How to Flush Your Liver With Olive Oil & Lemon Juice

Your liver is a vital organ; liver functions include filtering harmful substances, such as alcohol and caffeine, from your blood and storing vitamins and minerals. Liver and gallbladder cleanses are popular, yet controversial, methods of promoting liver health 1. Flushing your liver with an olive oil and lemon juice tonic is a common cleansing technique. Although this flush has anecdotal support on alternative health websites, Michael Klaper, M.D., with the Institute of Nutrition Education and Research, says that the olive oil and lemon juice cleanse is useless and, in some cases, hazardous. Consult your health care provider before attempting this liver flush.

Measure 1/2 a cup of unrefined, organic, extra-virgin olive oil. The olive oil should be at room temperature.

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Squeeze 1/2 a cup of room temperature, organic lemon juice.

Mix the olive oil and lemon juice in a blender. If you do not have a blender, shake the mixture thoroughly in a jar.

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Drink the olive oil and lemon juice tonic immediately after blending, just before bedtime.

Lie down in bed on your right side with your knees raised to your chest. Maintain this body position for at least 30 minutes.

Drink an herbal laxative tea, such as senna leaf tea, when you awake in the morning.

Tips

The Detox.net.au website includes this olive oil and lemon juice flush as part of a three-day or seven-day detox diet and says to consume organic apples, or apple juice, before the flush.

Warnings

According to Kapler, if there are gallstones in your gallbladder, drinking the olive oil and lemon juice tonic could lead to severe abdominal pain and, possibly, the necessity for the surgical removal of your gallbladder.