Digestive Wellness: Strengthen the Immune System and Prevent Disease Through Healthy Digestion, Fourth Edition by Elizabeth Lipski Read Free Book Online Page A

including cholesterol, testosterone, and estrogens; it regulates blood sugar levels; it processes all food, nutrients, alcohol, drugs, and other materials that enter the bloodstream and lets them pass, breaks them down, or stores them. It is a storage house for many nutrients: glycogen, fats, vitamin B 12 , vitamins A, D, E, and K, and zinc, iron, copper, and magnesium. Your liver can store five to seven years of vitamin B 12 , four years of vitamin A, and up to four months of vitamin D. Proteins synthesized in your liver transport vitamin A, iron, zinc, and copper into your bloodstream. Practically all vitamins and minerals we take in need to be enzymatically processed by the liver before we can use them. Several vitamins are converted into their active forms: carotene to vitamin A, folic acid to 5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid, and vitamin D to its active form 25-hydroxycholecalciferol. Your liver also produces proteins and lipoproteins that allow your blood to clot. The liver can lose as much as 70 percent of its capability and not show diagnosable liver disease. It can also regenerate itself after being injured.
    The liver breaks down toxins ingested with our foods and those that are produced by bacterial metabolism. With these chemicals and enzymes, it “humanizes” nutrients so that the cells can use them. If the liver becomes too congested to enzymatically process these nutrients, we do not get the benefit from them.
    Bile, manufactured by the liver and stored by the gallbladder, buffers the intestinal contents due to its high concentration of bicarbonates. It also emulsifies fats. Bile is a soaplike substance made of bile salts, cholesterol, and lecithin. It makes fats more water-soluble, increasing their surface area so that the enzymes can split them for the cells to use. It’s essential for absorption of fats, the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and some minerals. Bile also secretes immunoglobulins that protect our intestinal mucosa. Drugs and other toxins are eliminated from the liver through bile. The brown color of stool comes from the yellow color of bilirubin in bile.
    The liver is also part of our immune system. The Kupffer cells filter bacteria and debris from the blood. The liver also stores environmental toxins like radioactive substances, pesticides, herbicides, food preservatives, and dyes. The liver will detoxify what it can, but if it can’t break down a particular substance, it stores it there and in tissues throughout the body.
Gallbladder: A Holding Tank for Bile
    The gallbladder is a pear-shaped organ that lies just below the liver. The gallbladder’s function is to store and concentrate bile, which is produced by the liver. When you eat a food that contains fat, cholecystokinin is released from the duodenum, which stimulates the gallbladder and liver to release bile into the common duct that connects the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas to the duodenum. Bile emulsifies the fats, cholesterol, and fat-soluble vitamins you’ve eaten by breaking them into tiny globules. These create a greater surface area for the fat-splitting enzymes (lipase) to act on during digestion.
    The most common problem of the gallbladder is gallstones. When bile becomes too concentrated, stones may form, which can cause pain, nausea, and discomfort. Another common issue is bile reflux, where bile backs up into the stomach. Gallbladder disease is directly related to diet.
Appendix
    The appendix is a small, fingerlike sac that extends off the beginning of the colon. Until recently, the function of the appendix was a mystery. Now we know it contains a great deal of lymphatic tissue and is important for fetal and early childhood development. Hormones produced in the appendix beginning about the 11th week of pregnancy help regulate fetal metabolism. The appendix contains a lot of lymphatic tissue and is especially important in immune health in the first decades of life. In the developmental years, the appendix produces