Natural remedies for gallstones
The gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped sac located under your liver and is connected to the liver by the bile duct.
Bile is made by your liver cells and secreted into tiny bile ducts which then form into bigger ducts and join the common bile duct which carries the bile to the intestines. The gall bladder stores extra bile to be pumped into the small intestine for digestion when you eat a meal.
Bile is made up of a mixture of cholesterol, bile acids, bile pigments, phospholipids, electrolytes and water. Bile provides the brown/greenish colour to your bowel actions (feces). If your bowel actions are very pale then this can be a sign of inadequate bile production. Gallstones can either be made of cholesterol and/or bilirubin; cholesterol stones are far more common. It is not surprising that bile contains a lot of cholesterol because this is the major way excess cholesterol is excreted from the body. The cholesterol in bile then gets excreted from the body in the stool.
Stones can form inside the gallbladder or inside bile ducts. Gallstones vary in size and number. The gallbladder can also contain sludge, which is bile and cholesterol that has thickened and is more likely to develop into gallstones. If gallstones move out of the gallbladder they can block the common bile duct that carries bile from the liver to the small intestines. This can cause pain in the upper right abdominal area, and/or pain in the right shoulder, nausea, vomiting and indigestion. The gallbladder can become blocked and infected and if this is left to progress emergency surgery will be needed. If a gallstone lodges in the pancreatic duct, the pancreas can become acutely inflamed causing pancreatitis and severe abdominal pain.
Why do gallstones develop?
The health of your gallbladder is determined by the health of your liver and the quality of bile it manufactures. If your liver is not functioning well it will produce poor quality bile that is likely to form sludge and stones. People with a liver condition such as fatty liver, cirrhosis, liver fluke infection are more likely to get gallstones.
Other risk factors for gallstones include:
- Obesity. Even being slightly overweight increases your chances of having gallstones. Overweight people usually have high levels of blood fats such as cholesterol and triglycerides. These fats end up in the gallbladder and are more likely to form stones.
- Being female. Women are at double the risk of gallstones than men. The hormone estrogen, whether naturally produced in excess, as during pregnancy, or in hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or oral contraceptive pills, increases the risk of gallstones.
- Poor diet. Diets high in carbohydrates (especially sugar) increase the risk of gallstones because the liver converts high carbohydrate foods into fat. Diets high in processed cheap vegetable oils, deep fried foods and margarine increase the risk of gallstones.
- Diabetes. Diabetics are at increased risk of gallstones.
- Rapid weight loss. Going on a crash diet and losing weight extremely quickly increases the risk of gallstones because the body attempts to excrete a lot of fat in a short amount of time.
- Cholesterol lowering drugs. These drugs increase cholesterol excretion into bile, therefore increase the risk of stone formation.
What to do if you have gallstones
Many people have some gallstones in their gallbladder that are detected during an examination for another condition. They can remain there for life and not cause any health problems.
However, if you do not take good care of your health, and particularly your liver, you run the risk of these stones growing and multiplying, and causing pain and discomfort. If gallstones are causing you a great deal of discomfort, it is advisable to see a surgeon. It may be too late to try and dissolve the stones naturally. Ignoring the pain increases the risk of infection and inflammation in your gallbladder and surrounding organs.
If you have gallstones that are not yet causing a great deal of discomfort, it is possible to shrink them and eventually dissolve them.
To achieve that we recommend the following:
- Look at the risk factors above and try not to fall into any of those categories (apart from being female of course!).
- Base your diet on vegetables, salads, fruit, protein (fish, chicken, eggs, meat), legumes, nuts and seeds. Avoid consuming large quantities of sugar, flour based products, grains and cereals, as the liver converts these foods into fat. Reduce alcohol consumption to one standard drink daily or less.
- Avoid deep fried foods, margarine and large quantities of very fatty foods such as cheese, ice cream and cream.
- Lose weight if you are overweight but do so gradually. Don’t try and lose weight as fast as you can; make the goal keeping the weight off for the rest of your life.
- Follow the healthy eating principles in our book called "The Liver Cleansing Diet" and "Save Your Gallbladder Naturally and What to do if you have lost it". You will find more detailed information about gallstones in these excellent books.
- Before breakfast drink a cup of warm water with the juice of one lemon. This is an excellent way to stimulate bile flow and cleanse the gallbladder. The spice turmeric is also excellent for cleansing the gallbladder. Another strategy is to drink 2 tablespoons of organic apple cider vinegar in the middle of your meal to help dissolve the stones; dilute it with 3 tablespoons of water.
