Ep 41: Liver Health & Alcohol with Catholic Life Coach Sarah Lawless

I'm a wife , mom and a Joyfield Catholic , and I am the Catholic Subriety Coach , and I am so glad you're here . Okay , welcome back . So today my guest is Sarah Lawless . Sarah grew up as a cradle Catholic and then she had a profound conversion in college and turned into a foreign missionary , serving in Asia for three years .

She now resides in South Louisiana with her husband and three children . Sarah has a bachelor's degree in nutrition , is an avid lover of food , nourishment , health and taking care of the body that God gave us . Her mission is to encourage other moms to do the same .

Sarah is the healthy , holy mama life coach who helps moms dismantle self-sabotaging habits and become the healthiest , holiest versions of themselves . So I have Sarah on the podcast today to talk about our livers and that's something that we kind of hear a little bit about in relation to alcohol consumption or over alcohol consumption .

Actually , I heard a statistic very recently that there has been an increase in young people ages , you know , like late teens to early 30s , where there's an increase in cirrhosis of the liver because of their over consumption of alcohol , just in , you know , the past three to five years . So it's very , very important that we take care of our livers .

We don't see our livers , so it's not something that we think about on a regular basis , but Sarah is going to tell us why they are so important , how we can take care of them and , yeah , just so that we have a great life and our body functions the way that it's supposed to . So , Sarah , welcome to the podcast .

Our bodies are temples . They house souls , they grow souls . As mother , they do so much for us and so when we kind of neglect that our one and only body like , we see the repercussions . We see it in relationships , we see it in our health , we see it all around us , and I think particularly for moms , because never before has it been so crazy for moms .

There's so many things happening and we just kind of forget ourselves . We're just like whatever , like it doesn't matter , the kids go first . But I think it's so , so important for moms to be able to okay , like let's take care of ourselves .

And I learned that on my own journey where I was diagnosed last summer with something called adrenal fatigue , where I just wasn't taking care of myself , I was just giving myself to my kids and I had to slow down , I had to take a look and of course , I've always loved food , even in missions .

I'd always go to the market , I'd be cooking for everyone and just being drawn to how food heals , like for centuries and centuries . And when I say food heals , I'm in no way debunking our beautiful medical system . I'm just saying that food in itself has so many good things for us to heal , to help us recover , and I just love learning about all of it .

I love creating new dishes with some foods that , oh , like this is good for this . So yeah , and I use it every day . I research these things every day . I love applying it to my family , applying it to my clients and just I think the mystery of the human person .

Each and every person is so unique and so different and has so many different needs , and it's just so fun to journey with women like , oh , like , your body needs this or it really doesn't like that . So yeah , that's it in a nutshell .

You had to really stop , probably because you had to , and take a look at , like what's going on right now so that you could continue doing the work that you do and , most importantly , your vocation as wife and mother .

So I think that that's great and it's so helpful for moms to have voices like yours out there that are providing those tips and information just to help them feel their best , so that they can be their best . So before we were , when we were talking , you had described the liver's role .

We not on the podcast , but you and I were talking privately , but you described the liver's role in our body and you compared it to a confessional , which I think is so interesting . Can you talk a little bit about that ?

Its main role is to detox the waste . However , it's responsible for so many other things . It's known for its detox , but it's also known to it does produce bile , and so bile is responsible for transporting some fat soluble vitamins to be absorbed in the small intestine . So that's another very big function of our liver .

It's responsible for the storage of glycogen , which , like whenever we too many carbs or something like excess glucose , so it stores that for when it's needed .

It's responsible for converting fats into energy sources when it's needed , and it's a side of breakdown , for from proteins into amino acids to our bodies can use those proteins and , of course , all the blood that leaves our stomach goes to the liver to be cleaned out and filtered and and so it has , like at least like 500 other functions that I will not get

into , but some other cool things is that it does hold 13% of our blood at any given time and it can also regenerate itself , which is fascinating . Like , as long as you have , like I think , it's 25% of your liver , it can help create new cells , which is so . It's such a gift from the Lord because it's working so hard .

