Hi Hopeless. As you get this problem corrected and gain your social confidence back which can ONLY come from other people accepting you for who you are I know you will gradually have more and more people to talk to. Also, it's only your "perception" that no one wants to talk to you. You're assuming that because maybe of some small thing they did while you were talking and now you're magnifying it 1000 times, while the other person is not even thinking about it now. Social confidence is a different concept from self-confidence which should "always" be present. I'm not saying you should work to please people and everything you do should be to try to be accepted by others, but when you are being yourself and someone else accepts you and likes you for it, there's no better feeling. You have to work really hard to get rid of this prolem first, and secondly, to build up your self-esteem and work to relax in the social situations. Never retreat away from socializing (I know easier said than done with an odor). And lastly but not least, read every word out of God's mouth in the bible. In Exodus specifically, look over the 10 commandments and meditate on them, look through Job especially, and Psalms and Proverbs. This is VERY important for getting socially better again (assuming odor was gone, which I'll help you do).

About supplements harming the liver. I would need to know which supplements you currently take to make an assessment. I distrust many unknown herbal formulations and various cleanses, but I will be the first to admit they will do less harm than drugs. But the ineraction of different herbs could be problematic because some are portent. Again, I'd need to know specfically as to which supplements you're taking, or want to take.

But firstly, your liver is a powerful and adaptable organ. It does its job very well even under horrible circumstances with many foreign toxins entering your body. All the people here I'm sure have finely-tuned diets and have nothing to worry about with regard to the liver's health. Also consuming milk thistle, along with other bitter things like almonds, or apple seeds (yes consuming these can be healthy) or apricot pits, are natural detoxifiers of the liver. It's also interesting that when animals feel sick in the wild, they will instictively eat the pits of various fruits which are bitter. The bitter things are good for us when we're sick.

If you're supplementing vitamins and minerals though, not only will it not harm the liver in sensible (but not low!) doses, but it will help it's functioning greatly because all cells in the liver and all over the body require the proper biochemical environment for DNA synthesis, nutrient transport from the blood to the cell membrane and then through the calcium channel, and then would result in the proper secretion and proper contraction actions which result as "work" from the cells. And getting the right minerals will make your liver function perfectly by providing that proper environment of alkalinity.

Now with regard to toxicity. Vitamin A was shown in only one study to have POSSIBLY killed (they never proved it) "one small group of arctic explorers" who consumed polar bear livers for food which have over 8 MILLION I.U. of vitamin A. The RDA is only 50,000 I.U. Just to put it in perspective 50,000 I.U. is just over 1 milligram, and a grain of salt weighs a few miligrams. Researchers determined that those explorers who died actually died of cadmium poisoning because the polar bear spends all it's time in the arctic waters where the toxic metal cadmium resides and of course their OWN livers tried to protect them, so when the explorers ate the liver they got an unusually high concentration of cadmium. And all the symptoms they experienced were associated with cadmium poisoning but was attributed to vitamin A! Simply using logic (if you know something about biology) if you eat livers you always have the risk of poisons and pollutants, because that's what the function of the organ was in the animal, to take out pollutants and keep them out of the blood, also kidneys would be another safety risk to eat.

To give another perspective on Vitamin A (the vitamin most doctors call toxic in large qunatities, 2nd place for that award is Vitamin D), in 1999 the United Nations published a report that said Vitamin A saved 1,000,000 kids lives that year. How many drugs which the doctor's readily prescribe with KNOWN toxic side effects have saved that many lives? Also, it's amazing to me they want to strictly regulate the vitamin/mineral businesses when they allow an herb that is KNOWN to kill hundreds of thousands of people every year to stay on the market, called tobacco. Yet in certain isolated cases when quality was poor in some country and someone "may" have died from an overdose of a natural nutrient, boom, it has to be banned. All while they leave tobacco on the market. They happily do it however, because vitamins are the drug companies competition whereas tobacco causes many health problems which require drugs later in life to help with their health conditions, which makes drug companies happy that they can make money.

