Earth (Food): The Cleansing Element
Food is also made up of five elements. Water, earth, air, fire and space. Therefore, to maintain a healthy body one must eat these five elements. But, mostly, we either overeat one element or take less of one or more of the elements. The food we consume should have earth (solid matter :minerals), water (juices), air (gases), fire (spices) and space. Space is eventually an important ingredient, which is the space we leave empty in our stomach. We should not overeat or fill our stomach completely because we will then deprive the stomach of space.
Liver: The Manager of the House
The two major organs that keep our body healthy are the liver and kidneys. All the food that we eat gets digested in the stomach and then absorbed in the intestine and is taken to the liver through the portal system. So, when the food materials reach the liver, it is the liver that decides the destination of the food materials. The liver stores vitamins and minerals in its store house. The amino acids obtained after digestion of proteins are directed to the skeletal muscles to form muscle. The carbohydrates in the form of glucose are supplied to all the organs for energy. The fatty acids and the excess glucose that are converted to fats are taken to the adipose tissue for storage. All other components, like phyto-chemicals, are used by the kidneys and also shared by all the other organs.
Liver: The Loving Mother
The toxins from the body are taken to the liver and it is the liver, which, like a loving mother, detoxifies the toxins. It transforms the toxins into non-toxic compounds. Those toxins which are not water soluble are converted to a water soluble state (by microsomal oxygenase system) in the liver. The liver then helps the kidneys to excrete those toxins from the body which require water.
Liver & Kidney: The Two Guardians
It is now clear from the above that the liver detoxifies toxins and the kidney eliminates them from the body and thus they are the guardian angels of the body. Interestingly both require water. Liver uses water to detoxify toxins (for hydroxylation reactions) and kidney needs water to flush them away.
The Need of the Liver
Apart from water, the liver needs, for support, many different nutrients and phyto-chemicals which have to be supplied by the food we intake. The food that we eat should supply all that is required for the liver to carry out its detoxifying functions. Supplying vitamins and nutrients in their natural form helps the liver to keep its functions on track.
Liver is recently discovered by modern research to be an immunity organ also. They found an explanation for the curious fact that patients receiving a liver transplant sometimes inherit the donor’s allergies and immune repertoire, so in keeping with the idea that donor immune information is being transplanted. It also suggests that the liver as an immune organ is an evolutionary remnant. During embryonic development, the liver is the first organ to provide us with blood and immune cells. Apparently, at least in the mouse the liver continues to serve as an “immune organ” even during adulthood. Please Click here for seeing the original scientific paper.
This is why in Pancha Bhoota healing and all ancient medical system like Ayurveda, gives importance to keeping liver healthy through liver boosting herbs and and liver cleansing processes to treat diseases.
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