Liver protection is not just about eating "liver protection tablets".
The proliferation of "wine table culture" has made alcohol the "guest of honor" at various gatherings. While "singing every night", while eating "liver protection tablets", is it really right to socialize and protect the liver?
"Dumb" liver: an organ that does not cry out in pain
The classic of traditional Chinese medicine "The Yellow Emperor's Neijing" points out: "The liver, the general's officer, scheming." The liver is second only to the monarch (heart) and the prime minister (lungs) among the twelve major organs, and is responsible for planning, thinking, managing and directing the operation of various organs of the body.
This coincides with the modern view of medicine. Modern medicine has shown that the liver is the largest internal organ in the human body and the largest digestive gland, which has the functions of secreting bile, participating in substance metabolism, synthesizing coagulation substances, regulating blood volume, detoxification and immune defense.
Perhaps the most wonderful feature of the liver is its ability to regenerate.
When the liver is damaged, the stem cells are constantly trying to repair the damaged area, which is why a liver transplant can be successful with only a portion of the donor's liver.
Experiments have shown that after half of the livers of mice are cut off, the mice can still eat as usual and live healthily, and their liver function indicators are often normal. Mice that had 75% of their livers surgically removed were able to recover after 3 weeks.
Does this mean that the liver is "inexhaustible"?
The answer, of course, is not. If the liver is repeatedly damaged for a long time (such as alcoholism or long-term use of liver-damaging drugs, etc.), it will eventually lead to the depletion of the liver's "kinetic energy", and a slight injury may become the "last straw that breaks the camel's back", leading to the outbreak of liver disease.
In addition, the liver is a "silent" organ. It is the only organ in the human body that does not have pain nerves, and the chronic damage caused by viruses, alcohol and drugs is difficult to detect, which leads to the liver once obvious uncomfortable symptoms, and the disease has often developed to the point of "no recovery".
Take stock of the mainstream liver-protecting ingredients
Consumers are clearly aware of the urgency of protecting their livers.
According to the "2023 Health Word of the Year" report released by Tmall Health, the "post-90s" bought 45% of the liver protection tablets, of which 15% of the orders for liver protection tablets were completed in the early hours of the morning. This trend shows that liver protection tablets are gradually becoming a daily health care choice for young consumers.
So, what are the common liver protection ingredients on the market?
This journal found that the commonly used raw materials for liver protection tablets mainly include milk thistle, pueraria, citrus aurantium, schisandra, salvia, turmeric, licorice, dandelion, glutathione, inositol (vitamin B8), hepatic essential phospholipids (EPL), etc.
Milk thistle is currently the mainstream liver protection star ingredient, open the e-commerce platform to search for "liver protection", and the product that pops up must have its place. Milk thistle is a plant of the Asteraceae family native to Europe, also known as "milk thistle". In the 60s of the 20th century, German scientists extracted silybin from milk thistle seeds, and then found that this substance can effectively treat liver damage caused by Amanita poisoning, and then the academic community began to gradually study the role of milk thistle in the treatment of liver disease. It has been more than 50 years since it was first introduced as a medicinal plant in 1972.
As a classic hangover and liver protection raw material, citrus aurantium, which has gradually been valued by the capital market in recent years, has the potential to be a dark horse. In traditional medicine in China and South Korea, citrus aurantium is often used in the treatment of acute alcoholism, and the main active ingredient is dihydromyricetin (DHM), which is manifested in prolonging the time of drunkenness, shortening the sleep time caused by drunkenness and accelerating the metabolism of alcohol in the body.
A healthy liver doesn't need a "liver protector"
This journal observed that the liver protection products on the market are mainly divided into three categories, the first is liver protection drugs, the second is health food with liver protection effect, and the third is ordinary food with added liver protection ingredients.
Liver protection medicine, as the name suggests, is a medicine that protects the liver. If you have severe liver damage (such as viral hepatitis, drug-induced liver injury, fatty liver, alcoholic liver, etc.), doctors will generally recommend patients to take liver protection drugs to help recover from liver injury.
The most common sunflower liver protection tablets for consumers are a kind of Chinese patent medicine, the main ingredients are Bupleurum chinensis, Yin Chen, Banlan root, Schisandra chinensis, pig bile powder, mung bean, which has the effect of soothing the liver and regulating qi, strengthening the spleen and eliminating appetite, and reducing transaminases. In the medication tips, it is listed as "commonly used for chronic hepatitis and early cirrhosis".
