What To Do Before Your Liver Cleanse or Gallbladder Flush

By Dr. J.E. Williams | 23rd February 2021 | Reading Time: 8 minutes

Prepare your body for fasting or detoxification, before a liver cleanse detox or gallbladder flush, with this wise approach to tissue cleansing.

Our bodies work tirelessly to build and maintain healthy tissue. But optimal health comes at a price. Because we live in a sea of foreign chemical and biological substances, including naturally occurring toxic compounds and the drugs we take, plus industrial chemical exposure, our tissues accumulate toxic substances a molecule at a time. Exposure to chemicals takes a toll. Our cells get worn out, and, over time, our organs no longer function optimally.

But all living things evolved complex protective and regulatory systems to protect against poisons, toxins, and toxic chemicals. To remain healthy, support your body’s innate detoxification systems with an spring cleanse.

How Tissue Cleansing Helps Prepare for a Gallbladder Flush or Liver Cleanse

A natural lifestyle helps maintains a balance between the buildup and removal of waste and unwanted metabolic byproducts. And our body ecology is evolutionarily programmed to maintain this balance between the inner and outer environment. But because our bodies are repositories of everything we’ve eaten, drank, and breathed in, we have to assist these detoxification processes in maintaining health.

That’s why fasting, and tissue cleansing are essential for health. At least once a year, we need to set aside time to rid our cells from unhealthy chemicals and restore healthy body ecology.

Don’t worry. Nature worked it out long ago. We may harbor unfriendly microbes and toxic chemicals, but our body has a complex protection system working 24-hours a day. This system carries out what scientists call biotransformation to filter, metabolize, and remove countless waste products from our cells, bloodstream, connective tissue, and lymphatic system.

You can help these natural processes along by fasting or performing a tissue cleansing program, but you’ll get the most from your plan by preparing your body in advance.

Springtime is optimal for tissue cleansing. But before your liver cleanse and gallbladder flush, consider these 7 pre-cleanse tips.

1. Tune-Up Your Liver
   

   Toxic chemicals don’t just come from the environment. Your body also produces them as a natural process of food digestion and metabolism. Eliminating waste material in the stool and liver cleanse of foreign substances is an essential process that our body undergoes every day of our lives.

   Just under your ribs on the right side of your body lies a metabolic powerhouse – your liver. Other organs are also involved in detoxification, including the kidneys, colon, and the skin and lymphatic system. But the liver performs the bulk of the work of protecting your body from the toxicity contained in the foods we eat, the juices we drinks, the drugs we take, the air we breathe, and the chemicals we ingest.

   Support your detoxification pathways with liver and gallbladder-friendly herbs. Start at least one month before your cleanse. I recommend milk thistle (Silybum marianum) and artichoke (Cynara cardunculus) extracts. But take liver and gallbladder detox herbs in low dosages. The goal is to nudge the liver, not overwhelm it.

   Try this guide on How to sooth and make peace with your liver

2. Take Liver Supportive Supplements
   

   Taurine is a sulfur-containing amino acid. Though concentrated in the heart and brain, it also functions as a potent antioxidant, reducing liver toxicity caused by the overload that leads to decreased liver function. Taurine also improves liver mitochondrial function while reducing liver toxicity.

3. Take Lipotropic Factors
   

   Lipotropic nutrients help the liver metabolize fats, including cholesterol. Many chemical toxic substances when released from the liver collect in fat molecules. Eventually, they are eliminated in the stool. But not all of them. Therefore, supporting fat metabolism helps the liver’s detoxification capacity. Lipotropics include choline, inositol, methionine, and methylcobalamin (a form of vitamin B12).

4. Assist Biotransformation by Supporting Cytochrome P450 Detox Pathways
   

   Cytochrome P450s (CYPs) are a superfamily of iron-containing specialized proteins involved in enzymatic reactions. CYPs metabolize thousands of chemicals in the body: some produced by the body and others we get from the environment, including prescription drugs.CYPs also help create and breakdown hormones like estrogens and testosterone, and they are involved in cholesterol metabolism. But it’s in the liver where CYPs play principal roles in detoxification. This detox process occurs in three phases.

