Fix Your Gut, Help Your Liver: Understanding the Gut-Liver Axis

Author's Bio: Katie Bailey, MS, RD, LD, FNC

Hi, everyone. Welcome back.

The health of your liver and your gut are more closely linked than many people realize. By understanding how these two organs communicate and influence each other, you can take meaningful steps to improve your gut and liver function, potentially transforming your health from the inside out.

So in today's video, I'll be discussing what is the gut liver access?

How does gut health impact our liver?

How does the liver support our gut health?

What are some signs that your gut liver access might need some support?

And lastly, what are some strategies that can fix the gut and help the liver?

Hi, I'm Katie Bailey. I'm a gut health dietitian at Oswald Digestive Clinic, where we help individuals improve and resolve their bothersome gut issues.

If you're interested in learning more about gut health, I'll link our free guide Five Ways to Improve Your Gut Health here.

All right, let's get started on today's topic.

[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]

What is the gut-liver axis?

The gut-liver axis refers to the complex bidirectional communication network between our digestive system, particularly our gut in its microbiome and the liver. This communication is primarily facilitated by the hepatic portal vein, which carries nutrient rich blood as well as microbial byproducts and toxins directly from our intestines to our liver. The liver in turn sends bile acids as well as immune signals back to the gut. This creates a feedback loop that's going to influence digestion, detoxification, and immune regulation.

How does our gut health impact the liver?

So a healthy gut acts as a barrier, allowing nutrients to pass into the bloodstream and blocking harmful substances from getting into the bloodstream. When this barrier is compromised, which we see in something like leaky gut toxins, undigested food particles, and bacteria can then enter the bloodstream and make its way to the liver.

This forces the liver to have to work harder to filter out these unwanted substances, increasing the risk for inflammation, oxidative stress, and liver dysfunction over time. Imbalances in our gut microbiome known as dysbiosis, can lead to the overproduction of harmful compounds, lipopolysaccharides, or LPS that can further burden the liver and may contribute to the progression of liver diseases, disruptions in our gut health like dysbiosis or increased permeability or chronic inflammation.

All of these things have been linked to liver diseases such as fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. This ongoing stress contributes to a toxic cycle, so gut damage is going to strain the liver, and then poor liver function is going to further impair digestion and gut healing.

How does the liver support our gut health?

So the liver plays a crucial role in maintaining our gut health through the production and regulation of our bile acids, which have multiple effects on our gut environment and our microbiome. So the liver synthesizes bile acids from cholesterol and releases this into the digestive tract. Bile acids are crucial for emulsifying the fats that we eat and allowing our fat-soluble vitamins to be absorbed more efficiently.

Your fat-soluble vitamins are vitamin A, D, E, and K. Bile acids also have a direct antimicrobial effect disrupting membranes and inhibiting the growth of certain pathogens. The concentration and composition of bile acids in the gut can profoundly shape the gut environment, favoring beneficial bacteria, while suppressing the overgrowth of harmful bacteria. Now, the liver also sends immune signals to the gut, which is going to influence inflammation levels and the integrity of the gut barrier.

What are signs that the gut-liver axis might need some support?

So disruption of the gut liver access can manifest in a range of different symptoms that reflect imbalances in both the gut and the liver. So digestive symptoms you may see are gas, bloating, abdominal discomfort, constipation, diarrhea, food intolerances, some liver related symptoms, fatigue, jaundice, right upper abdominal pain, or elevated liver enzymes. And it can also have some systemic symptoms such as skin issues, joint pain, frequent infections, brain fog, increased sensitivity to medications or alcohol weight gain, or difficulty losing weight.

Now, these symptoms could indicate that your gut barrier is compromised, your gut microbiome is imbalanced, or just that your liver is really struggling to keep up with detoxification.

What strategies can fix the gut and help the liver?

So supporting the gut liver access involves a combination of lifestyle and dietary changes and targeted therapies to restore gut health and reduce liver inflammation.

Now, the first thing is to restore gut barrier function. So limit factors that are going to damage that gut lining, a poor diet, smoking, stress, alcohol, drugs, inflammation, and then you want to increase your healing nutrients. Things are going to help that gut barrier. So L-glutamine, if it's something that you tolerate, zinc carnosine, collagen, bone broth, aloe, DGL. Those are all super healing and helpful for maintaining that barrier.

Next is you want to support the gut microbiome and address any dysbiosis, so including probiotic rich foods, fermented foods in your diet to really provide that beneficial bacteria, and then also to include your fiber rich foods, polyphenols, resistant starches, prebiotic fibers, which is all going to help to feed that bacteria and create a more diverse microbiome. Now, if you do have dysbiosis, you may need to also consider working on eliminating those bad bugs while you're working to increase the good.

Next, you want to enhance liver detoxification and reduce the burden on the liver. So support the liver's detox pathways by including more cruciferous vegetables, B vitamins, choline, dandelion root, milk thistle, and adequate hydration. All of those things are going to be really supportive for those detox pathways. Ensure that you're having regular bowel movements as this is going to help to get toxins out of the body.

And then lastly, limit your exposure to environmental toxins, unnecessary medications, or ultra processed foods. These are all going to increase inflammation and increase the burden on the liver. You want to eat a whole foods nutrient dense diet, including anti-inflammatory foods, high fiber foods with a variety of different fruits and vegetables.

So you're getting lots of different types of fibers and polyphenols to really feed that good bacteria in the gut. You want to limit excess sugar, damaged fats, alcohol, processed foods, because these will all contribute to inflammation and then regular physical activity and reducing your stress levels. So chronic stress can really affect that gut barrier and that permeability and increase inflammation while exercise positively influences the gut.

To wrap up a topic for today,

Your gut and your liver are in constant communication, each influencing each other's health. By focusing on gut health, you can lighten the burden on your liver and prevent or manage liver related conditions. The gut-liver axis is a reminder that by healing one system, you can profoundly benefit another system.

That's it for today's video. If you like this video, please hit the like button and subscribe for more nutrition videos. If you're interested in working with our clinic, you could click the link here to schedule an appointment. We do take insurance. You can find more information about that on our website.

Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time. Bye.

If you'd like to explore any of this information further or obtain an individualized nutrition plan, you can schedule an initial appointment at our clinic.  We also take insurance and some of our clients get full coverage, which is great.

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