So I liken it to a confessional , with everything with the body , with everything with health . I just always ask the Lord , like you know , like where are you in this ? Or what is your truth in this ? Because I think he's in everything and everywhere , but particularly with our bodies . And I was like praying , but this , this is weird .

I do pray with like things that come to mind , like our bodies , and , if you can imagine , you know , with the liver what I just mentioned .

It's responsible for detoxing and before our bodies get rid of the waste , we feel kind of sluggish , like it's kind of heavy , like , let's say , you just eat like that , not the best meal , and you're like , oh , you feel that everything goes through the liver to kind of get dismantled and like put in its place , either in the toilet or in your body , wherever

it belongs , and then you feel better . But not only that is like a liken the , the bile that's secreted by by your liver , to help absorb those good vitamins and nutrients . Kind of like to grace after confession .

So anyway , like if the body were sat , if the liver were a sacrament , it would be the confessional , because whenever we go to confession we have that sin , we have that , oh , it feels awful .

We receive absolution from the priest we give Jesus , you know all of our sins , and then we kind of leave with that vial , that grace , where the good things like we're a , we have this strength to do the good things that we can absorb the good things , like , as you can say , kind of like the liver does with the yeah , with the detoxing of the bad thing .

So anyway , that was just something I was praying about and came up for me yeah , I love that .

This is why we have to keep taking care of our liver . It does so much . I had no idea . So you mentioned that the liver holds 13% of the body's blood at any given time , which I find astounding . Can you explain the significance of it , holding on to that , for us ?

But it has oxygenated blood flowing in through the hepatic artery and then it has also has blood flowing in through a hepatic portal vein from the intestines . So it's getting blood from both . They're both getting filtered and they're both supplying the liver with the energy it needs via the blood . And , like I said , it's also a storehouse .

So , like I mentioned , how it stores that glycogen , that glycogen is there . It's like your , your energy reserve . So let's say you are in a fight-or-flight situation , let's say you're fasting , your body will release that , and so that blood needs to be there to help those processes and , of course , it's also needed for the breakdown of those toxins .

So it is a powerhouse there's , so it needs all of that blood yeah , yeah , oh , wow , that's so amazing .

You see other like diseases happening with a poor gut lining in the stomach . So if that is impaired , this it doesn't work this way . And what do I mean by that is that normally the the bacteria would go through the stomach into the liver , like via the intestines .

But whenever we consume , whatever bacteria it might be , however it comes into our body , it's kind of mandated that the blood goes through the liver , like it always needs to pass through the liver and , depending on how it goes in , the liver produces these capher cells . They're basically macrophages .

Macrophages are cells that ingest these bacteria , so they ingest them . If our liver is functioning well , if we have a good functioning liver , it'll send it on its way out . If our liver isn't functioning very well , they tend to hold on to it . I'll talk about that later , about some detox practices that might help with it .

So , yeah , and not only that , but our liver , like it's really cool in that it remembers it . It remembers , oh , this bacteria . So the next time it encounters it it can help create some immunity towards that bacteria .

Does it also absorb minerals too , or is it just the vitamins ?

Water soluble vitamins , like they can just kind of go versus the fat soluble vitamins , which are very important . They're vitamins A , d , e and K and they're responsible for so many things . But just briefly , immune function , blood clotting , bone health , vision Bile is really needed for these essential fat soluble vitamins to be absorbed .

And so if your liver isn't working well , if your bile isn't being secreted , or if it's kind of sluggish or slower , it's not doing its job , you will have kind of deficiencies . And you can see this .

And the body is the map of deficiency , I call it , where you can easily say like , look at your hair , look at your skin , look at your nails , look at your poop , look at your pee , like it all tells the story of how you're doing .

