If you are suffering due to stones in your gallbladder, most probably after some time, when all treatments have failed, your doctor would advise you to surgically remove your gallbladder. How simple is it for your doctor to pass this noxious advice to you! But it would be you who will suffer throughout your life after losing a vital organ.
Gallbladder and its function?
The gallbladder is a small pouch-like organ that resides underneath the liver. It stores bile. Bile is a liquid produced by the liver, to help digest fats. Through bile ducts, bile passes from the liver to the gallbladder. Bile ducts are a series of channels. Besides this, the gallbladder also performs key tasks such as:
• Enabling absorption of fat-soluble antioxidants and vitamins A, E, D and K.
• Assisting the removal of cholesterol from your body.
• Assisting your body to remove the toxins that have been broken down by the liver.
Role of bile in the digestion of fats:
Bile is stored in the gallbladder. Over time it becomes concentrated, which makes it better at digesting fats efficiently. The gallbladder releases bile into the digestive system when it is needed.
Gallstones are small stones usually made up of cholesterol that form in the gallbladder. When the chemical makeup of bile, inside the gallbladder, is disturbed, gallstones are made. In most cases, the level of cholesterol is too high in the bile which causes excess cholesterol to form stones.
In most cases, these stones do not cause any symptoms and do not need treatment (not needing any treatment is the wrong medical approach). However, when a gallstone is trapped in a duct inside the gallbladder, it can trigger sudden intense pain. This painful sensation may last from 1 – 5 hours, is called biliary colic.
Some people get complications due to gallstones such as persistent pain, jubilance or fever; this is due to inflammation of the gallbladder. This condition is called gallbladder disease or Cholecystitis.
Imagine your gallbladder is removed on the advice of your doctor. No more gallbladder, no more stones, no more pain BUT your body will no longer be able to digest fats. Your body will not be able to absorb fat-soluble vital antioxidants vitamin A, E, D & K. Your body will not be able to remove toxins. Ask your doctor which pharmaceutical drug can give you so that you can digest fat after eating food or drinking milk etc. or to support your body to perform vital tasks mentioned above? Your doctor has nothing in his medicine chest. This is a case of “out of the frying pan into the fire”.
Common-sense is not very common these days!
If your medical doctor had been intelligent enough, he would have tested your cholesterol level at regular intervals after having your initial case history and parental medical history. In this way by keeping your cholesterol level at bay, your chances of having gallstones could have been minimised. Remember, I have said if your doctor is intelligent. But never mind common-sense is not very common these days!
Don’t worry! You can survive without your gallbladder, but you are exposed to the risk of developing fatty liver, experiencing frequently indigestion issues, and suffering from deficiencies in essential fatty acids and fat-soluble nutrients.
Your liver continues to manufacture bile, but there is no longer a gallbladder to store it or concentrate it. Therefore, bile continually slowly drops down into the intestines. If you eat a fatty meal, you will not be able to secrete ample amounts of bile into your intestines, therefore the fat will be very poorly digested. This means you will experience symptoms of diarrhoea, bloating, nausea or indigestion.
Due to not digesting fat, you will not be able to digest essential fatty acids, including Omega 3 and Omega 6 as well. You’ll have a hard time absorbing fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins D, E, A and K. There are a lot of fat-soluble antioxidants in vegetables: lycopene, lutein and carotenoids are all fat. In the absence of adequate bile, you will not be absorbing enough of these lifesaving compounds from foods. If you consider taking any of the above-mentioned nutrients in supplement form, without sufficient bile you will not absorb them well.
Treatment Options:
Don’t worry if your medical doctor is helpless after your cholecystectomy (surgery to remove the gallbladder). There are numerous options in Complementary & Alternative Medicines (CAM) practice. You can still manage to live a normal healthy life. Speak to your nutritionist, homoeopath, naturopath, microDNA therapist or orthomolecular medicines practitioner now. These are the people who you need most, and who will help you the most. In fact, speak to a practitioner at Mind-Body Clinic for further help and support.
In this regard several Homeovitality remedies can be very helpful including Vital Energy – to boost energy levels, Super CareD – to utilise effectively vitamin D in the body, MR7 – to combat acidic conditions etc.