Gall Bladder Question

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

It’s been quite a while since I posted, but have been reading

everything. I am currently having a health crisis and would love some

feedback.

 

I was diagnosed with celiac about 9 months ago, and also found wheat is

a severe hallucinogen for me. Since changing my diet I continued to

have major digestive difficulties, that no supplement or enzyme seemed

to help with. Last night I had a real gall bladder attack, which

confirmed my suspicion of a chronic inflamed gall bladder, no doubt a

result of long term celiac complications. The fever started last night

and continues to increase, but the bloating and pain is finally

subsiding.

 

I soonest MD apt I could get is Friday, and I want to avoid the ER or

walk-in clinic until then if I can, since I know the mess the medical

world would make of this situation. Even though my MD also practices

natural medicine I prefer to avoid that world if at all possible. My

brain is a bit foggy from the fever and stress, so I was not able to

fully check the archives.

 

Last night I started fasting, juicing beets and carrots, drinking fresh

organic apple juice, taking Epsom salts to open the bile ducts, use a

castor oil pack, and Hulda Clark’s zapper several times a day for the

infection. But, I have been doing this periodically over the last year

with less than perfect results.

 

What am I missing? Are there any good sites I can reference to find

more info on treatment? Is there something else that is more effective?

Anything to properly treat the infection part while these things get rid

of the stones?

 

 

Thanks for any input,

Rachel

[Guest guest]

Hello Rachel,

 

I hope this helps you. We are by Chinese five element in

liver/gallbladder season right now where the energy of the body is in

these organs. Below is an article by Cliford Garner that may help you.

 

Regards,

 

Bethanne Elion

Nutrition Activist

Poultney, VT

 

 

 

http://askwaltstollmd.com/archives/cliffs/34028.html

 

 

Health Musings (Paper 24D, The gallbladder

by Clifford S. Garner, Ph.D.

 

Gallbladder disease is currently the second leading cause of problems

with digestion that

result in hospital admissions, of which there are over 800,000

annually in the U.S. and over $2

billion in direct costs from gallbladder problems. About 20% of the

USA population over 40

years old have gallstones. More men than women suffer from gallbladder

problems, especially

acute gallbladder inflammation (cholecystitis), whereas more women

than men experience

gallstones (men have more kidney stones), and married women with

children have more gallstones

than unmarried women. The term “gallbladder disease” is in one sense a

misnomer, for it is the

liver, bile ducts, and gallbladder that form the system that enables

your body to digest fats and all

are likely to participate in gallbladder problems. Earlier we

discussed the liver (paper 2D), so let

us now have a look at the gall bladder and bile ducts in this paper.

The gallbladder, situated immediately below the right lobe of the

liver, is a small organ whose

function is to store and concentrate bile. The storage volume is about

1/5-1/3 fl.oz. (40-70 ml).

Bile becomes 4-12 times more concentrated than it was in the liver by

absorption of water and

electrolytes through the gallbladder mucosa..

The liver makes about a quart of bile each day, and what is not sent

during meals to the

duodenum directly via the common hepatic duct to emulsify fat is

diverted through the cystic duct

(branching off the common hepatic duct) to the gallbladder for storage

until needed. When fat in a

meal reaches the duodenum, secretin and cholecystokinin enter the

circulation and, along with

nerve signals, stimulate the gallbladder to contract. This

contraction, assisted by the small

intestine’s peristalsis, induces the sphincter of Oddi separating the

common hepatic duct and the

duodenum to relax and the bile is propelled into the duodenum where it

mixes with food (chyme)

from the stomach and pancreatic juices from the pancreas by way of the

pancreatic duct. If one

eats a fairly fatty meal the gallbladder can empty completely within

one hour.

The bile itself is made up of water, salts, fatty acids, lecithin,

cholesterol, bilirubin, and mucus.

