Once every couple of months someone emails me to ask about how I control my gallstones without surgery. Here is some info below on my story. Please remember I am not a doctor, simply a sufferer. What works for me may not work for you. Listen always to your body, talk to your Doctor and if you can seek advice from a dietician like I did. I havn't completely ruled out surgery - if some day its the only or best option its what I will have to do. However right now I am stable and well. If anything this journey has helped me to be a much happier, slimmer healthier me!
Here goes... its a long read so apologies for that!
When I ended up hosptialised with gall stone attacks I looked into using diet to control my gallstones. I did extensive research into the choices I had. To sum it up in a nutshell my descision was not to have surgery to remove my gall bladder and to attempt to control the situation with diet. I told my surgeon I would remain open to surgery at some stage in the future if I found that I was unable to control the situation.
My reservations about surgery were as follows and take a bit of explaination:
The gall bladder is part of the liver system. Its function is as a storage facility and dispensary for bile that is produced by the liver. Bile is produced by the liver to allow the body to process cholesterol. A healthy gall bladder dispenses the correct amount of bile into the upper intestine to process cholesterol as our body consumes it. By removing the gall bladder in the simplest of terms we remove the bodies bile dispensary affecting it's ability to ably process cholesterol. Putting the body at risk to high cholesterol levels and to the heart risks that brings with it.
The second issue removing the gall bladder from the equation gives is that without the gall bladder the body no longer has the ability to store bile, meaning that as the bile is dripped into the upper intestinal tract. Bile is an acid, and prolongued exposure to a constant bile drip raises your chances of intestinal cancer, ulcers or upper intestinal damage. Particularly if you are a young person undergoing gall bladder surgery.
I felt that as a 36 year old woman at the time over time this aparently small risk would be aggravated by the sheer amount of years I would be subjecting my body to an inibility to process cholesterol (building up heart disease over time) and the potential damage to by intestine and the risks of intestinal cancer (from the constant bile stream) I just felt it was a risk I was not willing to take.
Speaking to my surgeon about it he was concerned and felt I was putting myself into danger by not having surgery because apart from the massive pain involved in a gallstone attack (
Acute cholecystitis) I would be at risk of developing pancreatitis which can create long term health issues if it develops into acute pancreatitis. He felt that altering my diet to the extent that it would bring my cholecystitis under control was simply too difficult and too severe a response and that the immediate relief of remove the immediate danger and pain was the best option. I was strongly counselled to reconsider. I was not offered any dietary help or advice that really addressed my problem in hospital - nor did they really believe that a dietary respnse would work. But it did and research online showed that many people have dealt with it in this way. My Great Aunt has controlled her gall stones with diet for the past 40 years a she is now a healty woman in her mid 70's and is in no way a "hippy sort" who does not respect modern medicine. Having your gall bladder removed does not even mean you will be able to eat the trigger foods again - you will still have to alter your diet. You may need to dramatically alter it to counter your body's inability to process cholesterol properly and deal with your now higer risk of heart disease. You may be prescribed long term drugs to accomodate this inability after gall stone surgery. My Grandmother had hers removed but was never able to eat cream again without some sort of painful reaction.
The way I dealt with it was to essentially clean out my entire liver system (of which the gall bladder is a part) I did this by embarking on a tough detox. I took advice from the book "
The Liver Detox Plan" by Xandria Rhodes and from the website
www.gallbladderattack.com which also had lots of really great advice.
The basic premise of the detox is that you cut out major problem food groups all in one go - then after a period of allowing the body to stabilise without each potenial problem food type you would re-introduce it. The amount of time you chose to string out this process over would depend on how strong a result you wanted. This in the simplest terms allows your liver to reset itself and encourages healthy liver function which in turn facilitates healthy gall bladder function. Through this process I was able to identify the food types which were "trigger" foods for a galls tone attack. Bear in mind they differ from person to person. There are two types of gall stones, those that are cholesterol based and those that are calcium based and that may be part of that difference as well as different physiology from individual to individual.
My own detox
My detox was really harsh for the first few weeks. I had just discharged myself from hospital and was suffering from mild pancreatitis (a normal side effect of the endoscopy I had to look for gall stones blocking my ducts) so the extra harsh beginning of my detox was to help to neutralise the pancreatitis too.
I cut out the following food groups:
gluten / wheat,
meat and fish,
dairy,
soy,
refined / processed sugars,
all processed foods,
nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers etc)
Legumes (peas, beans, soy etc)
brassicas (cabbage, brocolli, cauliflower etc) N.b although this group promotes healthy liver function in normal circumstances it is not helpful during any type of attack as it stimilates the gallbladder creating more agitation.
Because of the pancreatitis I also cut out raw foods as this aggravates the situation at first.
For the first two weeks I ate mostly foods recommended to help in gallstone recovery:
beets, carrots, artichokes, lemons, parsnips, dandelion greens, watercress, horseradish, mustard greens, water chestnuts, beet tops, barley, watermelon, grapefruit, radishes, apples, tomatoes, olive oil, celery, oat bran.
I found making my own sushi was good and allowed me to pack a lunch to go out (I was on holiday in Korea when I fell ill) I made sushi from cooked steamed veg such as carrot, asparagus or artichoke with brown sushi rice and seaweed. Or simply rice and steamed veg.
Then over time I reintroduced food groups. The first to return was nightshades, which opened up so much more for me. I found within a week my blood tests were vastly improved and I was no longer considered at risk.
The food groups I took longest to re-introduce were, meats and fish, dairy and gluten / wheat. I strongly considered remaining vegan as for 6 months that was essentially what I was. However in chatting to a dietician I decided to reintroduce those three food groups but to vastly alter my relationship with them.
