Living With Gallstones

lenayp 1 Comment

December 21, 2013

A Natural Approach To Health

Living With Gallstones

For Becky

I had a question the other day about gallstones.

The gallbladder is a small sac found just under your liver.

It stores bile made by your liver.

Bile helps you digest fats.

Gallstones can be smaller than a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball.

Most gallstones don’t cause problems.

But if they block a duct, they usually need treatment.

Gallstones form when cholesterol and other things found in bile make stones.

They can also form if your gallbladder doesn’t empty like it should.

People who are overweight or who are trying to lose weight quickly are more likely to get gallstones.

If you have symptoms, you’ll most likely have mild pain in the pit of your stomach or in the upper right part of your belly.

Pain may spread to your right upper back or shoulder blade area.

Sometimes the pain is more severe.

It may be steady, or it may come and go.

Or it may get worse when you eat.

When gallstones keep blocking a bile duct, you may have pain with fever and chills.

Or your skin or the whites of your eyes may turn yellow.

Having stones in your bile duct increases your chance of having a swollen pancreas.

These symptoms may also be a sign of an infected gallbladder.

Symptoms of gallstones may feel like chest pain caused by a heart attack and other serious problems.

Any symptoms of gallstones should be evaluated by your health care professional.

To deal with gallstones it’s beneficial to:

*Drink 6-8 cups of purified water daily.

*Alfalfa cleanses your liver and supplies necessary vitamins and minerals.

*Turmeric can reduce your risk of further gallstone problems.

*Other beneficial herbs include barberry root bark, catnip, cramp bark, dandelion, fennel, ginger root, parsley, and wild yam.

*If you have an attack, drink 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of apple juice. This should relieve the pain quickly. If the pain doesn’t subside, go to the ER.

*For inflammation of the gallbladder, eat no solid food for a few days. Drink only purified water. Then drink juices like pear, beet, and apple for 3 days. Then add solid foods: shredded raw beets with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and freshly made uncooked applesauce made in a blender. Apple juice helps to soften gallstones.

*For gallstones, take 3 tablespoons of olive oil with the juice of a lemon before bed and upon awakening. Stones are often passed and eliminated in your stool with this technique. You can substitute grapefruit juice if desired.

*Put hot castor oil packs on your gallbladder area.

*Eat a diet consisting of 75% raw foods (organic when possible). Include in your diet applesauce, eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, broiled fish, fresh apples, and beets.

*Eat protein from vegetable sources.

*To cleanse your system, drink as much pure apple juice as possible for 5 days. Add pear juice occasionally. Beet juice also cleanses your liver.

*Avoid sugar and products containing sugar. People who eat an excessive amount of sugar are much more likely to form gallstones.

*Avoid all animal fat and meat, saturated fats (found primarily in meat), full-fat dairy products, fried foods, spicy foods, margarine, soft drinks, commercial oils, chocolate, and refined carbohydrates.

*Don’t overeat. Obesity and gallbladder disease are related.

*Physical activity may reduce the risk of gallstones.

*Decrease or eliminate toxic exposures of all kinds (food and environmental).