Gallstones
Problems with the gallbladder can range in severity; from asymptomatic gallstones to biliary colic, cholecystitis, choledocholithiasis, and cholangitis. Well, that’s a mouthful! How can we simplify our understanding of gallstones and gallbladder dis-ease? Perhaps the clearest way to look at the problem is from a holistic point of view. The gallbladder is in charge of storing bile that aids in breaking down the fat in our diets. When the bile hardens, stones are formed in various sizes and become trapped inside the organ.
It’s quite complex, but suffice it to say that different kinds of stones will form for different reasons; such as cholesterol stones, bilirubin stones, calcium stones, and other materials. Several factors can play a role in whether you have gallstones; take for instance gender. Women between the ages of 20 and 40 can blame the hormone estrogen for their greater risk because it increases the amount of cholesterol in their bile. This forms stones that range in size from crystals to golf balls.
The same can be said for pregnant women who have an increase in estrogen, particularly after several pregnancies. Aside from gender, obesity is another risk factor. Being overweight drastically decreases the amount of bile salts in the gallbladder and slows the emptying rate of the organ, putting it at severe risk.
Another common cause of gallstones is rapid weight loss, often due to modern day crash dieting. With extreme dieting, the body metabolizes fat rapidly and the liver will react by pumping extra cholesterol into the bile, all while the rate of the gallbladder emptying is slowed. You can probably see where the harm in this lies. And even though gallstones can occur in people of all ages, the majority of cases are found in people above the age of 60.
So, with a whopping 10% of the US population with gallstones, making the number roughly 25 million people, it makes sense that 500,000 people each year have gallbladder surgery, right? Wrong! The greatest risk is not the stones themselves, but people’s reliance upon “quick fixes”. Western medical doctors will be quick to tell you that you should have your gallbladder removed, but what they won’t tell you about are the effective gallbladder flushes and natural alternatives that not only remove the dangerous stones, but leave you with a healthy gallbladder when all is through!
The problem with gallbladder surgery is that it removes an incredibly vital organ that plays a major role in your everyday digestion. Not only will the strength of your digestion be compromised for the rest of your days, but more importantly your absorption of nutrients will be forever weakened. That’s a rude awakening to face when you’re eating Jell-O in your hospital bed after surgery.
Simple, natural flushes and cleanses can not only restore your gallbladder with a little patience and persistence but they can invigorate and renew the entire body. That’s why it was mentioned before that gallstones are a holistic problem, and not a simple issue of built-up cholesterol. The root cause of the problem could be narrowed down to hormonal imbalance, excess weight, unsafe dieting, and other unnatural habits that will not only affect the gallbladder, but in the long run will damage other parts of the body when not acknowledged.
