How does the liver remove toxins from the bloodstream?

While we commonly think of de-tox as some 30-day program for troubled celebs, the natural de-tox program happens inside your liver all the time.

Here's how: Most of what you put into your mouth isn't exactly pure. Plants are sprayed with chemicals, animals are injected with potent hormones, and lots of foods are genetically engineered with so much stuff that they make Frankenstein look as natural as a puppy. What's that mean to us? For one, it means that these toxins enter our body and can potentially destroy your tissues or create damage to your cells. So it's the liver's job to cope with these toxic chemicals as they travel from our environment via food into our bodies, almost like a drug smuggling border crosser that tries to make it past customs.

How does the liver do this? Rows of liver cells are separated by space, and those spaces act like a sieve, which is where the blood flows. This sieve-like the customs agent finding out what illegal goods you're bringing across the border-removes toxic substances from the bloodstream.

Those toxins can come in the form of everything from drugs and alcohol to chemicals and microorganisms. The way it does this isn't with drug-sniffing dogs, but with special cells called Kupffer cells that eat up and break down the toxins.

In short, these cells de-arm the toxins by converting a dangerous chemical to a less harmful one or by packaging them for easier disposal through our bile or urine. The latter approach reveals how the sly liver doesn't always have to fight its enemies head-on. Instead it often uses a martial arts approach, and paralyzes toxins by wrapping them in a water-soluble chemical so they land in your toilet rather than a vital organ.