Health & Wellness

The Organ You’re Ignoring Is Behind Almost Every Health Problem You Have

April 12, 2026

Most people don’t think about their liver until something goes wrong. And by the time something shows up on a standard blood panel, it’s usually been struggling for a while.

Dr. Joshua Levitt, naturopathic physician and co-founder of UpWellness, joins Dr. Will Cole on The Art of Being Well to talk about what the liver actually does, and why the advice floating around online about how to “detox” it ranges from useless to genuinely harmful. Dr. Levitt has spent over two decades helping patients with complex health problems, and he keeps coming back to the same organ.

Below is a breakdown from the episode on what’s myth, what’s real, and what you can actually do.

Myth vs. Truth

Myth: A liver flush will purge toxins and clear out gallstones

Truth: The liver is a solid, meaty organ, not a tube you can rinse out. Dr. Levitt shares a story about a patient with confirmed gallstones who insisted on doing a classic olive oil, apple juice, and Epsom salt flush. He agreed on the condition that they’d ultrasound the gallbladder before and after.

The patient went through the whole protocol, passed what looked like green stones, and felt great. The follow-up ultrasound showed every single original stone was still there. What came out were soap-like deposits formed by a chemical reaction between the olive oil and digestive acids; definitely not gallstones. “It didn’t work the way you thought it worked,” Dr. Levitt says.

Myth: If your liver enzyme numbers are “normal,” your liver is fine

Truth: Standard reference ranges are built around the average non-sick American, which is not a very high bar. Only around seven percent of Americans are metabolically healthy. Liver enzymes like ALT, AST, and GGT can be running suboptimally for years before they cross a clinical threshold. Elevated liver enzymes also fluctuate wildly. A few doses of Tylenol before a blood draw can spike them temporarily, then the numbers recover. While it’s resilient, it can also mask an ongoing problem.

Myth: If liver flushes are junk, then the whole idea of “liver support” is junk

Truth: These are two different things. Dr. Levitt’s point is that the liver has sophisticated detoxification pathways—phase one and phase two metabolism, the cytochrome P450 system, bile production—and those systems depend on enzymes, and those enzymes need fuel. Nutrition and certain botanicals can genuinely support that function.

Myth: Fatty liver is something that only happens to heavy drinkers

Truth: The medical community has actually changed the name from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to metabolic dysfunction-associated liver disease (MASLD). This is because tying the diagnosis to what it isn’t caused by stopped making sense. The standard American diet, high in refined carbohydrates and sugar, produces the same liver marbled with fat as the body scrambles to store excess blood sugar somewhere. Dr. Levitt uses the example of force-feeding geese massive amounts of grain to make their livers fatty for foie gras is essentially what the average American diet is doing to us. Yikes.

Do’s and Don’ts

Do: Reduce the burden on your liver wherever you reasonably can

This means being thoughtful about what goes in and on your body—that includes food quality, household products, and personal care products. As previously mentioned, we’re living in a more toxic era than any previous generation, and the liver is working harder because of it. “Grandma didn’t live in our world,” Dr. Cole points out.

Do: Support liver function daily with well-studied compounds

Dr. Levitt’s go-to list:

Milk thistle—one of the most researched herbs for liver resilience
Taurine—an amino acid directly involved in bile production and conjugation, also showing up in longevity research
NAC (N-acetylcysteine)—a precursor to glutathione, the liver’s primary antioxidant; used in emergency rooms as the antidote for Tylenol poisoning
Dandelion root—supports liver and bile function; the leaf has more of a diuretic effect
Schisandra berry—a traditional adaptogen with liver-protective properties

Do: Drink coffee

Study after study shows coffee (plain, not the sugar-loaded versions) is associated with reduced fatty liver accumulation and better outcomes in liver disease. The bitter compounds, polyphenols, and possibly caffeine all play a role.

Do: Try digestive bitters

Most bars carry Angostura bitters. Ask for bitters and soda—it’s a functional drink with real medicinal history. Dr. Levitt says that bitter plants stimulate digestion and support liver function. The alcohol content in a bitters and soda is below what’s classified as an alcoholic drink. Dr. Levitt orders it at restaurants, and he says bartenders are always into it once they understand what you’re going for.

Don’t: Do an aggressive liver flush

No apple juice and olive oil protocol, no Epsom salt purge. There’s nothing to flush. You can’t manually clear the liver the way you’d unclog a drain. And with gallstones specifically, attempting to force them out carries a real risk of one getting lodged in the bile duct, which is a genuine medical emergency.

Don’t: Take Tylenol without thinking about what it costs your liver

Tylenol depletes glutathione. It’s the mechanism behind Tylenol poisoning, and why NAC is the antidote. Occasional use at appropriate doses is one thing, but chronic reliance on acetaminophen adds up, especially if your liver is already under load.

Don’t: Assume your blood work tells the whole story

If your enzymes are technically within range, that doesn’t mean your liver is thriving. Ask your doctor about trends over time, look at the numbers in context, and consider working with someone who interprets labs through a functional lens.

Don’t: Overcorrect into obsession

Dr. Levitt’s take on alcohol is that if you’re optimizing purely for physical health, zero alcohol is the answer. But most people are optimizing for more than one variable. Whether it’s social connection, enjoyment, just being a person in the world, everyone wants a drink every now and then. And don’t let it make you neurotic. The info is just to help you make informed choices with what you actually have to work with.

To hear the full conversation, listen to The Art of Being Well wherever you get your podcasts.

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