In doing so I lost huge amount of weight, a good 40lbs and still very slowly dropping 18 months on. I also identified my trigger foods which for me are meat and dairy fats - particularly when heated. However simply removing just these trigger foods from my diet right back at the beginning of my detox I don't believe would have worked. I think that by detoxing I helped create a stable, healthy functioning system which has alowed me to stabilise by condition. I am now aiming to detox every year in a briefer less harsh way but to encourage long term healthy liver and gall bladder function. The other book I found most helpful in reassessing my relationship with food was
The Food Doctor - Everyday Diet. Which had some great information on establishing a sensible eating regime (as long as I kept my trigger foods in mind and avoided them) Once I had finished my detox this helped me to set the corner stones for how I eat today.
I have tripped up from time to time and accidentally eaten something which has brought on an attack. This is how I now deal with such flare ups. 1) take a pain killer at the first inklig that you may have a problem. I favour ibuprofen (motrin). 2) Run a really hot bath and soak in it, 3) Make some flax seed tea and sip it slowly it will help stabilise the attack. 4) Be prepared to spend the next 4 or 6 hours resting - for me lying down was extremely uncomfortable, propping my self on my side but with my torso elevated helped. Lying on my left side also helped (this allows gravity to assist with the transit of the gall stones through your ducts and out of your system. DO NOT TRY TO EAT!! If your body needs to vomit up the contents of your stomach this will only help as it removes the foods which are the source of the attack. I am nearly always physically sick when I have an attack.
Bear in mind the average gall stone attack will take about 4 to 6 hours, depending on how violent the attack, which is of course directly related to how much of the trigger food you have eaten. The attack is the result of the trigger food over stimulating the gall bladder and sending it into spasm. The result of this is that some gall stones can be displaced and begin thier journey through the bile ducts. The larger the gall stones displaced the more painful. If you have a slurry of small gall stones these will pass more easily. If you have larger gallstones (which are harder to displace) then the attack will be longer and more painful as passing the stone will take longer and be more difficult. It helps to know what type of gallstones you have so listen out of you have scans of any nature. When a large gallstone becomes stuck that is when your situation beomes dangerous bringing on pancreatitis and other complications. If this happenes you may find ther is no other answer than surgery.
Knowing the nature of the beast is vital, understanding what is happening and why. So research as much as you can about the condition. And closely monitor your body's response to detoxing and the re-introduction of food types. You probably already have a pretty strong idea of what your trigger foods are though from your response to foods that have brought you into galls tone attacks in the first place. Food diaries really help.
How on earth can you stick to something so dramatic?
If you feel like this is completely unachievable don't be discouraged. I have freinds who look at my weight loss and change of bodyshape and have openly begged for gall stones. Becasue as we all know stickig to a diet is almost impossible, and is disheartening. You have some huge help from your body though. The first is pain memory. If you have kids you will know that the pain of a gallstone attack is worse than that of childbirth. The difference between the two being that in order for the human race to continue to procreate mother nature releases huge amounts of endorphins after labour as a "gift" which allows the body to suppress the pain memory (at least with natural delivery.) Gall stone attacks however do not come with endorphins and this means the pain memory sticks. For me literally looking at a pice of cheese and remembering how agonising the pain will be from it (cheese is my favourite food) is enough to make me pass it over for something else. It not hard to stick to because the other option is sooo agonising, that its not worth considering.
The upsides is that you'll be really happy with your new shape, you will have more stamina, healthier skin, feel more alert, have better hair, etc etc the benefits way out weighed the down sides. I explored all kinds of different foods and found amazing and delicious new things I had never considered. AND of course I am no longer suffering attacks. I have to stress though I am still officially suffering from cholecystitis, I still have gall stones and if I went out this evening and ate ribs, cheeseburgers, cheesecake or anything else like that I'd pay for it in
serious pain. As long as you don't pretend your not ill you have a chance of taking control and I for one hope I'll be able to continue to control it for years to come - Like my Aunt.
My blog has lots of info on gall stone freindly food and my journey fighting this.
http://theclandestinecook.blogspot.com
Drop me a note if I can help at all. Sorry to have waffled.
Emma xxxx
Info I found on dealing with gallstones:
How to manage Gallstones
Basic principles:
If you are overweight, lose it.
Eat as little as possible; try a short fast.
Increase vitamin C-rich foods
Drink more fluids
Eat a low fat, high fiber dairy-free vegetarian diet
Especially Helpful Foods:
nuts (see below), beets, carrots, artichokes, lemons, parsnips, dandelion greens, watercress, horseradish, mustard greens, water chestnuts, beet tops, barley, watermelon, grapefruit, radishes, apples, tomatoes, olive oil, celery, oat bran.
Herbs to look into:
Burdock Root, Walnut, Alfalfa, Ginger root, Catnip, Peppermint, Fennel
Fresh juices:
Try combinations of carrot, radish, prune, black cherry, celery, beet, cucumber and parsley.
Avoid:
alcohol, fried foods, fatty foods, rich foods, salty food, heavy protein foods, cow's milk and other dairy products, white bread and other refined foods, processed foods, sugar and sweets.
Especially Important Supplements:
B-Complex
Vitamin C
Vitamin D (what is in a good multiple vitamin is probably enough)
Vitamin E
Essential Fatty Acids, found in fish, green vegetables and in the next very important item:
Lecithin granules (several spoonfuls daily)
I also take Mega Flora and Greens Plus.
Multiple Digestive Enzyme tablets can help with each meal, and also with raw-veggie snacks.
Harvard Study Shows Nuts Reduce
Gallstone Risk