   Phase I metabolism makes toxins water-soluble so the kidneys can eliminate them in the urine. It also utilizes oxidative metabolism that takes place in the mitochondria. Support Phase I detoxification during tissue cleansing by drinking plenty of pure water, dilute green juices, and green tea.

   Phase II metabolism takes care of chemical compounds that cannot be eliminated in the urine. Liver cells conjugate these chemicals, increasing their water solubility, making them easier to eliminate from the kidneys in urine or from the intestines in the stool. Glutathione is essential for effective detoxification at this stage. So are Nrf2 activators like resveratrol, quercetin, and green tea polyphenols.

   Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2) compounds trigger homeostatic responses that manage inflammation and neutralize biochemical challenges to our body systems. They also play a role in calming the cytokine storm caused by viral infections, like with COVID-19.Phase III metabolism helps pump toxic substances out of cells. In this phase, toxic substances are now water-soluble and get eliminated in bile, urine, or stool. Support elimination by drinking plenty of pure water. But chlorophyll is the overall best support for this phase. Mix liquid chlorophyll in your water or take chlorophyll capsules with your meals.

5. Support Antioxidant Activity
   

   Natural antioxidants in foods and supplements, like vitamin C, protect cells and tissue from toxicity. Since vitamin C is an acid, I recommend taking a buffered form as calcium/magnesium/potassium ascorbate. Curcumin occurs in turmeric. It’s a naturally occurring antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties. Take curcumin extract, or add curry powder to your foods. If you have access to fresh turmeric root, drink a shot per day during your pre-cleanse.

6. Take Bioregulatory Medicines
   

   In the middle of the last century, when Europe was suffering from the consequences of industrialization and the ravages of war, German scientists sought ways to return health through natural balance. The result of their research was bioregulatory medicine. Heel is the world leader, but other companies that produce bioregulatory medicines include Pasco, Hevert, and Guna.Edible plants, medicinal herbs, and other natural biological substances possess complex chemistries with an affinity for human body systems. But low-dose bioregulatory medicines are unique. They help restore balance to all body systems in a gentle, non-toxic way.

   A formula containing several drainage remedies promotes detoxification pathways. Drainage remedies are complex medicines utilizing various substances that emphasize the liver’s detoxification, lymphatic system cleansing, and smoothing of the extracellular matrix. These specialized bioregulatory medicines are designed to assist cells in eliminating disease-causing toxins.

Continue all pre-cleanse detox supplements right up to your fast. You can also take them through the juice fasting part of your program.

When to start preparing for a Liver cleanse or gallbladder flush

I recommend cleansing programs in the late spring and early summer for 5 to 15 days. Your pre-cleanse preparation should last at least two weeks before your fast or cleansing program. A wise plan is 2-4 weeks of pre-cleansing followed by 1-2 weeks of juice fasting.

If you want more in-depth information, click here: How to Do The Most Effective Gallbladder Flush Ever

Age Matters

Young children and teenagers should not fast, except for short spells when they have a fever. Then they need plenty of liquids to prevent dehydration but may not have the appetite for solid food.

Adolescents and young people in their 20s should not do extreme cleanses. These are the peak reproductive years. Though modern men and women choose to postpone having children until their mid-30s or later, the late teens and twenties are times of maximum physical and mental energy output. Young adults need to eat a lot, and well, to produce hormones, and in order to maintain a high metabolism for the continuous support of vital organs and tissues.

A good time to consider your first cleanse is between 29 to 32 years. By our 30s, we’ve accumulated plenty of environmental chemicals and waste materials from foods, especially nonnutritious ones like candy, sodas, prepackage products, and preserved sandwich meats.

