A Healthy Liver Balances Hormones

There is a reason why health professionals and menopause experts keep telling us we need to give up or dramatically reduce our intake of alcohol to support our menopause, it’s because alcohol is toxic to our bodies. It may make us feel good in the short term, but the long term effects at this time of transition, by far outweigh the quick fixes. The experts are not making this advice up, it is scientifically and medically proven that we must support the natural detoxification role of one of our major and vital organs, the liver. 

Any substance we take into our bodies via food, air or skin goes through our liver which filters the safe substances for further use by the body and removes those substances that are harmful to the body. As we age our system ages too, and it becomes harder for our body to perform the way it did in our 20s and 30s. Our metabolism slows down and our ability to process toxins gets harder and the hangovers get worse, did you notice that as you hit 40?  
 
One of the main functions of our precious liver is to naturally detox our system, and by doing that it naturally regulates the balance of; the sex hormones – oestrogen and progesterone; thyroxin the hormone produced by the thyroid; and the stress hormones, adrenalin and cortisol which are secreted by the adrenals. All of these hormones are vital to our wellbeing, and they need to be balanced. 
 
Our liver will prioritise processing alcohol over its job of natural detoxication. It sees alcohol as a toxin and wants to help us feel better by getting rid, quickly. When the liver’s focus is on breaking down alcohol for it to be eliminated quickly from our bodies, it then struggles to do the job it was designed for, removing all the natural toxins and excesses from our system. When we don’t get rid of the hormones we no longer need we start to feel the effects both on both our physical and mental health.