However, "medicine is poisonous", and taking "medicine" without the right symptoms is a kind of playing with fire. People with normal liver function do not need to take liver protection drugs at all. Because taking liver protection drugs for a long time will increase the burden on the liver, which will affect liver function and even lead to drug-induced liver damage.
The "liver protection effect" in health food refers to "auxiliary protection against chemical liver injury", while chemical liver injury refers to liver damage caused by alcohol, chemical toxic substances in the environment and certain drugs and other hepatotoxic substances, and the applicable population of such products is "those who are at risk of chemical liver damage". It is worth mentioning that domestic health food needs to apply for and obtain a health food registration certificate or filing certificate, that is, a "blue hat", before it is put on the market.
According to the relevant regulations of the State Administration for Market Regulation, health foods should not be added with effective pharmaceutical ingredients, and the functions of disease prevention and treatment should not be involved in publicity. If you encounter a merchant advertising that the liver protection tablets have the same liver-protecting effect as drugs, this is an exaggerated propaganda without credibility, and one report is accurate.
The effect and corresponding adverse reactions of these health foods that claim to have the effect of "protecting the liver" in healthy people have not been proven, and it is not recommended for healthy people to take liver protection tablets to protect the liver prophylically.
If health food still has a little "auxiliary" effect, then ordinary foods that claim to add liver protection ingredients are undoubtedly here to harvest the "IQ tax".
These liver-protecting gummies, which claim to contain "liver-protecting ingredients" such as kudzu and citrus aurantium, can be called functional foods at best. As a product of the "gray area", the effective "liver protection ingredients" in functional foods are often extremely limited, and there is no need to pass functional tests. For example, a product on sale on the Internet that claims "pre-alcohol prevention, drunkenness relief" can be said to accurately poke at the pain points of consumers, but smart consumers take a second look, and the product type says "vegetable gum-type gel candy", where does the "liver protection" come from?
Coincidentally, another "vegetable gel candy" staged an even more outrageous drama, claiming "two tablets a day, back to the baby's liver", "nourishing the liver, protecting the liver, clearing the liver and protecting the liver, reducing the burden on the liver", which can be called a "medical miracle".
To put it simply, liver protection drugs cannot be eaten without disease, liver protection health foods are not recommended for long-term consumption (not clinically curative), and ordinary foods with liver protection ingredients cannot be trusted.
There is no "shortcut" to liver protection
Although the efficacy of "liver protection tablets" blows out of the sky, there is a cruel fact that the damage of alcohol to the liver is irreversible.
The main component of alcohol is ethanol, which is absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract and into the liver within minutes of drinking. Ethanol alters the redox state within hepatocytes by producing large amounts of reduced Coenzyme I, thereby damaging hepatocytes. In addition, acetaldehyde, a metabolite of ethanol, can bind to a variety of liver proteins, affect hepatocyte function, and lead to hepatocyte steatosis and damage.
There is no doubt that the greater the amount of alcohol consumed, the greater the damage to the liver. Alcohol is absorbed very quickly in the human body, and no health food can stop it from entering the bloodstream. Therefore, it is not realistic to prevent alcohol from harming the liver.
Therefore, the first correct way to protect the liver is to quit or reduce alcohol intake. Statistics have found that drinking more than 80~160g per day increases the incidence of fatty liver by 5~25 times. Liver biopsy of long-term alcoholics found that up to 75%~95% of alcoholics had fatty infiltration in the liver.
The second is to ensure a regular diet and not dieting. If a person is starved for a long time, the body cannot obtain the necessary glucose, and the fat and protein used up must be converted into heat through the "transit station" of the liver, because the liver lacks the enzymes and vitamins necessary for lipid metabolism, resulting in fat retention in the liver, resulting in fatty liver.
The third is to stay up less late. Staying up late is like a "chronic poison", from the perspective of the body's biological clock, 11 o'clock in the evening to 3 o'clock in the morning is the best time for the detoxification of the human gallbladder and liver meridians.
Finally, I would like to remind you that there is no "shortcut" to liver protection, there is no "cheats", and health preservation is not for better "squandering".