To be brief, your liver is a total workhorse with responsibilities ranging from processing nutrients, filtering the blood and cleaning it of toxins, producing bile, and coordinating the excretion of waste from the body.
And, as if doing all of that wasn’t enough, your liver also has a direct connection to maintaining healthy hormone levels (and thus, libido) in both men and woman.
What Is Low Libido?
Low libido is characterized by low sex drive and can affect both your physical and mental health.
In determining the cause of low libido, your liver should be one of the first areas of the body you look. When inflamed or neglected, your liver may not only struggle to detoxify your blood, but potentially compromises a healthy hormone balance and – by extension – sex life, libido, and overall mental state. There are also supplements in the market like libido gummies that are available at Elm and Rye to help boost your sex drive.
According to the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation “The altercations of sexual function known as the erectile dysfunction are quite frequent among patients affected by liver diseases and they tend to increase in advanced liver failure.” The connection between your liver and low libido is quite direct, and with liver diseases slowly creeping up the list of leading causes of death in the United States, right now feels like the appropriate time to educate and take steps towards protecting our livers.
If we can understand what’s making our livers sick, as well as how the symptoms of a sick liver manifest in seemingly unrelated areas of the body, we’ll be better prepared to prevent and fight low libido and liver illnesses.
Estrogen Dominance Across Genders
Estrogen is important for both men and woman when it comes to your liver and libido.
In women, estrogen is crucial for menstrual health. Estrogen helps fortify the uterine lining, keeps the vagina lubricated, and acts as a mood stabilizer.
The liver is responsible for breaking down estrogen and maintaining healthy levels in men and women.
But if your liver is bogged down by excess:
- toxins,
- fat,
- liver disease,
- or all of the above
estrogen can’t be removed at a healthy rate and begins to build up. In an environment like this, estrogen dominance can occur.
The symptoms of estrogen dominance in women can be very serious, including irregular menstruation to mood swings and loss of libido and sex drive.
6 other symptoms of estrogen dominace include:
- PMS like symptoms – swelling, bloating, tenderness in breasts, headaches
- Anxiety and panic attacks
- Dramatic weight shifts
- Hair loss
- Cold hands or feet
- Trouble sleeping or fatigue
And let’s not forget about men, the other half of the population who can be affected by estrogen dominance. When estrogen levels increase in men testosterone levels typically dip. The result is a difficult to diagnose condition where high estrogen symptoms typically occur alongside symptoms of low testosterone, making diagnosing high estrogen in men difficult compared to low testosterone symptoms in women.
The 7 most common symptoms of high estrogen in men are:
- Low libido: decreased morning erections, decreased erectile function, and low sex drive
- Enlarged breasts
- Lower urinary tract symptoms associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia
- Increased belly fat
- Fatigue
- Decreased muscle mass or spikes in weight or fat content in the body.
- Emotional effects: the emotional impact of low libido and the toll it takes on relationships with significant others can be very taxing. While it’s not a physical symptom, the emotional toll can lead to depression and other very serious mental illness.
Emotional Impact of Low Libido
Whether you’re a man or a woman, sex is important and its emotional impact cannot be understated.
Unfortunately, libido, virility, and self-worth are directly connected with American societal ideals of strength, responsibility, and success. Thus, compromised hormone levels and low libido can take a serious toll on our mental health and our sense of self-worth.
In women, low libido affecting sex drive and, by extension, decreasing the probability of pregnancy means self-esteem is becoming entangled with biological goals and societal standards. When we don’t meet those standards it can have a negative impact on our mental well-being.
For men, a great deal of self-worth is wrapped up in virility. The idea of being a strong and desirable provider is a drive as ancient as any. Compromised sex drive or virility is perceived as weakness, so someone with low libido may be made to feel inadequate when trying to live up to societal standards.
Treatment and Prevention: Diet and Exercise
With no current FDA approved drugs to fight some of the most prevalent forms of liver disease – diet, exercise, supplementation, and behavior are some of the only ways we can support liver health and fight low libido.
Eating a diet high in alkaline with lots of leafy greens and lots of water can alleviate inflammation in the liver.
Processing alcohol and sugar puts a tremendous strain on your liver, so cutting both out of your diet could help bring your liver fat levels down or prevent the scarring that occurs in cirrhosis.
Boost Your Libido and Liver Health With These 5 Common Foods
- Chilli Powder– The agent that gives peppers their natural heat, capsaicin, is a natural endorphin booster. More endorphins raise testosterone levels.
- Garlic– While its odor isn’t the sexiest, garlic contains natural anticoagulants that aid circulation to sexual organs by thinning the blood.
- Avocados and Fish– The vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids in both are not only good for your skin and nails, but also a good source of B6 monounsaturated fat (good fat) which is critical to liver and heart health.
- Chocolate– Flavanols are a naturally occurring antioxidant in cocoa. Flavanols help relax blood vessels and increase blood flow. Once again, this means better blood flow to sexual organs.
- Flax and Pumpkin Seeds– Both are high in zinc, which is crucial for producing and maintaining healthy testosterone levels in men.
It’s also no surprise that obesity and liver disease go hand in hand. Strong links have been made between obesity and fatty liver hepatitis. Logic stands to suggest that a healthy diet and maintaining your weight is one obvious way to avoid excess liver strain and a host of health complications associated with obesity.
It’s never a bad idea to start working out. Working out and exercising not only increases stamina but can also boost libido. Not to mention improve body image, virility, mood, and burns fat which lightens the load on your liver.
And don’t think that a workout has to be a long and strenuous activity. It doesn’t. A workout that elevates your heart rate and gives you all the health benefits you want can be as simple as taking a brisk walk around the neighborhood every day, which is what the Mayo Clinic recommends.
Sometimes big changes to diet or incorporating physical activity into routines isn’t a realistic goal. Age can prohibit strenuous physical activity and liver-boosting ingredients can often be obscure and expensive to source, so finding a supplement that can guarantee you’re getting the vitamin and minerals you need is important. Using a supplement can be a time and energy efficient way to ensure a healthy liver and strong libido, and can act as the first, or only line of defense depending on the individual. Either way, it’s a small step that everyone can take on their path to a healthy lifestyle, liver, and libido.
SOURCES:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20671409, “Journal of Endocrinological Investigation. “Male sexual disturbances in liver diseases: what do we know?” by Durazzo M1, Premoli A, Di Bisceglie C, Bo S, Ghigo E, Manieri C., published Aug 2010, Retrieved on Dec 10, 2018
- https://www.naturopathic.org/content.asp?contentid=401, Naturopathic Physicians, “Estrogen Dominance: Too Much of a Good Thing Can Certainly Be BAD!” by Holly Lucille, ND, RN, Retrieved on Dec 10, 2018
- https://www.healthline.com/health/high-estrogen#causes, Healthline, “Signs and Symptoms of High Estrogen,” by Kimberly Holland and Heather Cruickshank, published on Feb 20, 2018, Retrieved on Dec 10, 2018
- https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/aging-independence/8-surprising-high-estrogen-symptoms-in-men/, University Health News, “8 Surprising High-Estrogen Symptoms in Men,” by UHN Staff, published on Aug 8, 2018, Retrieved on Dec 10, 2018
- https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hep.1840120505, Hepatology, “Fatty liver hepatitis (steatohepatitis) and obesity: An autopsy study with analysis of risk factors,” by Dr. Ian R. Wanless & John S. Lentz, First published: November 1990, Retrieved Dec 10, 2018
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/walking/art-20046261, The Mayo Clinic, “Walking: Trim your waistline, improve your health,” by Mayo Clinic Staff, Retrieved on Dec 10, 2018
