Gallbladder problems can be frightening. The pain and nausea that a gallbladder attack can cause may result in an emergency trip to hospital. Removing the gallbladder doesn’t fix a lot of people’s symptoms. It is possible to still experience pain, nausea and indigestion, and a person without a gallbladder may be more likely to develop a fatty liver and gain excess weight.

Hopefully you care well for your liver and gallbladder and never experience a severe gallbladder attack. If you know you have a gallbladder condition, the following strategies should be helpful:

Good things to do for your gallbladder

Start raw juicing using cabbage, carrot, ginger, mint and apple. See juice recipes in the book Raw Juices Can Save Your Life.

Include fresh green leafy herbs in your salads and raw juices. The best liver cleansing herbs are mint, parsley, garlic, chives, shallots, basil, coriander and small amounts of thyme and oregano.

Dress your salads with fresh lemon or lime juice. The acid can help to thin the bile and soften gallstones.

Take an ox bile supplement. This will help with digestion of essential fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins. It also helps to make the bile thinner; reducing sludge and helping reduce the size of stones.

Add one tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar into ¼ of  a small glass of warm water and sip it before your meals. Like with lemon and lime juice, it makes bile thinner and can help soften stones. If you don’t like apple cider vinegar, or it aggravates your throat, taking a betaine hydrochloride supplement has similar benefits. Acid in the stomach sends signals to the gallbladder, telling it to contract properly. This is helpful for people with an under functioning gallbladder.

Try not to eat all day. It’s important to give your digestive system a rest between meals. It’s best to eat 2 or 3 meals per day and minimize snacking.

Take a Digestive Enzymes supplement. This helps you extract more nutrients from your food and supplements, plus helps reduce bloating and indigestion.

Hot spices are good for the liver and bile ducts and good choices are wasabi, horseradish, mustard, garlic, curry, turmeric and chilli. If you have a sensitive stomach or gastritis only use small amounts of these spices or avoid them.

What to avoid if you have a gallbladder problem

  • Avoid or minimize your consumption of dairy products. They make the bile thicker and make it harder for your gallbladder to contract.
  • Excess alcohol
  • Minimize high carbohydrate foods. Grains, cereals, starches, sugar and foods made of flour can all raise cholesterol and triglycerides and make the bile thicker. Those foods promote insulin resistance and that is one of the leading causes of gallstones.
  • Seed oils and foods that contain seed oil. Check labels carefully; canola, soybean and sunflower oils are in so many processed foods. Olive oil and animal fats are healthiest.
  • Sugary soft drinks and diet sodas
  • Avoid dehydration. Drinking plenty of water helps to prevent the bile becoming too thick.

 

For more information see the book Save Your Gallbladder, and what to do if you’ve already lost it.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.