Modern Lifestyle Habits That Most Harm the Liver
How can we align with the liver's characteristic of ensuring the smooth flow of Qi (vital energy), allowing it to happily perform its functions? There are four basic conditions: First, the liver's blood and yin must be sufficient. Second, one should not frequently be depressed, repressed, or constrained, as this inhibits the liver. Third, one should not frequently take medication, drink alcohol, or stay up late, as this overburdens the liver. Fourth, one must not be infected with viruses. However, many modern lifestyles specifically target these weak points of the liver. Regardless of whether the liver likes it or not, people often indulge their whims—women get angry, men drink, and many people take large amounts of medication at the slightest discomfort, throwing the liver's functions into chaos. Let's now examine how modern lifestyles violate these four conditions and harm the liver.
Overuse of the Eyes
"The liver stores blood," and the liver stores an extremely rich supply of blood. The main functions of liver blood include nourishing the eyes and ensuring good vision, supplying and constraining the liver's Qi to ensure its smooth flow and rising, nourishing and lubricating the joints, tendons, and ligaments, and as the Wood element generates the Fire element, it can supplement the heart's blood. Long-term computer use, watching TV, or prolonged reading for exams are all forms of prolonged viewing that can lead to eye strain. "The eyes are the orifices of the liver," and prolonged viewing can easily lead to a deficiency in liver blood. As long as the "General" of the liver is starving and cannot eat its fill, the seven emotions will either become stagnant or excessive. The liver's Qi will either fail to flow smoothly and become stagnant, or it will run wild without a foundation to restrain it.
Stagnation of the Seven Emotions
The liver hates to be frequently depressed and repressed. Unresolved worries, being petty, holding in anger, getting stuck on trivial matters, and being unable to let go—these all hinder the liver's smooth flow of Qi, making it unable to舒展 (unfold) and causing it to feel stifled and uncomfortable. Liver Qi stagnation is like a crooked, diseased pine tree or a plum blossom that cannot bloom. In modern society, tense interpersonal relationships most affect the liver among the five organs, making it the most overworked. The seven emotions are felt but cannot, dare not, or do not know how to be expressed, so they are suppressed inward. This is what the liver dislikes the most. This is especially true for strong women who stand on the grand stage of society, competing with men and being ambitious, as well as smart, sensitive, capable, and unwilling-to-be-outdone women. Their emotions are either suppressed and unexpressed due to the malice of others, or they explode in a fit of anger when pushed to their limit. This cycle of excessive emotional release and suppression is very harmful to the liver.
Stagnation of liver Qi, sooner or later, manifests as a series of physical illnesses: stomach pain, abdominal pain, loose stools, headaches, chest tightness, irregular menstruation, hyperplasia of the mammary glands, uterine fibroids, spots, high blood lipids, fatty liver, high blood pressure, and so on. Most people cannot withstand multiple shocks of intense anger, which can lead to the liver Qi running wild and liver Yang soaring, causing great harm to the liver and the person. Think about sudden blindness, sudden deafness, sudden loss of voice, massive gastrointestinal bleeding, cerebral hemorrhage, and myocardial infarction—these are common consequences of intense anger.
Prolonged Sitting
Joints, tendons, and ligaments belong to the liver system and are the structural basis and important channels for the liver's smooth flow of Qi. Computers, televisions, and cars cause people to sit for long periods, making many people's joints, tendons, and ligaments stiff and losing their flexibility and suppleness. This obstructs the channels within the liver's system of smooth flow. Therefore, we often find that the more we sit and the less we move, the more depressed or irritable we become.
Excessive Medication
Among the five organs, the liver has the most vigorous metabolism, which gives it a powerful detoxification function. Pollutants, toxins, medications, alcohol, and various food additives enter the human body and are all processed by the liver for detoxification, reduction, and neutralization. Taking a lot of medication, eating unsafe food, drinking alcohol, and staying up late all force the liver to work constantly without rest, causing it to become fatigued.
