Honey for the liver: benefits and harms, how it affects, recipes for treatment

It turns out that not all medicines taste bitter. There is one sweet remedy that, without exaggeration, can be called a panacea for many diseases. And this is not a newly invented expensive drug, but the most common honey. With its help, people fight inflammation and improve immunity. The product promotes healing after burns, cuts and wounds.

Healing nectar is widely used in cosmetology. It is indispensable in hair, skin and nail care. Honey is a natural product that has not only a pleasant taste, but also healing properties. Honey treatment helps to cope with various diseases, including pathological processes in the liver.

A natural sugar substitute is a powerful immunomodulator that strengthens the body's defenses in the fight against pathogens. Honey has long been a part of non-traditional recipes, its effectiveness has been tested by time. Despite the wide popularity of this product, few people know how the sugar substitute affects the liver.

A healthy liver is the key to human health. This gland bears all the burden of cleansing from toxic substances that enter the body along with food, drink and inhaled air. She bears all the burdens of an incorrect lifestyle and ecology. That is why you should take care of this vital organ from a young age.

In the modern world, it is difficult to find a person who does not suffer from any liver pathologies. With the development of organ dysfunction, the entire body suffers. The liver is the only organ that is capable of self-cleaning and regeneration. He just needs a little help. And it is better to do this with natural remedies such as honey. Doctors recognized its effectiveness, although with some reservations. What honey is good for the liver? Are there any contraindications?

Beneficial features

Nowadays, not only folk, but also traditional medicine has recognized the effectiveness of honey in the treatment of a wide variety of diseases. This miraculous nectar restores the immune system and mobilizes the protective reserves of the human body.

Treatment of the liver with honey is carried out with the participation of other traditional medicine. For example, the combination of nectar with pumpkin helps to provide choleretic, diuretic, hepatoprotective, anthelmintic, cleansing and mild laxative effects.

Attention! Only honey that has not undergone technological processing has healing properties. Any heating destroys microparticles and useful substances.

A natural sugar substitute has antibacterial, antiviral and antimycotic properties. It contains a large amount of potassium, which is responsible for the body's ability to fight pathogens. The healing properties of the product are explained by the presence of various substances that have a beneficial effect on our health. Honey contains biotin, folic acid, magnesium, iron, sodium, chromium, zinc and more.

Twenty percent of flower nectar consists of water. The constituents are building material and food for nerve fibers. They regulate metabolic processes and blood clotting. Honey is also rich in vitamins that are involved in metabolism and immune responses.

Eighty percent of the natural sugar substitute consists of carbohydrates. They are represented by glucose, fructose, poly- and disaccharides. Their main task is to provide energy to the body. Among other things, honey contains proteins, flavonoids, nitrogenous compounds, and phytoncides.

The bee product is known for the presence of fructose. Its breakdown is carried out without the participation of the pancreas. Because of this, a double load falls on the liver. Therefore, nectar should be taken in strictly controlled dosages. This is the only way to help liver cells without harm to health.

The benefits of honey for the liver have been scientifically proven. The effectiveness of the product is beyond doubt. Let’s highlight point by point why this beekeeping product is useful:

Diet for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Patients suffering from NAFLD are advised to undergo regular physical activity and a low-calorie diet. In this situation, daily caloric intake is calculated individually, using a special formula, taking into account body weight, level of physical activity, gender, age, physiological needs and real energy consumption of the patient.

All patients without exception are strongly recommended to limit fat consumption by 20–30% of the total energy value, sharply reduce the amount of table salt and foods rich in cholesterol, completely eliminate offal, raw smoked sausages, egg yolk, caviar, meat and dairy products with high content fat Also, fried and deep-fried foods should be excluded from the diet. Patients with impaired glucose tolerance and reduced sensitivity of cellular receptors to insulin are advised to avoid simple carbohydrates and limit their intake of complex carbohydrates. At the same time, food should be rich in vitamins and natural prebiotics (onions, garlic, chicory, Jerusalem artichoke, artichokes, asparagus).

You should begin healthy weight loss very carefully, since sudden weight loss can also cause the development of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (due to increased intake of free fatty acids into the liver). For NAFLD, the most effective and safest is considered to be a reduction in body weight per week by 1600 grams for adults, and by 500 grams for children.

Indications and contraindications

You need to know moderation in everything, and honey treatment is no exception. Uncontrolled consumption of flower nectar negatively affects the liver and the body as a whole. An adult can consume no more than three tablespoons per day. For a child, the daily norm is a tablespoon.

