My Liver Detox And Why I’ll Never Do It Again

I was recently told by a naturopath that my liver eliminates toxins through my skin, which is why I get persistant acne. Not everyone has this problem, some people eliminate toxins through their colon so they can eat as much crap as they want and be exposed to loads of pollution and chemicals and still have beautiful clear skin. I on the other hand break out from the smallest stress on my liver, which includes blood sugar fluctuations, hormonal imbalances (yes this means pmt time girls) and exposure to pollution and chemicals.

Someone who suffers from acne on a regular basis will usually have some kind of toxic buildup which is stressing his or her liver. When the liver is overworked (often in tandem with the colon) or is being forced to process too many synthetic chemicals or other poisons, its ability to store toxins may begin to “back up.” As an emergency tactic, the body begins to release these excess wastes through the skin, where they can clog pores or turn up as blemishes.

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To make matters worse, the toxins come out of my skin more because of my thin build. If you have fatty deposits on your body, the liver will eliminate its toxins into the fat cells. I don’t have enough fat cells for the liver to put the toxins in so they have to come out somewhere, lucky me, as blackheads and big pussy things on my face.

My detox experience

So, when I discovered this thing about my liver I got really excited and decided to go on some sort of detox. Actually the naturopath had given me a bit of a kickstart, providing me with a tablet, lipogen, which is a natural supplement that aids detoxification of the liver. Along with the lipogen I was drinking a warm glass of water with lemon first thing in the morning, and being uber healthy with my diet. Yeah, and I turned into a bit of a crazy maniac with the diet thing, trying to be AS healthy as I could. Surprisingly, I kind of liked it and I’m sticking to most of the rules now. This is my healthy anti-acne detox diet:

• No alcohol (easy, I gave this up long ago anyway)
• No cows milk (again, my milk of choice is rice milk!)
• No caffeine (hmm, that one cup of tea a day is now Madura or something herbal)
• HEAPS of fresh fruit and vegetables
• No refined sugars (okay, the occasional green and black chocolate is okay …surely)
• Whole grains only (I do this anyway)

I was eating a big bowl of porridge sweetened with honey in the morning, a big bowl of fruit salad at morning tea and a vege salad for lunch. My digestive system was working really well and I started feeling really healthy all over.

When it all went REALLY wrong

After two weeks my acne was getting steadily worse. I remember one night I woke up with two really sore blind pimples on my face, then over the course of that day two more popped up, literally. I also found a heap of tiny bumps all over the left side of my face that looked to me like swollen pores or whitheads. I was petrified that these bumps would turn into even more pimples.

I contacted my naturopath and she recommended I half the dosage of lipogen I was on. Over the next couple of days I experienced a really bad headache that lasted for almost the whole two days and would not go away, irritation, aching muscles, fatigue but also insomnia and a foggy head. By the third day I started to feel better and my acne began to take a turn. I also noticed my eyes began to have a lovely sparkle to them. I put the breakout down to a mini detox from the lipogen and healthy eating and looked forward to clear and beautiful skin from then on.

Unfortunately after one week my skin started getting worse again, and I started experiencing similar symptoms to my ‘detox’ again. I woke up in the morning a few days ago and looked in the mirror and cried. I was so frustrated that my skin had got this bad again. How can this be happening to me when I eat SO healthy, exercise, use good quality organic skin products and do regular yoga and meditation. How can I possibly do anything more??

I decided that my body was experiencing way too much stress from jumping into being so healthy so quickly, so made a decision to stop all supplements. I was on a lot at the time, so maybe my body was a bit confused. I was taking chinese herbs, fish oil, lipogen, premular for my hormones, and an ayurvedic body tonic. All this had to stop and I would then just focus on my healthy diet alone combined with regular yoga and mediation.

From the day I stopped taking the lipogen my acne stopped getting worse. It’s now three or four days after I stopped taking the supplements and I feel a lot better for it. I’m starting to think that maybe I have an allergy to an ingredient in lipogen which is why it didn’t sit well with my body, but only time will tell.

Unfortunately my acne and blackhead problem is still there so I’m still trying to fight this battle, but with each treatment I guess I’m getting a little closer. I feel like by the end of this, when I finally find the answer I’ll be some kind of expert at curing acne the natural way because I’m making my way through just about every natural theory and product out there. I know one thing for sure, I’ll never detox with supplements or medications ever again - from now on it’s food only.

Fran Kerr is the founding editor of High on Health. To cure your acne, sign up to Fran's FREE acne cure mini-course or download her latest how to guide, Eat Away Your Acne.

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