And so another thing I wanna mention here with the absorption of vitamins , you know we might hear , oh , we need this vitamin , we need that vitamin .

But we could be taking all of these vitamins and all of these supplements , but our body just can't absorb them properly because we have a sluggish bile or like our liver isn't producing enough , and so that's just something I wanted to mention .

But it's very important , especially in those fat soluble vitamins , to be absorbed in your body , to use them as needed .

I would love it if you would talk about how alcohol affects the liver , and especially considering that it's a toxin , because what I've read is that when we consume alcohol , no matter what we've eaten or what we've done that day , the body's first job is to rid itself of the alcohol , and I was wondering if that was true in your knowledge and education .

And then , how the liver , how it affects the liver , since the liver is that detoxification organ .

It says , oh , this is a toxin and it needs to get out soon . So every other kind of not every bodily process , but with regards to , like absorbing minerals , absorbing nutrients , like putting them where they belong , is put on hold because your body is working hard to get rid of that toxin .

And so I'll talk a little bit about it and just ask questions if you need me to clarify . But what happens whenever the , whenever the alcohol goes into the liver ?

And so , like I said , I also like to imagine it like this like liver comes in and it's like this maybe this monster and your liver is like , oh , like , but they're not freaking out , they just know what to do . Your liver cells know what to do , so they're like Okay , we need to dismantle . And so that dismantling is done by an enzyme .

Our liver produces the enzyme , alcohol dehydrogenase to to convert ethanol , which is another word for alcohol the ethanol to aceto aldehyde , so it's broken down a little bit , but that aceto aldehyde is very toxic . We can't have a lot of that in our body . So then there's another one , another little enzyme .

We're like Okay , it's a smaller monster , we still need to break it down though . And so aceto aldehyde dehydrogenase is kind of that tool , that enzyme that'll break it down even further into acetic acid , which is kind of like a vinegar , making it harmless for your body .

So whenever we drink alcohol , like , just imagine your , your liver just breaking it down , and so like , okay , come out of here . Like , so that's what happens . Whenever , you know , alcohol enters into your liver and so it doesn't sound too bad .

But whenever we're drinking a lot of alcohol , our like our liver's potential to break it down so quickly it kind of gets stunted , like it can't do it as quickly . And that's whenever we see like really big , I guess , health percussions where it things , bad things can be happening to your liver . So that aceto aldehyde bill of as well .

Like you know , whenever you have aceto aldehyde buildup due to the way you feel , if you're feeling intoxicated , if your head is hurting , if you're having that hangover like there's lots of aceto aldehyde in your system and your body's working really hard to get it out .

So if it lingers in your system it can cause in excuse me , it can cause inflammation , it can cause that cirrhosis . And another thing to with liver , alcohol metabolism is that process I just told you about , like breaking down that big monster into those smaller pieces to get out . It creates what do you call it ? It creates fat .

So like there's these fatty acids that are kind of being thrown off in this process of breaking it down , which those fat , you know , those fat there is called fatty acid oxidation , where it's not leaving the liver . If this is happening very frequently and over long periods of time , the fat just kind of stays , and that's what we call fatty liver disease .

And it stays one because it's can't be broken down , like the fat cannot be broken down enough to be to exit your liver . It just kind of stays there and hangs out , and that's what we call fatty liver disease .

And I'm also going to just talk a little bit here about this Because you're you're people listening here might struggle with alcohol , and I always say not only with alcohol but like with anything like , we need to discern the fruit . We need to discern the fruit of the act .

Like if you're going to a Christmas party and you're having a drink like , maybe that fruit isn't so bad , but if it is a lot of drinks like , okay , that will affect your liver . And the same like with this , like your soul and like your body , you know which one bears the better fruit , if that makes sense .

So , and just being aware that today , like , there's so many toxins in our environment , there's like toxins everywhere , unfortunately . But we need to like , look at this and see it in the site of like okay , like my body is a gift and I want to choose to serve and , you know , help it as much as I can .

