single thing that passes through our body.  We rely on this filter to absorb the good and remove the bad.  

Think about someone suffering from chronic alcoholism. They are usually very quick to explosive anger, and experience lots of redness in the face, and especially of the nose.  This is an example of body and mind as one. 


Isn't anger normal? 
Now, anger is a natural human emotion and our job isn't to NEVER be angry in life.  However, anger should come up only occasionally and pass through the body and mind fairly quickly to resolution or "home base". 

Anger that is more significant can be a sign of liver disturbance, as in the case of liver damage from chronic alcohol use, but more commonly indicating that the liver is in need of a bit of support and "detoxification" to unload the burden.  Blood liver studies are usually normal in the later case, so this is a "functional liver disturbance", not a "pathological" or diagnosable disturbance in conventional medicine.  


Ladies...
The liver also plays a large part in the recycling and regeneration of hormones, especially important for women as liver overload can cause hormones swings, coinciding with mood swings, including anger.  


Emotion stacking
We should also be curious when anger pops up again and again.  Many times, this is because of another suppressed emotion, such as feelings of betrayal, or hurt, which is not expressed/resolved at the time of occurance.

If this happens again and again, anger can show up seemingly out of nowhere. In other words, we are usually angry "because of something".  We felt disrespected by another, someone cut us off in traffic, we felt unheard in the workplace.  

To top things off, we can then develop shame or guilt for being angry.  I call this "emotion stacking" and it can be a slippery slope into physical ailments of ALL types.  


Now, what to do?  
You can approach this either from an emotional treatment plan or a physical liver detox support plan. Either one will lead to improvement because, all together now, "body and mind are one". 


The liver loves:

• Lots of water each day to help it filter

• Castor oil used topically to help lymphatic circulation 

• Meditation and anything that brings you joy and happiness

• Honoring the anger that is present, as it is a form of communication from the mind/body

• Asking why the anger is there.  Where did it come from and what does it need? 

• Avoidance of toxins from food and the environment 

• Cynara cardunculus, aka Artichoke. One of the world’s oldest known medicinal plants. It was first grown in Ethiopia and is often seen in the drawings of ancient Egyptians. Gorgeous, no?

Studies show Artichoke can lower cholesterol levels* and the leaf extract has been shown to protect liver cells from damage.

While eating artichoke is amazing, medicinal extracts of capsules, dried herb and liquid tinctures can also be used.⠀
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But it’s not for everyone. Caution for those with allergies to the Asteraceae family (ragweed, chrysanthemums, marigolds and daisies) as artichoke is a cousin. ⠀

*BTW, the liver creates cholesterol. Most are not aware of this. We are often taught cholesterol comes from foods alone.

When someone has "high cholesterol" on testing, I always dive into the health of the liver and ask "why is the liver over-producing cholesterol?" This usually has to do with inflammation the liver is trying to manage by using cholesterol as putty to soothe micro-cuts in the cardiovascular system.

So in the end, inflammatory foods can cause high cholesterol, but high cholesterol does not occur from eating cholesterol containing foods alone.

Anger can also cause high cholesterol. Why? You guessed it, because body and mind are one. Anger= liver and liver= anger.

Why not click below to see where you may have an imbalance.