Gall Stones - a Holistic Perspective

NOT gallstones ;)

If you are a practitioner of Naturopathy / Chinese Medicine / Holistic Nutrition and other close subjects this article may be of extra interest to you:

It was some 18 years ago that I turned yellow. Friends were laughing at me that I was taking my Chinese Medicine studies too seriously. It was obvious that my bile ducts were blocked since I was not feverish and was showing no other signs of hepatitis. I am not one to run for surgery and so I went searching for alternatives.

I posted a website that challenged people to share with me their solutions with the prize being - everlasting glory. A page on my site.

If I told you half the weird things that were suggested to me at the time you would be shocked I'm sure. The last thing that was suggested came with the name of a book and a photo of several gallstones that, according to the writer, were his stones, removed with a simple protocol taken from that book.

The book was called "Cure for all disease" By Hulda Clark. The name of the book troubled me some but the story was compelling and the procedure sounded safe. After reading the book I realized two things:

1. The book read as the title felt

2. The gallstone removal protocol was not Hulda's but borrowed.

So I went ahead and tried it on myself. It was a little scary because no-one locally could back me up with experience. The results left me caucasian and with a collection of bilious stones. The largest was over 15 mm in diameter.  

Today, 22 years later and with thousands of patients of experience to our name. My wife, Shanni, and I are experienced authorities on this subject. We have upgraded the original protocol and have found many important points that require attention before and after the procedure in order for the patient to achieve the full benefits from the protocol.

In this article I would like to share some of our perspective and experience with the medical and holistic community for the benefit of future patients. I believe that the future of gallstone therapy should be an integrated one. An integration of Naturopathic Nutritional counseling and herbology, Chinese Medical herbology, Acupuncture and Conventional Medical Diagnostics and surgery (when all else fails). For such a future to emerge more Holistic therapists need to learn and use our upgraded protocol and Conventional Doctors need to be introduced to this doctrine - and convinced to research into it.

Background

Conventional Perspective

I find this perspective to be commonly known. For those not aware of it Wikipedia is as good a source as any (Though the holistic versions mentioned there are hardly researched in depth)

Gall Stones !

Holistic Perspective

Why gallstones?

Bile is a mixture of many things. It is both a secretion of toxins (End result of the liver's role as a detoxification organ) and of emulsifiers for fats and oils  digestion. For this reason the bile is actually not a very homogeneous substance. It can be thick and sludgy or watered down, full of minerals or not. It is always rich in cholesterol.

When people don't drink enough they contribute to gallstone formation. Another common reason for gallstone formation is low levels of Taurine, an amino acid. Taurine takes a part in creating the Tauro-cholic acid. One of the bile acids that help keep the bile fluid. The most common reason for this is late pregnancy and lactation. Taurine is an important ingredient in forming mothers milk. This is one of the reasons pregnancy is considered a gallstone factor.

A point to remember: Most gallstones are formed in the liver. They then drop into the ducts and from there to the gallbladder. Liver stones can never grow too big because the bile ducts in the liver are quite narrow. Still, they grow large enough so that they can sometimes block the common bile duct when they move out of the liver. This fact is important when considering the reasoning for gallbladder removal by surgery. People assume it will end the risk for gallstone-attacks but in fact that is not always true. There will not be any more gallbladder inflammations but the risk of a clogged up CBD and pancreatitis is still there.

There are other Holistic aspects that relate to gallstones. The Chinese have a saying that the liver is the general and makes the plans, it is the gallbladder that sees the plans carried out. people that have a problem living their dreams or have them in a drawer will tend to form a gallstone for every dream stashed away. Frustrations are also correlated with gallstone formation. When people try to convince others of their beliefs and are not willing to accept no for an answer, they often hold their stomachs in a highly tense way. From my experience it is very often precisely the gallbladder area that is tensed up. This may well lead to poor evacuation of the bile and to bile-stasis which in turn can lead to gallstone formation. Deficiency in magnesium seems to go hand in hand with gallstone formation though I have yet to find a reason for that. It may just be two very common occurrences that simply happen often enough to seem to correlate.

So what is our solution?

The solution we found and then upgraded is rather simple. A short description would be: Prepare, then avoid all fats for three days, then introduce a lot of fat to the system at once. The result is a process where in the three days with no fat the gallbladder and liver accumulate bile with no outlet. Ingesting plenty of fat at this point causes the bile to be forcefully injected into the bile ducts from both organs. The hydraulic force pushes any objects in its way out from the live, gallbladder and ducts and right into the small intestines. This is of course a very coarse picture.  The complete process adds many factors that help soften the stones, relax the ducts and sphincters, and prepare the body for the ordeal. All this in order to raise the safety level of the protocol and to make it less weakening and not painful.

