If Your Eyes Look Like This, Your Liver’s in Trouble | Dr. Mandell

Welcome. Our eyes are the windows to our soul. Now in medicine, there are many things that our eyes can tell us about our body, but today I want to talk about our liver. The liver does so many important functions for our body to keep us healthy. The liver's main job is to filter the blood coming from the digestive tract before passing it to the rest of the body. The liver also detoxifies chemicals and metabolizes drugs. As it does so, the liver excretes bile that ends up back in the intestines. The liver also makes proteins important for blood clotting and other functions. And the liver works with these important organs to digest, absorb, and to process our foods. Now there are many risk factors that can affect our liver, and the three big ones are one, alcohol, two, excessive sugars, which can lead to diabetes, and three, obesity. But it's the excess sugar that's toxic in our body. It's inflammatory. It puts a burden on the liver that can cause fatty liver, which can lead to many problems in our body. Although our eyes can tell us many things about our liver, the whites of our eyes should be healthy. A little bit off-white, but it should look nice and clear. And not everyone has perfect color eyes. But if you look around the eyeball, and you notice that there is yellowing, this is a sign for jaundice of the whites of your eyes. And this can indicate liver scarring, liver damage, or even liver disease. And this is from high levels of bilirubin in your blood, where the liver is unable to break down your red blood cells. And that's how the bilirubin continues to build up in the bloodstream. And I'm sure that you noticed these bumps on other people's eyes. And these bumps are known as cholesterol bumps, which are those tiny little bumps that can indicate a sign that you have high cholesterol. And we call this And there's no question that the liver is suffering. And this usually indicates that there are high stores of fat in your liver. And this could be a risk from fatty liver disease. And I want you to understand this simple concept, that most of our fat that's stored in our body comes from too much sugar. When we take in sugars, it gets broken down to glucose, the hormone. Insulin gets secreted from the pancreas. Insulin tries to get sugar into the cells of our body. If we use it right away, that's instant energy. If we're not using it, it gets stored as glycogen in the liver and the muscles. Once those areas are filled up and stored, it then becomes converted to fat. And the fat in the liver can eventually start to back up and it can lead to other potential problems like high LDLs, high triglycerides. And that will cause plaquing in our arteries, causing more potential problems to our heart and our brain. And dry eyes can also be another condition coming from our liver. Having dry eyes can be caused by numerous factors. It may be from constant tiredness, poor vision, straining on a computer, dehydration, problems with the ducts in the eyes, diminishing natural lubrication, and even hepatitis has been known to cause dry eyes. Even though it's not real common, if you notice that your provider has given you the right treatment, the right ointment, the right drops, and it's not going away, then it's something potentially you want to look into further. And if you're constantly waking up with bloodshot eyes, it could be an indication of liver inflammation. And remember the liver's job is to filter out those toxins. So if you're smoking, drinking alcohol, eating lots of sugars, refined processed foods, lots of fatty foods, having a poor diet, this is going to play a tremendous toll on your liver. And therefore, those toxins circulating through your bloodstream can affect those eyes, making your eyes bloodshot because of those chronic toxins circulating through your bloodstream. So to have a healthy liver, you need to take care of your body with the right nutrients, fibers, fruits, and vegetables, prebiotics, the right probiotics. I like milk thistle, dandelion. I love lemon and water first thing in the morning. I like apple cider vinegar mixed with water. You can add lemon in there as well. I also like ALA or what we call alpha lipoic acid. That's another important antioxidant for both the liver and eyes, as well as lutein and zeaxanthin, which can help the prevention of age-related macular degeneration. So let's keep our bodies healthy, particularly that liver. I hope that this video was helpful for you. Please share this with your friends and family. Leave your comments below, and most important, make it a great day. I'm Dr. Alan Mandel.