What does forgiveness have to do with your liver? Most of it comes down to your hormones. Historically, holistic practitioners tied emotional troubles to liver damage and therefore overall poor health. As you probably know, high amounts of chronic stress — which can be caused by emotional issues, relationship problems, and holding on to guilt, anger or shame — all have an impact on your endocrine, reproductive, digestive and immune systems.

Research shows that changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis caused by stress promotes inflammatory response and worsens liver damage, even contributing to liver diseases. It’s not longer speculation that stress on the liver impacts hormones — it’s now been proven that the HPA axis is affected and causes changes in neurotransmitters and catecholamines.

A damaged liver is said to block healthy emotional flow, produce frustration and cause anger — and believe it or not, these have physical implications.  Poor liver function has been tied to physical and psychological symptoms, including: brain fog, rib pain or fullness, dizziness, headaches, cramping, joint or tendon problems, menstrual problems, blurry vision, and digestive disorders. This can also create a vicious cycle because the more stress your under, the more dysfunction in the liver can result.

Since the liver is closely tied to the uterus, involved in regulating reproductive hormones, a woman’s menstrual cycle and libido, it’s important to let go of built-up anger and keep positive energy moving by avoiding conflict and stressing over the small things.