14: Your liver could be sabotaging your sleep

Episode Transcript:

Welcome to the Why You Can't Sleep podcast. If you struggle to sleep and you've tried what seems like everything, you are in the right place. There are imbalances in your body that are keeping you awake, and you're going to learn what they are in this show. Now, let's kick off this episode with an inspiring success story from one of my clients who has significantly improved their sleep by correcting the underlying health issues that were causing their insomnia.

"I mean, on a macro level, you know, my sleep's improved. It's not perfect, it's not where I ultimately want it to be, but it is certainly light years ahead of where it was several months ago. I now wake up in the night occasionally rather than frequently. I sometimes wake up earlier than I would like to. And so I don't always feel super refreshed. But again, if I look at it on a relative scale, it's significantly better than it used to. There's less of just sort of dragging through the day. And so that's given me reason to be optimistic that it can continue to improve, because so far, I've seen an upward trajectory."

Today, I'm talking about your liver. In case you don't know, your liver is most active between 1:00 and 3:00 a.m. so in the middle of the night is when it is doing a lot of its work of detoxifying. And so if you have a lot of toxins and more than your body can handle, then those toxins start circulating in your bloodstream, which causes inflammation, and then your body releases cortisol to fight that inflammation because it's anti inflammatory. And when that happens in the night, then that wakes you up. So this is a common reason I see many of my clients waking up, especially around two and three in the morning, and then having a hard time falling back asleep. Now, the liver is also important for your immune system, for creating energy for your body, and for digesting foods. So it does more than just detoxify.

It's actually, some people think that it is the most important organ for our health. Signs of a congested liver, besides not being able to, are poor digestion. So your liver actually makes bile, which breaks down fats and absorbs those fat soluble vitamins, a, d, e, and k. So if you have bloating, indigestion, or abdominal pain, there's a good chance that your liver actually isn't healthy. Now, another sign that your liver is congested or overburdened is hormone imbalance. So your liver is actually responsible for breaking down and removing hormones from your body. So, symptoms like high blood pressure, bloating, weight gain, fatigue, mood issues, and sleep problems can indicate that there's an issue with your liver from hormone imbalance. Now, another sign is weight gain.

So when toxins build up in your body, they cause inflammation. Then your body releases cortisol, as you know, and excess cortisol makes you hold onto fat, and it can also cause blood sugar issues. Another sign that your liver isn't healthy is skin problems. So things like acne, rosacea, rashes, eczema, and other skin issues are sure sign that toxins are building up in your body, and then they are getting out however they can, through your skin. Another sign is fatigue, because your liver helps make energy for the body. You know, being tired a lot during the day, whether you slept well or not, is, is a good sign. Chemical sensitivities. So, if cleaning products, perfumes, and other chemicals give you a headache or make you anxious or irritable and you feel like you can't tolerate them, then you probably have too many toxins in your liver.

And then the last sign is sugar and carbohydrate cravings. Hormone and blood sugar imbalances that lead to cravings are common when your liver isn't working all that well. Now, there are a couple of tests I do for my clients to help with sleep that show me how well the liver is working. So there's no direct liver test I'm doing. But I'm looking at, for example, in the hormone test I do, it shows how your hormones are being metabolized and processed by the body. So there are great clues in that test as to how well your liver is doing for phase one. In phase two detoxification, and then the GI map, the gut test also has a marker for river health. So those with those two tests, and obviously your symptoms and how you feel, I can put those together and determine how healthy your liver is and if your liver could possibly be contributing to waking you up at night.

Now, there are different things you can do to improve the health of your liver. There are supplements, herbs like milk thistle, nutrients like glutathione. What you may not know, too, is that for phase two liver detoxification, you actually need amino acids from protein. Making sure that you are having a balanced diet with all those amino acids is also really important. Other things include drinking hot water with lemon first thing in the morning helps kind of flush out the liver. Doing castor oil packs that you put over the liver can help draw out those toxins. Coffee enemas are another great thing to do. If you have liver congestion, they will pull out those toxins from your body that keep circulating and recirculating and giving up alcohol is another big one.

And this is something that I have actually recently now given of alcohol for three months, something I never thought I would be able to do. But I have liver issues. I know this and they keep me up at night sometimes I am addressing them, but it's no surprise because I definitely abused my liver when I was younger. I've never been an alcoholic, but I definitely have overindulged, gotten sick many times from drinking too much. And you know, I've just not been able to tolerate alcohol all that well. And especially in the past few years and even until a few months ago, I would have one drink and feel hungover immediately. So sure sign that my liver was just not able to deal with that alcohol anymore. Too much going on.

And I know that it can seem like a bummer to give up alcohol, but I actually think that it's more fun because not sleeping well and not even being able to drink and tolerate it is not fun. Getting a good night's sleep, waking up feeling refreshed, having the energy and motivation to socialize as much as we can during COVID those things are fun. I think that you can have just as much fun not drinking alcohol, working on healing your liver, and obviously so that you can sleep better. Thanks for listening. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or want to chat more about your sleep.

Are you ready to take the first step toward figuring out your sleep issues? You want to start with the essentials, so I created the Sleep Essentials program to help you get started improving your sleep.

It's based on what I start with for my one on one clients, so it's things that everyone needs to address. This program has four modules so you can learn about what really causes sleep issues and how to optimize your diet and blood sugar for better sleep. It also has five bonuses, such as how to calm your nervous system, how to exercise for your best sleep, and how to get off sleeping pills. It comes with videos, handouts and checklists so you can start implementing right away.

The cost is normally $37, but for being a listener of this podcast, you can use code SLEEP20 to get $20 off, making it a steal for $17. Sign up today at www.thesleepdetective.com/sleepessentials/

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