In summer, the dosage should be halved. Honey is approved for consumption by pregnant women and nursing mothers. Treatment with honey can be carried out if the following pathologies are detected:

How to treat the liver with folk remedies

hepatitis. The disease is characterized by inflammation of the liver tissue. The pathological process usually develops due to exposure to toxic and infectious factors;
cholecystitis. Inflammation of the gallbladder usually develops due to dietary errors;
cirrhosis. It is the final stage of hepatitis. Nectar is used to maintain the structure of the organ.

You should always remember about contraindications and reasonable treatment. You should not reassure yourself with the thought that honey alone can cure every disease in the world. Despite the unconditional benefits of the beekeeping product, experts recommend taking the product together with traditional medications when treating the liver. Honey cannot heal the organ on its own. It’s even better to use it for preventive purposes to avoid the development of health problems in the future.

Carefully! Uncontrolled consumption of honey can lead to diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, and hypertension.

Nectar can have a diametrically opposite effect on the liver. It should not be used if you are hypersensitive to bee products. Otherwise, burning, itching of the skin, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, and Quincke's edema may occur. An allergy to honey can also cause fever, nausea, abdominal pain, and asthma attacks.

If the above symptoms occur, you should immediately stop consuming honey and consult a specialist. Honey should not be used for pathologies that require immediate medical attention. If a cyst is detected, there is no point in taking a bee product in the hope that the neoplasm will resolve. A miracle will not happen!

Nectar is contraindicated for bronchial asthma, cardiopulmonary failure, urolithiasis, fever, gastritis, acute pancreatitis. The flower product is also harmful for fatty hepatosis. The accumulation of fat inclusions causes gland dysfunction. Honey does not affect fat metabolism, so it turns out to be absolutely ineffective for this pathology.

Nectar can also have a negative effect on gallstone disease. Honey treatment can lead to the movement of stones and blockage of the biliary tract. An allergy to honey can lead to dire consequences. The shock of the body from beekeeping products is fraught with severe intoxication, which will not be so easy to get rid of.

Causes and manifestations of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

NAFLD is a metabolic disease characterized by the accumulation of large fat droplets within the cytoplasm and endoplasmic reticulum of the hepatocyte. This condition, which develops in people who do not abuse alcohol, leads to disruption of the structure of the liver cell. In clinical terminology, it is called non-alcoholic steatosis or steatohepatitis.

Factors that provoke the development of the disease include:

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obesity (especially abdominal obesity - when fat is concentrated in the abdominal area);
complicated heredity (presence of liver steatosis in close relatives, abetalipoproteinemia);
disruption of digestion and absorption processes;
diabetes mellitus type II;
fasting, sudden weight loss (especially in obesity);
exclusion of protein foods from the diet;
malabsorption syndrome, galactosemia;
abnormal increase in lipid/lipoprotein levels in the blood;
taking certain medications;
action of plant and fungal toxins;
cryptogenic factors;
surgical treatment of obesity.

Selection rules

At the market and in the supermarket you can come across a fake. For profit, enterprising sellers add starch, sugar, water, and in some cases even sand and chalk to honey. There will be no benefit from such nectar, but there is every chance of causing harm to your body. How not to make a mistake and choose a quality product?

Fully or partially limited products

When creating a list of dishes, you should remove harmful foods and add healthy ones. But when preparing food, you need to include such necessary ingredients that are not included in the lists. What to do in such cases?

There are foods that are allowed for consumption in small quantities. So eggs are allowed to eat no more than one yolk per day. In this case, the product cannot be boiled or fried. During the period of restoration of health, you can only eat omelet.

Milk and cottage cheese help you recover, but you should choose natural products, without sugar. You need to carefully monitor the fat content. It is recommended to add milk to tea. Cottage cheese should be no more than 5% fat.

If you have liver problems, you should consume no more than 50 g of fat during the day. It is preferable to use refined vegetable oil. Butter can be included in the menu, but do not exceed the norm.

There is no need to eat bread on the day it is baked; it is better to dry it.

Recipes

In folk medicine, there are many options for using honey in the treatment of liver diseases. The flower product can be eaten daily in its pure form. Just a few tablespoons of nectar can normalize the functioning of the gland. Honey is used not only for medicinal but also for preventive purposes. It can be combined with other foods.

To cleanse the liver, you can prepare a healing mixture of wormwood. Five tablespoons of dry Chernobyl herb should be poured with two glasses of boiling water. The product is infused for 24 hours, after which it is boiled for several minutes. The strained liquid is ready for use. A glass of honey is added to the infusion.