And I just also think , within choices , especially regarding alcohol , is like I want to lessen my toxic , but with like , with any choice when it comes to food , is like okay , like , how can I lessen my toxic load so that my liver doesn't have to work so hard ? Because it's just such a beautiful thing , the liver is such a beautiful thing .

When you said that the I don't even remember what you said it was , but the other alcohol that the ethanol gets changed into with the enzymes and that's like even more toxic , is like whoa , but then they break it down even further and even further . But it was so interesting .

I loved how you said , how you explained that that toxin that can cause our hangovers that we get right . We were like , why do I have a headache or why do I feel groggy ?

or dehydrated , or you know , like all of those things that come from overindulging , it's just because our liver is just having to work so much harder to break everything down so that it can cleanse our bodies .

So one question I had that came up when you were talking is so if somebody let's say they okay , let's say they're like me and they like totally over consumed alcohol when they were in their late teens and early twenties and they just were like drink way more than they should , they're poor liver .

I'm so sorry liver , my poor liver , like had to work so hard . But now it's been like 26 years since I've consumed alcohol and you know , and so does your liver like get better or like , if you do get fatty liver disease , does that ever improve ? How does the how does or does the liver kind of heal itself from that ?

I was I'm like , oh yes , I remember blacking out , I remember this . So you're not alone in that , and I'm just letting all of your listeners know that I'm not high on the horse over here .

But some ways that we can detox the I think the biggest one is called a liver detox . So I can tell you a little bit about that . But your listeners are welcome to research a little bit . But it's like a seven day process , six , seven day process , and there's different ones .

But basically you're kind of you're eating a rather bland diet , you're drinking lots of juice and then it's time to flush and there's anima's involved , there's drinking epsom salt , there's big poops that happen and , like you see all the stuff , it comes right out . I have not done it , I've not .

I'm I'm still nursing my youngest , so I can't do it right now , but it is something I am interested in doing , and then there's so many other . Not only that you don't have to do a liver detox , full blown liver detox , but just other natural things of just like taking care of yourself . Sleep is one of the biggest restorers of our bodies .

Like we need sleep . Walking , sweating , like if you're sweating our body even when we drink we sweat , so doing saunas , exercising , that also encourages sweat and the movement of your body and that blood into the liver and out , and a few other things , of course . Sunlight , dandelion root tea is another good detox .

Juice is particularly beet juice , not the best tasting , but it is known to help your liver . And then some sometime well , I would . I can attest to this that fasting does help , like some proper fasting .

And I say proper fasting because , as a woman , like we have these cycles and we need to like kind of fast and feast in proper order , and what I mean by proper order is after ovulation up until the time that you menstruate , you should not fast because your body is kind of in a repair mode .

But anyway , I check with your doctor on all of these things before diving in . But those are some things that help , that can help with detoxing your liver and helping it , giving it a little hug , yeah , and also with fasting . It just like gives your liver a little break .

It's like , okay , we aren't processing through all this food , we're going to just focus on repairing .

Yeah Well , there's this ancient and I'm more of like the ancient kind of ways gal , I guess you can say of like , supporting , like , where back in the day where we ate everything of the animal , like the liver was like the prized liver , heart , like the organs were the prized kind of foods for health , and so people are like I'm not going to eat liver .

But anyway , you can do it in so many different ways . You can buy the little powder and put it into your meatloaf and no one can tell . Or you can it's cheaper if you buy it from your local butcher and just blend it into ice cubes and hide it and things . But yeah , that's also . Another very nourishing thing is eating the liver of certain animals .

Chicken liver is a little bit more mild . You can't really taste it , but yeah , so definitely liver . Those yeah like supporting , like and also just nourishing , like bone broths and meat stocks , like if we want to go into this , we can . But like the meat stocks they have a lower level of something called histamine .

So a meat stock is basically just some sort of meat with maybe a little bit of bone and you're cooking it for only about four hours and so it has that lower level of histamine , but all like that collagen , that elastin , that just kind of heals and repairs your insides , which is like I can attest to this . And also bone broth .

If you don't have that histamine intolerance , you can do bone broth roaches , bones , maybe some scraps of vegetables , of onion , celery and carrot , and you can cook it for 12 hours to 36 hours , however you prefer .

And the reason again is like kind of that ancestral wisdom of this is how we used to eat , like this is how we used to heal , like it was these nourishing waters of you know , like these meats , these , like organs , all of these things that help to heal and seal our gut lining , and it begins there and then helps our liver to do its job more perfectly .

My kids are usually typically very healthy and I just feel like it's because I do try to make sure that they're eating good , nutritious food and , you know , balancing it all out , and it's not always organic and it's not always you know how , like top of the line , sometimes they have chips and whatnot , and who knows what will happen when my teenagers go off to

college , but for right now I'm trying to like make sure that everything is good and I think that that has something to do with their immunity and their health , and you know we don't take a lot of medications or supplements and things like that just because I feel like we don't really need it if we're eating properly and we're taking care of all of those organs

that we have in our bodies . So this has been so helpful and so fascinating to talk with you about this . I have one more question . So you talked about like moderation with alcohol , so you're not saying like they ever have it , but what do you think is maybe like a safe way to have it ? Or , if someone has it , is there something that they should ?

Maybe not like the whole edema detox , but is there like a lighter version detox , maybe just drinking beet juice or something that they can do the morning after that , just kind of . So we're helping our liver do its job well .

. So I will say first , if you do drink like planet , so know what you're drinking I would recommend that you eat on a full stomach , because whenever blood goes I'm sorry , whenever alcohol enters the stomach , it enters the bloodstream by way of how full your tummy is . So you can lessen that effect by eating , having something in your belly , and so I would .

What I would recommend , if you do choose to drink , is , of course , sleep . Try to find a sitter if you're a mom , but have your husband . You and your husband take turns , but sleep . Definitely get some extra rest the next day .

This might sound silly , but like grounding I don't know if you , your listeners , have heard of grounding , but it's where you walk barefoot . It's just like there's all kinds of nerve endings in your feet that are supposed to help you kind of drain your limbs , drain your blood . It's supposed to help .

I haven't seen the concrete science on this , but there are research . But that's what I do and I find I feel better when I'm , because you're outside and your feet are touching the earth . And yeah , another thing too is like I will drink it , just a nice big glass of bone broth , like it'll be nice and warm .

I might not eat as much food because I know my body's working hard and getting rid of that , of that alcohol . And yeah , just like love yourself the rest of the day . What do I mean by that ? Just like you know , take it easy , don't do too much , just allow your body like , okay , I'm letting my body have this little healing session .

And yeah , and I think my next meal would probably be some kind of protein , just to give me those calories after kind of doing a little fast , I call it . But I'm still drinking my , my bone broth and maybe even my coffee . The coffee will help get some of that alcohol out as well .

I don't know . Maybe , yeah , and then I love that the idea of having a glass of bone broth too because , like you said , you're getting all those nutrients plus the warm and you're not putting anything too heavy in your body and then protein later . I love all of those , those tips there . Sarah , thank you so much .

I know that you have provided so much information . I can't wait to go back and listen and take notes , and I'm sure my listeners will feel exactly the same . So where can people find you ? I will say you all need to go to Sarah's Instagram account . It's , it's healthy , holy Mama right .

Well , that does it for this episode of the Catholic sobriety podcast . I hope you enjoyed this episode and I would invite you to share it with a friend who might also get value from it as well , and make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing .

I am the Catholic sobriety coach , and if you would like to learn how to work with me or learn more about the coaching that I offer , visit my website , the catholic sobriety coachcom . Follow me on Instagram at the Catholic sobriety coach . I look forward to speaking to you next time and remember I am here for you . I am praying for you . You are not alone .