Medical doctors generally consider bilirubin as useless, but it is

known that bilirubin that returns

to the bloodstream (see below) has a powerful protective action on the

heart. Bile has two main

functions, namely, to help in the absorption and digestion of fats,

and to eliminate certain waste

products from the body, especially excess cholesterol and the

hemoglobin from destroyed red

blood cells (red blood cells have an average life of 120 days). In

particular, the bile (1) increases

the solubility of fat-soluble vitamins, fats and cholesterol to assist

in their absorption, (2)

stimulates secretion of water by the colon to help move its contents

along, (3) is a medium for

excretion of bilirubin (the chief bile pigment) as a waste product of

destroyed red blood cells,

other waste products, medical drugs and their degradation products,

and other toxins.

Bile salts are reabsorbed into the small intestine, and resecreted

into the bile after extraction

by the liver. All bile salts in the body recirculate some 10 to 12

times a day by means of this so-

called enterohepatic circulation. In each circulation small amounts of

bile salts enter the colon

where bacteria break them down for excretion with the feces.

Symptoms that may suggest gallbladder dysfunction and/or gallstones

include pain (sometimes

severe) under the right ribs and maybe extending up the right shoulder

(somewhat mimicking a

heart attack), nausea and vomiting, belching, indigestion, gas,

dizziness, irregular heartbeat,

jaundice, cold sweats, recurrent bloating and gas (especially after a

fatty meal), headache, temper

loss, nervousness, and sluggishness; even anorexia and bulimia may

arise. Kinesiological testing is

likely to show weak anterior deltoid and/or popliteus muscles and an

active Contact Reflex

Analysis (CRA) gallbladder reflex and/or stone reflex. Medical X-rays

and ultrasound may reveal

gallbladder disease, and bile duct abnormalities may show in certain

lab tests.

Perhaps the chief factors leading to gallbladder attacks and

dysfunction are obesity (and rapid

weight loss, more than 1 pound a week; fat-free diets are especially

bad), poor dietary habits

(especially too many fatty and fried foods, too much dairy, refined

sugars and refined starches,

high protein foods in excess), food allergies, parasites, long-term

use of birth control pills, and a

sedentary lifestyle. Often finding and eliminating food allergies (see

our paper 20D on allergies

and their removal) can stop frequent attacks of gallbladder pain and

prevent unnecessary surgical

removal. Other factors include insufficient water consumption,

mid-thoracic vertebral

subluxations, a weak immune system (increases likelihood of infection

in the gallbladder

epithelium), and concurrent diabetes and liver diseases. Louise Hay

ascribes gallstones

(cholelithiasis) to bitterness, pride, condemnation, and “hard”

thoughts. Thorwald Dethlefsen and

Rüdiger Dahlke, in their book, “The Healing Power of Illness,”

consider gallstones as fossilized

bits of aggression (and all deposits and stones within the body as

manifestations of congealed

energy). According to the Chinese Law of the Five Elements, the

gallbladder is the yang aspect

(and the liver the yin aspect) of the Wood Element, for which the key

emotion is anger.

Once these factors are operating, bile produced in the liver and

flowing through the biliary

ducts into the gallbladder becomes too thick, ducts may then become

obstructed, gravel and

stones may form (90% of all gallstones are cholesterol), and the whole

biliary system may become

clogged.