Now with regard to the second most frequent complaint from doctor's about vitamin toxicity is Vitamin D. This one is EASY to debunk. You produce millions of I.U.'s of vitamin D when you're out one day in your bikini at the beach. Do you die after that due to Vitamin D toxicity? Or do you actually feel great and relaxed! The RDA for Vitamin D is only 400 I.U.! That is ridiculously low. It's only 1/100th of a milligram. Your intestine, first of all, can absorb (and needs to!) 5000 IU's of Vitamin D in order to absorb mineral nutrients. So 5,000 is much higher than the recomended 400 IU. And when you're outside for even a modest time your body produces many times the RDA of Vitamin D. Organs can store the excess and release it for the intestines when it's needed.

The theory under all this is that these vitamins build up in your fatty tissues since they're fat soluble vitamins. However, first off the amounts are so low it would take thousands of years to build them up to toxic levels in our systems, and according to many studies we can safely consume up to 50 times the RDA of most vitamins without any adverse effects! Also how do you explain that a modest meal of carrots, and being out in the sun for only one hour causes us to consume many times the RDA of vitamins A and D and we only have side effects of well being as opposed to death! And lastly, many doctor's readily prescribe Vitamin E now in large quantities which is ALSO a fat soluble vitamin. Go figure! It absorbs and sticks around in the fatty tissue and membranes just as easily as vitamnin's A or D. The bottom line is, your body's fatty membranes need these nutrients to function properly, and our body has many disposal and dispersal (the two D's) mechanisms that prevent it from being loaded up in one location.

However, there is a stipulation that the best vitamin and mineral supplements are the one's that are organic in nature. For instance Vitamin C is better from acerola cherries which have other citrus bioflavanoids to work with it than a chemical compound ascorbic acid. Dr. Linus Pauling the great researcher believed there is no difference between man-made and God-made vitamins, but I beg to differ. Vitamin C alone (ascorbic acid) will not function as efficiently unless it has the support of other antioxidant and bioflavanoids found in natural fruits rich in vitamin C. But synthetic vitamins are not even close to as bad for the body as inorganic minerals. The reason is because the minerals must be organic to have even a chance of being ionized and then absorbed into the blood stream.

What does organic mean? It means there is carbon dispersed inbetween the small mineral particles. Carbon is the basic building block of life, and minerals that are chelated (meaning amino acids, which are compounds that have carbon, are put between the minerals) are far better asborbed than say raw limestone. However, the BEST form of minerals come from sources that are already in the life cycle. For instance the BEST way for any of us to consume minerals is to have lots of minerals in the soil and then have the plants turn them from inorganic to organic (one of the great mysteries of life). However, we don't have that luxury of having mineral-rich soils like other places on the globe in mountainous regions. So we must find supplements of minerals where they are already in the life cycle. One way is by consuming milk to get calcium. That's the best readily avialable calcium source there is, much better than all calcium tablets. But then you're missing magnesium, zinc, selenium, potassium, cesium, cobalt, nickel, chromium, boron, and all the other essential trace metals because they aren't present to a sufficient degree in milk, so we get isolated deficiencies. The best source on the planet of organic minerals which can be transported to us are from the sea. Algae, seaweed, and a product called coral calcium which comes from coral reefs. All these minerals are already in the life cycle. Since there are many minerals in ocean water, the plant and animal life in the OCEANS were able to convert them from inorganic to organic for us, but we just have to extract them in capsule form and ship them to the US. Luckily many marine mineral products are currently available and I would wholeheartedly recommend them since our soils are lacking.

So, in conclusion, the last time you took Tylenol for a headache, that medication was hundreds of times more toxic than any vitamins up to 50 times the RDA. But doctor's readily give you tylenol and other pain medications, but warn you against natural nutrients! :-O.

I think milk thistle is a very proven herb, I would also eat apple seeds and other bitter things to clean out the liver. But once it's done it's done! You don't have to continue to do it for long periods of time. That is harmful in fact. The most important is eating good food, and making sure you get enough vitamins and minerals. Anything else but those things should be considered only an "occasional" supplement. Hope this helps.