How does your liver actually clean toxins from your blood?

The liver cleans blood through a two-phase chemical process. In Phase 1, enzymes called cytochrome P450s transform fat-soluble toxins by oxidizing, reducing, or hydrolyzing them. This makes the toxins more reactive and sometimes temporarily more harmful. In Phase 2, the liver attaches molecules like glutathione, sulfate, or glucuronic acid to these reactive intermediates, making them water-soluble. Once water-soluble, the toxins can be excreted either into bile, which carries them to the intestines for elimination in stool, or into the bloodstream to be filtered by the kidneys and excreted in urine. The liver also uses specialized immune cells called Kupffer cells to physically engulf bacteria and cellular debris arriving from the digestive tract.