As is often the case, the orthodox medical approach to gallbladder

disease and gallstones

leaves much to be desired. Surgical removal of the gallbladder

(cholecystectomy) is seldom

required, but frequently performed even for just gallstones despite

inherent dangers and lots of

side effects, including (especially for the elderly, but even for the

younger) the start of a steady

decline that can hasten death. Since 1990 laparoscopic

cholecystectomy, in which the gallbladder

is removed through tubes inserted through small incisions made in the

abdominal wall, has largely

replaced the older surgical approach, with reduced postoperative pain

and a shorter stay in the

hospital. About 0.3% of patients undergoing the surgery die. For

patients who do not improve

their diet following surgical removal of the gallbladder the removal

leaves the person with a

greatly increased risk of colon cancer. Although fast relief of some

symptoms can follow this

surgery, the relief is often short-lived and the basic causes are

still present. If you have lost your

gallbladder, the regular use of bile salts at the start of meals can

help substantially, including better

processing of the fat-soluble essential nutrients such as essential

fatty acids and vitamins A, D, E,

and K. Probably the best way to tell (aside from kinesiology or use of

a pendulum) if you are

using enough bile salts is to monitor the color of the stool. If the

color is lighter than the normal

brown color, or is even a light beige or yellow, this implies

insufficient bile flow, with its

underabsorption of essential nutrients, and a need for more bile

salts. Such a need for more bile

salts will be greater after a meal with greater amounts of fats and

oils. An excellent source of bile

salts is Standard Process Labs “Cholacol” tablets. One medical

approach to acute gallbladder

inflammation and resulting attacks that is safe and effective is that

used by Dr. Johan Verbanck at

the Heilig Hartziekenhuis Hospital in Roiselare, Belgium. Using

ultrasound imaging, he inserts a

needle-tipped tube into the gallbladder and flushes it out with

sterile salt water, filling and

removing the salt water through the tube as many as 30 times. Of

eighteen of his patients with

severe gallbladder problems, seventeen experienced immediate

improvement; of these 17, 13

remained totally free of further gallbladder problems. Odds are that

this procedure has not made

its way to the USA. Other medical methods of handling gallstones in

the gallbladder include

attempts to fragment them with sonic shock waves (lithotripsy) or to

dissolve them with methyl-

tert-butyl ether, both having their problems. Gallstones in the bile

ducts can be handled by

abdominal surgery, but better is the use of endoscopic retrograde

cholangiopancreatography

(ERCP), in which an endoscope is passed through the mouth and down the

esophagus, through

the stomach and into the small intestine; radiopaque contrast dye is

added and the sphincter of

Oddi is opened wide enough (sphincterectomy) to allow the gallstones

to pass into the small

intestine–this appears to be successful in 90% of patients. Of course

there are other times when

surgery may become necessary, such as in perforation of the

gallbladder (often from gangrene) or

in internal biliary fistulas, where the gallbladder or bile ducts

become abnormally connected

directly to hollow viscera., or where non-benign tumors and cancers

are present. All this is what I

call “crisis medicine,” so common in the orthodox medical procedures

used in the USA.

Prevention of gallbladder problems lies in controlling obesity, diet

and adequate intake of

drinking water, and the use of appropriate physical exercise, not to

mention addressing anger,

aggressiveness, and bitterness. Keeping the immune system strong (see

our papers 6D, 7D, and

22D), and the liver and small intestine (see papers 2D and 19D)

healthy is important. Let’s look

now at some non-medical alternatives once gallbladder problems are

evident.

Together with the dietary suggestions offered earlier, one of the

simplest and most effective

procedures is to take 2 to 6 tablets of Standard Process A-F Betafood

at the end of each meal.

This fantastic nutritional supplement is made from dried beet leaf

juice, beet and carrot powders,

alfalfa meal, defatted wheat germ, some glandular extracts, etc., and

it is a great gallbladder and

liver decongestant, bile thinner and bile mover, fat metabolizer,

antibiotic, and is also helpful in

hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and elevated cholesterol (although much

too much is made of the

latter “problem”). Even in acute gallbladder attacks, taking 15 A-F

Betafood tablets a day for up

to 3 weeks will clear the problem, or drinking half a glass of

concentrated red beet leaf juice with

each meal can stop a gallbladder attack in 2 days.