"All medicine has some toxicity," yet today it's common to take medicine for illness, for prevention, and for health, completely forgetting that the human body has a powerful self-regulation ability and that there are excellent non-drug therapies, such as acupuncture, massage, and physical therapy. Sometimes, the therapeutic effect of a drug is insignificant compared to its side effects. Even for drugs that are highly effective and well-targeted, the liver must first metabolize and detoxify them, a process called the "first-pass effect." overtreatment and misdiagnosis can also overburden the liver. Therefore, for many medications, doctors will advise patients to monitor their liver function during treatment. I had a patient who, to slightly lower her triglycerides, took a lipid-lowering herbal remedy from a folk practitioner, which was said to have miraculous effects. Sure enough, after a few doses, her triglycerides quickly returned to normal, but her liver function test showed that her transaminase levels had soared to 1,300, terrifying her. She was hospitalized again for intravenous fluids to protect her liver. Similar examples are common in life.
Excessive Drinking
For men, it's hard to avoid the custom of drinking for social occasions when one's career or wealth is on the line. This has led to drinking and driving becoming a serious and widespread social problem. I have a distant relative who works in academic research. He is honest, hardworking, introverted, and not good at socializing. Even someone like him could not "escape" the need to drink for social occasions and even occasionally drove after drinking.
Of everything that enters the mouth, tobacco is the most "hot" (in the Traditional Chinese Medicine sense), and alcohol is the most "damp." Alcohol is very damp and hot. Frequent, small amounts of alcohol can invigorate blood, refresh the mind, and relieve fatigue. However, frequent heavy drinking can disturb the mind and the liver, with damp-heat harming the liver and gallbladder. Alcohol is high in calories but provides little nutrition, yet it is enough to disrupt energy metabolism. People in hospitality, public relations, sales, officials on the rise, and businessmen making money need to spend years穿梭 (shuttling) through hotels and socializing at dinner tables. Those who reach middle age without developing fatty liver, hyperlipidemia, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, and other diseases are truly rare. Alcohol can give one a bold and daring heart, but it does not strengthen the body or the five organs. It is a deceptive and disruptive "devil's drink." Do you think the liver was born just to detoxify alcohol?! The liver also has to work on keeping blood circulation smooth, aiding digestion, soothing emotions, and regulating menstruation. It is extremely busy and overworked!
Ignoring Fatty Liver
A diet high in heat, high in fat, and high in sugar leaves the body with an excess of energy. In this situation, the liver often steps up to make a self-sacrifice, acting like a dam to intercept the excess energy and form a fatty liver, in order to protect the cardiovascular system and maintain energy metabolism. Therefore, for patients with simple fatty liver, biochemical test results are often normal, at critical levels, or only mildly abnormal, and the cardiovascular system is still safe. This is why many people just smile faintly when they see their physical exam results, thinking, "It's just a little fatty liver, my body is pretty good!" They don't take fatty liver seriously at all, seeing its harm as less than that of a common cold. Whether the consequences of fatty liver are serious or not depends entirely on your understanding of it. If you avoid and reduce the formation of fatty liver from the source in your life, then fatty liver may just be a fleeting visitor to the body, passing by silently without a sound, and is not really a major illness. But if you are careless, dismissive, and do as you please, fatty liver becomes the root of all evil, triggering a disruption in energy metabolism. Look at the late-stage diseases of uremia, stroke, and heart failure. Do you still think fatty liver is not a major illness?!!
The trio of liver Qi stagnation, fatty liver, and overburdened detoxification is a terrifying combination. Over time, it will seriously affect energy metabolism. When the liver is full of fat and piled with garbage, one day it will become overworked. At that point, the dam can no longer withstand the constant influx of excess energy, and the floodgates finally open. Energy metabolism then enters a vicious cycle, leading to diabetes, atherosclerosis, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, gout, and so on. This is the time for harvest—the bitter fruit reaped from an unhealthy lifestyle.
Our country has a high rate of hepatitis B virus infection, especially in the hot and humid southern region. Of course, this has been well controlled due to the widespread use of the hepatitis B vaccine, but it still cannot be ignored. Once infected with the hepatitis B virus, even if liver function remains normal, one can still feel a relatively obvious sense of damp-heat in the liver and gallbladder or Qi stagnation and blood stasis, indicating that it still has a considerable impact on the liver. Whether one is infected with a virus is closely related to the state of the liver and one's constitution, such as long-term hunger, suppression, and fatigue. Damp-heat from viruses most easily harms the liver. (From "Nourishing the Five Organs in Traditional Chinese Medicine" by Fu Jiying)