The point in all this is that it is possible to remove the gallstones from both liver AND gallbladder without having to surgically remove the gallbladder and with very little risk. As a matter if fact in the past 22 years we have NEVER had to rush any of our patients to the hospital in the middle of the night during the protocol due to stone getting stuck in the ducts! We have encountered people who had recurrent gallstone attacks before our liver flush ( and one that had some after the flush and before the second one) but never during. And remember- we had this protocol done to thousands of people.

There are limitations to the protocol. Stones 3.5 centimeters in diameter came out (!!!) but 4.5 did not. I am not sure if it was because of its size or because of the fact that it was glued tight to the gallbladder wall but since that time we consider 3.5 centimeters our maximum size. Another lesson learned was when a patient had the flush done successfully but then went back to a horrendous diet only to come back in pain several years later. His pain was relentless for three days prior to coming to us and no amount of therapy would help. We sent him to the hospital knowing he will most likely lose his gallbladder but it felt too choked up with sludge and stones for the flush to work. Some patients lose patience after the first flush or during the preparations for the first flush.

We make a point never to rush. In the few times we allowed ourselves to be manipulated by patients in a hurry we had the displeasure of seeing the price quite clearly. In one case a woman was adamant that we move on to the protocol before we deemed her ready. She was too weak for this, and we were trying to convince her to wait but to no avail. When she was done with the protocol her digestive system was too weak to hold her food and she was diarrhetic all the time. It took several weeks of tonifying Chinese herbs to put her right. Since that case we learned never to rush this. When done right and prepared right patients report that it was mostly easy and that we must have exaggerated our horror stories 😉. We like it that way.

There are many other limiting factors we discovered over the years. We made a point of close observation and careful monitoring so as to improve the protocol over the years. Over the recent years the cases of complications of all kinds have dropped to zero. The only sad cases are the ones where the oil refuses to go down. Seeing as how we are talking about 3/4 cup full of olive oil that is not too surprising. Still, the few cases where this happens can be uncomfortable and some people just won't throw up (A simple solution and when the timing is right one that will not prevent a successful protocol). Those find the protocol last night to be quite tedious. over the last few years even this has dropeed close to zero after changing another parameter.

How do we prevent all the complications from occurring?

To begin with, the first issue we find crucial is vitality level. Exhausted people can't really deal with this protocol as is. The tool we use to determine vitality level is Chinese diagnostics. The Chinese Pulse is quite a good determining tool for vitality as is the Chinese Tongue diagnosis.

Once we determine this we know if the patient can go ahead to the next phase or otherwise needs to be prepared using tonifying tools such as Chinese Herbs / Vitamins / Acupuncture etc.

Preparing a patient can take 3-6 weeks though at time it will take longer. This is a vital phase and often helps the patient deal with other issues as well.

Making sure the patient is not lacking in any important nutritional element is crucial to the safe success of the protocol. For example- magnesium deficiency has caused in a couple of cases that the Epsom salts used in the protocol had no effect. No diarrhea and very likely less stones expelled.

Making sure the patient is ready psychologically is quite important as well. Patients lacking in confidence in the protocol may have a much harder time. This we resolve most of the time simply by supplying names of previous clients to talk to (After getting those patients' consent of course).

In the complicated cases (Heart disease background for one example) we make sure to either use alternative means to the protocol or if we are sure it will be ok we make a point of personal tight supervision. This is true of elderly patients (86 being our oldest I believe) etc.). In some cases we make of point of waiting a while (Postpartum for one example).

Even doing our best- we are always on the alert for more issue not encountered before. This is the only way not to get caught off guard.

A futuristic view of this protocol should be one of integration. Practicing this protocol with a Naturopathic AND a Conventional staff on hand. Making the most of both ancient and modern means. Having an Ultrasound machine at hand and a lab to analyse the results would be some of the benefits. I was once approached by a doctor who was intrigued but never came through with his suggestion for a research done together.

The future today

Seeing as how this protocol has prevented much suffering and surgery. On top of this our work over the years has made this protocol a very safe and viable tool. I believe our experience should not be available only to the people of Israel. It should be out there for all the world to benefit from. We intent to make our knowledge and experience available to as many serious and professional therapists as we can.

If you are a therapist - with background either in Naturopathy or Chinese medicine. And even if only in part of the Naturopathic tools (Wholesome Nutrition for one), You are welcome to send us our resume and we will be in touch.