- Take a good liver tonic such as Livatone that will increase the production and flow of bile through your liver and bile ducts. The herbs Milk Thistle, Dandelion and Globe Artichoke, found in Livatone help to achieve this. Increase antioxidant activity in the liver by including N-Acetyl-Cysteine daily to improve liver function and thereby, bile production.
- Liver and gallbladder flush is discussed in our book, 'Save Your Gallbladder Naturally, and what to do if your have already lost it' but a warning of warning is that if your stones are larger then 3 mm in size, they often get stuck in the common bile duct and may cause such severe pain that you need emergency surgery. The liver and gallbladder flush is safer for gallbladder sludge only.
If you have had your gallbladder removed it is vitally important that you take good care of your liver. Your liver must work harder now that your gallbladder is gone, and you are more prone to a fatty liver if you don’t look after yourself. After the gallbladder is removed you can still form stones in the bile ducts and these can cause disease. This is another good reason to take care of your diet and take Livatone long term. You may also find that taking Ox bile capsules in a dose of one to two capsules in the middle of meals greatly improves your digestion and bowel actions.
Know someone who might benefit from this article? Share it!
8 Comments
Need Help?
1-888-75-LIVER
Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm MST
100%
Satisfaction Guaranteed
If it’s faulty or wrongly described, we’ll replace it.
Dr Cabot will be sending you an email.
Kind regards,
Jessah Shaw
Nutritionist
Your mother is in a similar situation to many people of her age.
Contrary to what she has probably been told for many years, Diabetes is able to be reversed at any age if considerable diet and lifestyle changes are embraced.
We ask your mother to follow the diet included in Dr Cabot’s Diabetes book.
When her blood sugars are lowered, we expect her blood pressure to also be more normal.
Afib often occurs when a Magnesium deficiency exists, and reduced heart muscle integrity is apparent.
Have your mother begin taking Magnesium powder or tablets at a dose of 200mg in/with water twice daily.
Your mother is very likely to find herself with more energy when her sugars are lower, and her protein intake is increased so she can begin exercising to strengthen her heart muscle.
To make it easier for her we recommend she begins taking Berberine – 1 capsule twice daily with meals, instead of Metformin, which she has probably been prescribed.
It is important to keep an eye on your mother’s blood pressure so her medication can be adjusted as it normalizes.
Kind regards
Victoria
Naturopath for Dr Sandra Cabot MD
Dr Cabot’s 15 Day Cleanse and Maintenance Program may be the best thing you can do to help with your gallstone.
Ensure you have moderate amounts of good fats daily so the bile in your Gallbladder is fresh, but not so much to cause too much Gallbladder contraction.
You probably also have a congested or Fatty Liver and the above program is valuable to begin returning your liver to best possible function.
Supplementation is also important and Dr Cabot prescribes Livatone Plus, NAC, and OxBile.
Kind regards
Victoria
Naturopath for Dr Sandra Cabot MD
Thank you for your enquiry.
A 2cm gallstone is about 4 times the diameter of the common bile duct, so is not likely to become trapped because it is too large to leave the gallbladder.
We recommend you improve the health of your liver so that gallstones are not as likely to be formed rather than removing those you have.
A healthy liver will do far more to shrinking those you have than a gallstone flush.
As you read in the article there are many things that contribute to gallstones and diet is one of the major contributors.
We are delighted to let you know that Dr Cabot has recently released her 15 Day Cleanse - Two weeks to begin your journey toward improved overall health and function, utilising both supplements and a tasty, easy to prepare dietary regimen. This is an anti-inflammatory program and the supplements are immune boosting, body alkalinising and gut healing.
After completing the Cleanse, we recommend you remain on this style of eating and you can then begin the Maintenance plan.
To fast track liver health and your vitality, Dr Cabot prescribes
Livatone Plus – 1 to 2 capsules twice daily, to improve liver function.
N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC 600mg) – 1 to 2 capsules twice daily well away from food, if any upset occurs take at the beginning of your meals. This supplement works well with Livatone Plus to get your liver better faster. This supplement is the precursor nutrient of glutathione; the body’s strongest anti-oxidant and potent detoxifier.
MSM + Vitamin C – ½ to 1 teaspoon twice daily in vegetable juice or water to reduce oxidation, inflammation and boost liver health.
You may purchase these supplements and Dr Cabot’s books athttps://shop.liverdoctor.com/
Victoria Taylor
Naturopath