Other nutritional supplements that are helpful include digestive

enzymes such as Standard

Process Zypan (2-6 daily) or their Multizyme (if stomach acid is not

needed, maybe 1 with each

meal–people with gallstones, however, usually have insufficient

stomach hydrochloric acid, such as

those with blood types A and AB), lipotropics such as choline (~200 mg

daily), inositol (~1200 mg

daily), phosphatidyl choline (lecithin) (~500 mg daily), L-methionine

(~1,000 mg daily), high-

lignan flax oil (I think Barleans Lignan Rich Flax Oil is superior,

~1-2 tablespoons daily), vitamins

A (~25,000 IU daily) and D (~1,000 IU daily), the amino acid taurine

(~1,000 mg daily to increase

bile formation), vitamin C (Standard Process Cataplex ACP is natural C

with all its phytochemical

synergists; much less effective is 2,000 mg ascorbic acid daily),

Standard Process Cataplex GTF

(~3-6 daily), glycine (~500-1,000 mg daily), and at least 5 g daily of

a good fiber supplement such

as oat bran, pectin, or psyllium. Useful herbal supplements might

include Swedish bitters, milk

thistle, chamomile, peppermint, gymnema sylvestre, gravel root,

dandelion leaf & root,

chicory, balmony, rhubarb, burdock, catnip (move over, Puss!), cramp

bark, ginger root,

fennel, horsetail, cascara sagrada, wild yam, and turmeric. Especially

helpful foods include

beets, sauerkraut, parsley, artichokes, pears, and 3 glasses daily of

tea made by boiling for 20

minutes in water the rind from organic grapefruit or orange (orange,

however, is a common

allergen). Two of the worst “foods” are coffee whether decaffeinated

or not (aggravates symptoms

by causing the gallbladder to contract) and sugar. One way to prevent

build-up of gallstones is to

eat some oil, such as extra virgin olive oil, daily; this encourages

the gallbladder to contract daily

sand dump its contents into the small intestine, preventing sludge

from accumulating and forming

gallstones.

Hot castor oil packs over the gallbladder for 15 minutes, then rub

area for 2 minutes with an ice

cube in a cloth–repeat 3 times once daily for a week can sometimes

dislodge gallstones. Rubbing

firmly acupoint CV17 (midline of front of body, between the breasts

and about level with the 5th ribs

down) for a minute daily helps break up gallstones.

There are many gallbladder and liver flushes that are especially

important if you have had

recurrent gallbladder problems and your diet has been typically

American, but be aware that some

gallstones are too big to pass (a medical sonogram can tell, or you

might be comfortable with

relying on kinesiology or a pendulum). One simple flush is to drink 3

tbs of unrefined virgin olive oil

with the juice of a lemon before retiring and on awakening for at

least 3 days, or until no more

stones pass. The famous Dr. Richard Schulze, who specialized in

working with “terminal” patients

(until the FDA crashed him), using flushes, herbs in extremely high

potencies, etc., has a

cleansing/flush program called the “The Liver/Gall Bladder Program,”

available through the

American Botanical Pharmacy, (310) 453-1987, at a cost of $32 plus

S & H. Another very good

program is that of Dr. Dick Versendaal, using the following Standard

Process supplements every 15

minutes for 3 hours to pass gallbladder, bile duct, and kidney stones:

10 Orchex, 10 Choline, 10

B6-Niacinamide, and 1 dropperful of Phosfood. In addition his

“carotid-umbilicus technique” is

used every 15 minutes for 1-3 hours as follows (it’s easier if someone

else does it on the patient):

using the index finger, apply a steady pressure into the belly button

for 5 minutes, such as to

depress the belly button 1-1 ½ inches (but avoiding pain). He says it

is good to do this once a day

for 12 weeks after the stones are passed.

Firm rubbing for at least 30 seconds1-2 times a day of the

neurolymphatic reflexes between ribs

3 and 4, and ribs 4 and 5, just to each side of the breastbone, and

between ribs 5 and 6 just under

the nipple of the right breast, is helpful. Also softly holding (not

pressing or rubbing) for at least

one minute the neurovascular reflexes at the anterior fontanel (baby’s

soft spot near crown of head–

locate at tip of middle finger when the wrist crease of either hand is

placed on the eye brows and the

middle finger extended onto the midline of the skull) and at the

hairline on the forehead directly

above the outer corner of each eye.