From 32 to 64 years, an annual cleansing program for one month every spring is ideal. And a cleanse of two weeks at the beginning of autumn is useful.

Between 65 to 85 years, cleansing practices pose unique challenges. Older people have decreased liver and kidney function. Though they can tolerate eating less and transition smoothly into cleansing programs, but their liver and kidneys have reduced ability to detoxify. Therefore, older people should practice short, gentle cleanses for one week, four times a year, preferably at seasonal change instead of putting their body through the stress of intense detox programs. It’s important they maintain average weight and must quickly recover any weight lost while cleansing. Maintaining organ reserve and muscle mass is essential for healthy aging.

Different Rates of Detoxification

Researchers in CYP450 know that there are a lot of variations on how people’s detoxification systems function. Weight, gender, ethnicity, as well as genetics, and age make a difference. Our state of health or disease also matters. Don’t try extended fasting or force detoxification if you’re frail, recovering from a long illness, or have an infection.

Foods Influence Detoxification Pathways

Humans eat complex diets. In the U.S., almost none of it comes from ground to plate.

Foods support energy production, but also alter how our body processes drugs and environmental chemicals. Certain foods balance out the process and support optimal biotransformation. Some inhibit detoxification, especially those containing furocoumarins, like grapefruit. Furocoumarins are naturally occurring compounds that interfere with the detoxification of drugs and toxins.

Grapefruit in particular influences Phase I and II detoxification. Therefore, drinking grapefruit juice when taking certain drugs to treat for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and arrhythmia interferes with their action. And that’s not what you want during a cleanse. You want to detoxify and eliminate as many chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, as possible through the kidneys in urine, from the colon in stool, and to mobilize the liver’s capacity to metabolize toxic substances. So hold the grapefruit juice during your pre-cleanse and detox program.

The Wisdom of Bioregulatory Medicine

In the early and middle decades of the last century, when Europe was suffering from the consequences of industrialization and the ravages of war, scientists sought ways to return health through natural balance. The result of their research was bioregulatory medicine. Heel is the world leader, but other companies that produce bioregulatory drugs include Pasco, Hevert, and Guna.

Plants and other natural biological substances possess complex chemistry with an affinity for human body systems. Low dose bioregulatory medicines mimic these natural processes helping restore balance to all body systems in a gentle, non-toxic way draining toxic compounds out of the body.

These drainage remedies support detoxification pathways by assisting cells eliminate disease-causing toxins. Drainage remedies are complex medicines made from plant and mineral substances that emphasize a liver cleanse, lymphatic system, and extracellular matrix. Bioregulatory drainage remedies are an overlooked but essential component of your pre-cleanse.

Support Gut Detoxification with Probiotics

Probiotics are necessary for health, disease prevention, endurance, and longevity. They not only keep your gut running smoothly, some support detoxification. NCFM Lactobacillus acidophilus is a common probiotic found in milk products and is capable of controlling toxins caused by intestinal yeast and fungi. Bi-07 Bifidobacterium lactus is another commonly occurring probiotic that supports immune function by lowering inflammation and helps remove unfriendly bacteria from the gut.

Pre-Cleanse Rules & Tips before a liver cleanse detox or gallbladder flush

Final Thoughts

The way to health is also the way of peace and harmony. In contrast, diseases cause extreme reactions in the body resulting in pain and robbing us of peaceful living. Health is quiet and gentle.

True health gets little press or internet attention. Therefore, radical liver cleanse detox or gallbladder practices may be in fashion, but they are incompatible with long-term health. They can shock your body’s vital systems, starve your brain, and disrupt metabolism.

Over a lifetime, balanced detoxification and tissue cleansing, done regularly, produce the best results, especially when combined with a pre-cleanse program before starting your liver cleanse or gallbladder flush.

Follow @drjewilliams on Instagram for the Pre-Cleanse supplement Protocol.

Also, check out this Liver Detox Protocol.