The liver's stages of detoxification

The liver is a highly complex and intelligent organ, performing over 500 daily functions to keep the body working optimally. Anything inhaled, eaten or absorbed by the body passes through the liver, which acts as a chemical filter, processing toxins for elimination in a multi-phase process. 

To explain the phases of detoxification, let’s take the example of food. 

Once a mouthful of food has been chewed and swallowed, it begins its journey through the digestive system, down to the stomach, where digestive enzymes get to work breaking everything down. 

The nutrients in what you’ve eaten are then absorbed through the intestinal wall from where they are distributed around the body. While all the helpful nutrients are busy getting to work, the body also needs to deal with everything that is either redundant, useless or harmful.

Phase 1:

The liver begins the process of making the fat-soluble toxins water-soluble to prepare them for excretion. As these toxins are converted, free radicals are produced, which can damage the body cells if they outnumber our antioxidants. On top of that, sometimes these intermediate molecules are more dangerous or reactive than the original substances.

Phase 2:

Involves joining products from Phase 1 with nutrients like amino acids. This makes the toxins less reactive and also more water-soluble. They are now ready to be excreted in faeces, urine and sweat. 

Phase 1 and phase 2 need to process at a similar speed to do their job as best they can but this can easily be disrupted. Coffee, alcohol, cigarette smoke and chargrilled meat are just some of the triggers that increase phase 1. 

This puts Phase 2 at risk of being unable to keep up with processing all the toxins, which can then escape into the body, causing havoc and attacking the tissues. For this reason, it's crucial that both phases work together at the same pace. 

This doesn’t mean that having a coffee is detrimental to your health, it just means that alongside that cup of coffee, you also need to focus on eating nutrient-rich foods, like pomegranate seeds, eggs or broccoli to give phase 2 extra support. 

A little extra support

In an ideal world, we'd all like to be eating nutrient-dense foods religiously, and achieve that perfect balance for phase 1 and phase 2 to work optimally, but sometimes it's not possible. Cleanse Complex is a great way to top up nutrient levels and has been expertly formulated to provide the liver with the essential nutrients it needs to function. Great for giving the liver a little extra support when needed, or as an everyday supplement solution.