Rubbing the reflexology points hard on the sole of each foot along its

midline over a 2-inch area

at the narrowest width of the sole may also help.

 

DISCLAIMER

Procedures described in this and other “Health Musings” are reported

solely for

informational purposes. The author is not directly or indirectly

dispensing medical advice.

Although the author believes these procedures to be valuable, persons

using them do so

entirely at their own risk.

Cliff Garner, Ph.D., is a holistic health facilitator and a

professional kinesiology

practitioner. He may be reached by telephone or fax at (505) 525-1089

or by e-mail at

kosmik.

 

 

 

 

 

On May 9, 2007, at 10:53 AM, Rachel Mason wrote:

 

> Hi all,

>

> It’s been quite a while since I posted, but have been reading

> everything. I am currently having a health crisis and would love some

> feedback.

>

> I was diagnosed with celiac about 9 months ago, and also found wheat is

> a severe hallucinogen for me. Since changing my diet I continued to

> have major digestive difficulties, that no supplement or enzyme seemed

> to help with. Last night I had a real gall bladder attack, which

> confirmed my suspicion of a chronic inflamed gall bladder, no doubt a

> result of long term celiac complications. The fever started last night

> and continues to increase, but the bloating and pain is finally

> subsiding.

>

> I soonest MD apt I could get is Friday, and I want to avoid the ER or

> walk-in clinic until then if I can, since I know the mess the medical

> world would make of this situation. Even though my MD also practices

> natural medicine I prefer to avoid that world if at all possible. My

> brain is a bit foggy from the fever and stress, so I was not able to

> fully check the archives.

>

> Last night I started fasting, juicing beets and carrots, drinking fresh

> organic apple juice, taking Epsom salts to open the bile ducts, use a

> castor oil pack, and Hulda Clark’s zapper several times a day for the

> infection. But, I have been doing this periodically over the last year

> with less than perfect results.

>

> What am I missing? Are there any good sites I can reference to find

> more info on treatment? Is there something else that is more

> effective?

> Anything to properly treat the infection part while these things get

> rid

> of the stones?

>

>

> Thanks for any input,

> Rachel

>

>

> This group is for nonprofessional people interested in news, etc. and

> probably most posting are not by doctors or health care professionals.

> Only people trying to share articles, discussion, etc., for

> educational purposes only of information on possible different health

> and healing modalities. To sharing of news, articles, information,

> opinions and experiences, and it is explicitly NOT to be taken or to

> be given as health or medical advice. There are many different

> opinions on any subject. Postings may be news related, purely

> speculation or someone's opinion. There is no health or medical advise

> given here and none should be taken. For health treatment, members

> must research, evaluate, and make their own decisions with their own

> health care providers. This group is not for that purpose.

>

>

> This list or list owner make no representations regarding the

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> professional.Those people needing medical attention or advice,

> especially for serious or life-threatening illnesses, should seek

> qualified PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE

>

[Guest guest]

A-F Betafood from Standard Process, Inc. SAVED me from gall bladder

surgery a year ago and I still use it daily with no re-occurences.

 

Di

[Guest guest]

Many people(I think over 20% of USA population), including myself, live

OK with gallstones until something triggers an attack, it could be food

allergy, or any of the other stressors listed before. But something that

was not listed, which I believe was important in my case, was the use of

a bouncer for exercise, I think the up and down shaking could cause the

stones to rub against the walls of the gallbladder and irritate it. I

would keep that in mind when you are doing any exercise that could

produce a lot of physical stirring of the gallbladder if you know to

have gallstones!

 

Domingo

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

Thank you to all who replied about my gall bladder concerns.

I am taking oil or oregano for the infection, and a combination of most

of the other ideas (plus a few more) to remove the stones. Things are

going very well. I have an appointment for an ultrasound next week, but

I know by the time I actually have that, the problem will be solved -

which is the point of natural medicine in the first place.

 

And, I am so excited to have an appointment with a Traditional Chinese

Healer later this week!

 

Thanks again,

Rachel