Take one teaspoon on an empty stomach before breakfast. A combination of honey, olive oil and lemon is also used to cleanse the liver. Next, we’ll talk about other recipes with honey. Let's find out how a beekeeping product works in combination with pumpkin and viburnum.

Read also: Hepatitis A (Botkin's disease)

Pumpkin honey

The beekeeping product is used to protect and restore hepatocytes. Moreover, it also has an anthelmintic effect. The use of synthetic drugs against parasites can cause even more harm than addiction to alcoholic beverages.

To prepare the classic recipe, you will need to take honey and ripened pumpkin. The vegetable is thoroughly washed under running water. It is used to make a kind of airtight container. To do this, cut off the “lid” along with the tail. The cavity of the vessel should be cleared of seeds and fibers.

Next, the pumpkin is placed in a pan of appropriate size. Honey is poured into it to the brim. It can be liquid or thick, it doesn’t matter. Then you need to close the pumpkin with the cut lid. This is where all the manipulations end. However, the product will be ready for use only after two weeks.

The pan should be placed in a dry place at room temperature. After the fermentation processes are complete, the liquid should be transferred to a clean jar. To do this, a hole is made at the bottom of the pumpkin through which the contents will independently pour into the container. You can use pumpkin honey for one month. The product can no longer be stored.

Viburnum with honey

The combination of these products helps relieve inflammation of the gallbladder. Honey in combination with viburnum is a powerful immunomodulator. Medicines based on these products have a hepatoprotective and blood purifying effect. The components cannot be subjected to heat treatment, otherwise the medicine will contain a minimum of useful substances.

If fresh viburnum is used, then the ingredients are taken in equal proportions. When consuming dry raw honey, you need to take twice as much. As additives you can use aloe juice, Kalanchoe, lemon. To prepare a hepatoprotective mixture, viburnum should be ground and then nectar should be added. The medicinal composition is sent to a warm place without access to sunlight.

The product must be infused in an airtight container. It should be shaken periodically. The healthy mixture will be ready in two weeks. Viburnum honey has powerful regenerating properties. The product restores damaged liver cells. It is also used to cleanse the gland.

Cinnamon

The spice will help remove excess cholesterol from the body. It also has a choleretic effect. In order to improve liver function, it is recommended to prepare tea with honey and cinnamon. Do not add beekeeping product to hot liquid. In this case, honey will lose its beneficial substances.

Honey and cinnamon - a compound used to treat the liver

Add a spoonful of cinnamon to a glass of hot water and let it brew for half an hour. Then add a spoonful of honey there and drink half a glass. The remaining liquid is placed in the refrigerator and left there until the morning. Before breakfast, you need to finish the mixture on an empty stomach. By evening you should prepare a fresh product.

The populists also offer another method of treatment. Place honey mixed with two tablespoons of ground cinnamon in a half-liter jar. Every day you need to consume two tablespoons of the medicinal mixture. The product should be taken half an hour before meals or two hours after a meal. Cinnamon in combination effectively relieves pain in liver pathologies.

So, honey really helps cleanse and restore liver function. The product acts at the cellular level, contributing to the overall strengthening of the body. Before starting treatment, make sure that you are not allergic to honey.

Drug therapy for NAFLD

Drug treatment of fatty liver hepatosis involves stopping the pathological process in the liver tissue. To restore damaged hepatocyte membranes and normalize the morphofunctional state of the liver, the drug Phosphogliv* is used. This is a combined hepatoprotector made from natural plant materials, containing essential phospholipids and trisodium salt of glycyrrhizic acid. It has a pronounced antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic effect. With regular course use of the drug, fatty infiltration of the liver is slowed down, the loss of enzymes is prevented, the protection of hepatocytes from the effects of toxins is enhanced, the structure and function of damaged membranes are restored, and cellular regeneration is accelerated.

Phosphogliv*, which is fairly well tolerated, can be used both as a single drug and as part of complex therapy. In the course of clinical studies, it was proven that the use of this drug for 60 days in 86.6% of cases significantly improves the well-being of patients with diffuse liver changes and accelerates the normalization of biochemical blood parameters.

If there are appropriate indications, it is possible to use medications that affect appetite and have a lipid-lowering or hypoglycemic effect as part of complex therapy.

Recipes for dietary dishes for liver disease

It is necessary to pay attention that the diet when the liver hurts fully complies with the recommendations of the attending physician.

First course

For the basis of the first course, it is allowed to use decoctions of vegetables and fruits. Cream is suitable for dressing; frying in oil or fat is unacceptable. It is recommended to add dill and parsley.

Allowed soups: