How Kidney Damage Advances Unannounced Without Symptoms

Hello, Hellchampions. Today we're going to talk about 10 different things that your feet can tell you about your liver. And the first thing is, if your feet turn yellow. So there are different aspects we want to think about though, because if it's the entire foot, that's different than if it's just different part. So if it's the whole foot, then it's probably jaundice, which has to do with how the liver breaks down Billy Rubin, and if it falls short, if it falls behind, now the Billy Rubin builds up, and it is kind of a yellow pigment. And this yellow coloration is going to affect the eyes, the white of the eye, and the skin first. But in severe cases, you can also see it on the feet. Now, if it's only the soles, if it's only the bottom of the feet, that's yellow. Now this is probably called keratinemia, meaning too many keratinnoids in your blood. And you probably simply ate too many yellow foods, like carrots and pumpkin and sweet potato. So it could be that you just want to cut back on those, because what's going on is that you may be okay, that the keratinnoids, the keratin, that's supposed to be converted into vitamin A. So keratin is a pre-vitamin A. And if that conversion isn't happening fast enough, because you're just eating so many carrots and yellow foods, then you might still be okay. But it's also possible that if you have some liver stress, if your liver is falling behind, then you're going to process that at a slower rate, so it's going to exacerbate it. But then if the yellow discoloration is just the toenails between the toes or around the nails, now this is probably a fungus infection. And if your liver is struggling, now you're probably going to have a reduction in your immune system as well. And fungus, just like most pathogens, they're opportunistic. So if your immune system goes down, now your pathogens are going to thrive. But if you have a weak liver or a fatty liver, now you're probably also insulin resistance. And this is going to make the fungus worse, because with insulin resistance, you don't control your blood sugar as well. And with high blood sugar levels, now that is the favorite situation for fungus. So you're going to make that overgrowth even worse. Another way you can get discoloration is if the liver toxins start accumulating, because the liver can't keep up breaking them down, now that's going to slow down the growth of your nails. And if the nails grow much slower, I mean, they don't grow very fast to start with. But if it slows down even further, now they're going to be thick, brittle, and yellow. And also, if your liver is struggling, you run the chance of developing some imbalances in your microbiome, called dysbiosis. And because there's so much of your immune system that depends on how well your gut is working, if your gut doesn't work so well, now your immunity is probably going to suffer further. Sign number two is if you have cold or numb feet. And there could be two different things. The first one is poor circulation. And this can have to do with your poor liver function, like a fatty liver, but also insulin resistance. And the liver is your primary metabolic factory, and it makes different proteins that regulate the blood viscosity, the blood thickness. And insulin resistance leading to high blood sugar will cause blood vessel dysfunction, because of that high blood sugar, it causes a swelling and a dysfunction of the inside of the blood vessel. So they can't regulate blood pressure and circulation as well. So when your circulation suffers, it's going to affect the periphery first. It's going to affect the body parts furthest away from your heart. So that's your hands and your feet. And when that circulation goes down, it's going to affect both blood vessels and nerves. And that's where you can get that numbness and the tingling also as a result. But it could also be that you feel cold because of slowed metabolism. So thyroid is your master regulator, your thermostat that regulates metabolism. And the liver is responsible for converting your thyroid hormone, the T4, into the active thyroid hormone called T3. And the vast majority of that conversion happens in the liver. So when that liver is struggling, that can also affect your overall thyroid function and it can slow down your metabolism. Sign number three is red burning feet. And if the liver is struggling, it can't keep up with breaking down all kinds of different metabolic and inflammatory byproducts. So now if we get a buildup of these toxins, they have the potential of irritating blood vessels and nerves. And this in turn can trigger some cytokines, some pro-inflammatory. Those are just chemical messengers that signal inflammation. And when we get inflammation, some of the hallmarks are that we get redness and swelling and heat. And we get vasodilation. So the blood vessels dilate to let more blood through and that's where we get the redness and the heat. But also if the liver is not functioning at its best, it can start accumulating iron. So we get excess storage of iron in the liver and that's not a good thing. There is a disease called hemochromatosis called iron overload. And this could be genetic, but some people just develop a lot of iron buildup. Even though they may not have the genetic portion. And iron is supposed to be inside your red blood cells, when it's elsewhere, it tends to be sort of very corrosive, like rusting your body. And it's a huge stress on your liver and your pancreas primarily, but also on all the cells when it's not where it's supposed to be. And then this hemochromatosis, this rusting iron, this corrosive iron further irritates these blood vessels and the nerves. Sign number four is itchy, dry, and flaky feet. So when the liver is struggling and we get this toxin buildup, now the body is going to try to get rid of it someplace else because the liver is one of the main pathways to get rid of toxins. But if we can't get it out, if the liver is not keeping up, the body is going to try some other pathways. And one of those important pathways is through the skin. And if we have toxins exiting the skin, now of course they're going to cause inflammation and irritation and possible itchiness there. And if the liver is struggling, it may not make enough bile, and with less bile, we're not going to absorb fats as well. And that includes the essential fatty acids, the omega-3s, that are super important for moist and functional and elastic, nice skin. So if our bile and our essential fatty acids go down, now we can end up with dry and flaky skin. And then there's something called histamine also. It's a natural substance, we get it through food, we keep it inside certain white blood cells called basophils and they're part of inflammation and allergic reactions. Now the liver is going to break down most of that. Once it gets out of the circulation, out of the stomach into the circulation and into the cells, after that point the liver is the primary thing that breaks down histamine. And if the liver is struggling, we could get excess levels of histamine. And now of course we could get some allergies and some skin reactions and some irritation from that. Number five is swollen feet and ankles. If the liver is struggling, it may not make enough albumin. And albumin is a protein. It's our primary protein that keeps the blood nice and thick so that it absorbs. So it sort of holds water to it through something called osmotic pressure. If you think about what blood pressure is, it is a pressure that moves the blood around inside tubes. And if we have higher pressure inside those tubes, it's going to have a tendency to push the liquid, the fluid, the water out through those membranes. So we need to have something inside to act like a sponge and hold the water there. So we can balance out that blood pressure and not start leaking everywhere. But with less albumin and with less osmotic pressure, now we're going to start seeing some of that leakage and water getting out. And one more way that this can happen is if you have a build up of toxins and you have insulin resistance, now you're going to start activating what's called the RAAS or the RENIN angiotensin-althostrone system. And this is the system in the body that regulates blood pressure and fluid balance. and. What happens if we activate the system, now we're going to have sodium retention. We're going to tell the kidneys to increase the amount of sodium and water that it reabsorbs. So because of these two things, we're going to have water retention. We tend to hold on to more water. We increase our blood pressure, which of course increases the edema, but we also hold on to water. And now we make that edema worse. Sign number six is cracked heels. And if the liver is struggling, then we may not have the proper processing of essential fatty acids because the liver is critical for the digestion and absorption, but also the processing and the distribution of these essential fatty acids that are critical for keeping the skin intact. But the liver also makes amino acid. It makes precursors that the body later uses to put together collagen. So it's the amino acid or the building blocks. And the collagen is a critical protein for skin to stay tight and strong. And then if the struggling liver is also associated with insulin resistance, now we're going to have a reduction in circulation, like we talked about. And if circulation goes down, now there is less delivery of oxygen so we can't make as much energy in the tissues, in the feet. And we also can't deliver enough nutrients, enough building blocks to make the repairs happen. And then we're probably also going to have high blood glucose levels, high blood sugar. And what happens with proteins and sugar, if they're high, they tend to stick. But sugar, the higher the blood sugar, the more it tends to stick to proteins. That's a process called glycation. And this damages the proteins. And this can happen to collagen as well. And now we're going to get stiff and brittle skin that is more likely to break and crack. Number seven is dark patches on the feet. And this is similar to in type 2 diabetes where you can get something called acanthosis nigricans, which are velvety, dark, thickened patches of skin. And they typically happen on the neck and the armpits mostly, but also can happen in the groin and they can happen on the feet. And they mostly develop in those areas like the armpits and the neck where there are friction and pressure points where you get some rubbing from clothing or body parts rubbing to your gather. And then when you have that friction, you have extra wear and tear. So when you wear and tear, you need to repair more often. And if you have insulin resistance, then those repairs don't happen quite right because insulin is what's called mytogenic. It increases the growth rate. It increases the rates of cell division. So it's like we get a little bit too much growth when we repair it. And this accounts for the thickening and the velvety structure of those patches. And then these patches often turn dark because of something called hyperpigmentation. And pigment is just the thing in the skin that gives it color. And the liver normally regulates the pigments and the process is leading to pigment regulation. But if the liver is struggling, now we're going to have more oxidative stress. And we're going to have an increase in ages in advanced glycation and products, just like we talked about before, with glycation where the sugar sticks to the protein and damages those proteins. And when we have too much oxidative stress and too much of these ages, that will tend to produce too much of those pigments as well. And the eighth thing that your feet can tell you about your liver is if you have tonal fungus, that could mean that the liver is struggling because normally the liver is involved with filtering out pathogens. And if we get a buildup of pathogens and pathogen byproducts, now the immune system is going to experience some stress and we could get a fungal overgrowth, just like we talked about earlier. And like we said before, if we see an increase in blood glucose level, blood sugar levels, like we typically do with some liver stress or fatty liver, now we're going to see pathogens thriving. A lot of the non-friendly bacteria are going to thrive on that sugar. And that's going to contribute even further to that fungal overgrowth. But one more thing that can happen is from this toxic buildup in the liver is that it won't be able to produce the glutathione that it normally does. So if we see a reduction in the glutathione, which is the body's number one antioxidant on the inside of cells, now our clean-up ability and our immune system and our ability to fight off pathogens is going to suffer as well. Number nine is gout. And gout is when you have very, very painful joints that are caused by uric acid buildup. And then number one place this happens is in the big toe joint. And if the liver is struggling, now we're going to see a reduction in the processing of uric acid. So uric acid is a two-edge sword. It's very critical to find a balance here. And usually we only hear about the bad parts about uric acid causing crystals and pain. But uric acid is actually the most important extracellular antioxidant. The thion is the most important intracellular antioxidant. And once uric acid gets into the cell, now it changes and it goes from being good to being bad basically. It becomes pro-inflammatory and causes inflammation, insulin resistance and destruction. And when we get an excess of uric acid, mainly from liver dysfunction and from insulin resistance, now it can crystallize inside the joints and it is excruciatingly painful. It's like having little pieces of broken glass inside your joint. And a lot of this goes back to metabolic health, to fatty liver, to insulin resistance. And when we break down fructose, then it increases the levels of uric acid quite dramatically. And also when we have insulin resistance, it leads to the kidney functioning differently. So just like insulin resistance causes an increase in reabsorption of sodium, it does the same thing with uric acid. So we're going to get rid of less. We're going to reabsorb more of the uric acid as well, which are several different factors causing a build up and an excess level. And the 10th thing that your feet can tell you about, your liver is if they start sweating and smelling bad. And we touched on this mechanism before that if the liver isn't keeping up and the toxins start accumulating, the body will try to get rid of them through some other pathway. So now it will increase the activity and the excretion through sweat glands in the skin of the feet. And that's not all that can happen because a struggling liver can also contribute to dysbiosis and imbalance in the gut. And now if we have dysbiosis, those pathogenic bacteria will produce additional toxins. And in that environment, we're going to see an increase in inflammation. And now those two factors are going to stimulate your sympathetic nervous system, your stress response. And increase your sympathetic drive. And now that causes more sweat. And when the sweat stimulation comes from that sympathetic nervous system, you're going to see it in three different areas primarily. You're going to see it on the hands, on the palms of the hand, on the soles of the feet. And you're going to see it under your arms and your armpits. And you have probably noticed this sometime if you get really nervous, for example, then you start sweating in your armpits under your arms. And some people have problems called hypahydrosis where their hands get very, very wet and sweaty. And if you ever get excess sweat in these areas, then you know that it's going to be from a sympathetic nervous system, from a stress response. But again, that stress response isn't just emotionally. It can also be caused by chemical reactions in the body and from dysbiosis. And what a lot of people don't realize is that we have a characteristic flora, a collection of bacteria for each different body parts. So we have the most of them we have inside the gut. But we also have one for the mouth. We have one for the hands. We have one for the feet. feet and so forth. And if you have an imbalance in your gut flora, then chances are you're going to have an imbalance on the skin as well. So you get skin dysbiosis on the feet. And this is why we have people who have problems with odor on their feet. Sweat by itself does not stink. But some people, they tend to develop that odor much, much faster and to a much larger degree. And of course, the liver is not the only thing that could cause a dysbiosis or a bacterial imbalance in the gut or on the skin, but it is one of them. If you enjoyed this video, you're going to love that one. And if you truly want to master health by understanding how the body really works, make sure you subscribe, hit that bell and turn on all the notifications so you never miss a life-saving video.