Why am I devoting a whole video to talking about the gall bladder?
It’s just a small pouch that holds bile.
It seems quite insignificant. Unlike the heart, or the brain or many other organs and glands.
In fact no one seems to write too much about the gall bladder’s effects on our health at all.
I hope this video changes your opinion of this ignored little vessel.
Because it plays many different roles in the human physiology, most of which go unnoticed.
And because they are unnoticed, many physicians and patients alike end up unnecessarily chasing all the symptoms around the body while the underlying cause, the disruption of normal gall bladder function, is often overlooked.
Let’s take a look at what the gall bladder is, what it does, and what happens when it malfunctions.
The gall bladder is a small pear-shaped vessel, 3-4” long, that holds bile that the liver makes.
When you eat food it squirts the bile into the duodenum. It squirts out bile 10-12 times a day, so that by the end of the day it has squirted about a quart of bile.
The bile contains two detergents that emulsify fats — much like if you had a greasy pot — you need to wash off the fat with detergent or else the layer of grease remains. The same thing happens inside our bodies. We need the bile to break down the fats we eat in the diet, to help us digest and absorb the fat soluble vitamins, to break down the fat soluble toxins so they can be removed from the body. And finally the hormone estrogen needs to be broken down so it doesn’t hang around and created unnecessary dangerous growths. Remember, estrogen is made out of cholesterol and the bile is needed to emulsify this as well.
So if the bile doesn’t flow well then your fat-soluble vitamins might become low. This could explain why some people who work out in the sun all day continue to have low levels of Vitamin D.
Lack of bile flow causes high cholesterol in the vast majority of the people, yet the doctors miss their mark and routinely give statin drugs, which cause lots of liver damage, dementia (the brain needs a constant supply of cholesterol to function), pains in the legs and neuropathy as the nerve cells starve to death from lack of the cholesterol they need to function.
If the bile doesn’t flow the estrogen keeps reabsorbing back into your bloodstream as it sits stagnating in the bile creating a situation of high estrogen, low progesterone. Estrogen makes things grow, therefore you run the risk of developing fibroid tumors, uterine polyps, cysts on the breasts and ovaries and nodules on the thyroid gland.
Estrogen also builds up the uterine lining, the endometrium, which you shed every month with your menstrual cycle if you are not pregnant. Thus you could develop heavy menstrual cycles, mid-cycle bleeding or menstrual cycles that continue on for too many days if your estrogen goes too high.
If the bile doesn’t flow properly out of the gall bladder it can also create acid reflux. This is because when you eat the food it goes first into the stomach which churns the food into a liquid acid which is then squirted into the duodenum.
The duodenum is the beginning of the long journey the food is now going to make through the small and large intestines before it exits out the other end as a bowel movement.
Once the acids are dumped out of the stomach into the duodenum, a signal is sent to the gall bladder to squirt out the bile which both alkalinizes the gut and moves the food downwards through the intestines by creating peristalsis, or little muscular contractions.
If the bile becomes too thick and doesn’t flow, then the acids remain and they can move up into the esophagus, creating acid reflux, which is usually treated incorrectly by giving proton pump inhibitors, or acid reflux medicines. So now you have no acids and lack of bile flow and you may feel even worse.
The bile also gives you the urge to move your bowels, so when it doesn’t flow it can create constipation. Modern medicine gives laxatives, holistic doctors recommend magnesium, but we recommend getting to the root of the problem, using our numerous herbs and spices to thin out the bile and promote its flow out of the gall bladder.
You can become quite toxic as the fat-soluble toxins will just keep reabsorbing back into your bloodstream if the bile becomes too thick and doesn’t squirt into the intestines for removal out of the body. This is why I don’t automatically take my new patients through a cleanse unless I make sure their bile is flowing properly or else they won’t get very far in their detox programs.
Lack of bile flow can create acidity in the body. Many people nowadays talk about the importance of us staying alkaline, since so many health problems begin with acidity in the blood, which in turn creates inflammation. There are many versions of an alkaline diet circulating on the internet.
You can have the most alkaline diet in the world, but if your bile isn’t flowing and you don’t alkalinize the digestive juices then all other bodily fluids will remain acidic. This is because the digestive juices ultimately become the blood, which ultimately becomes urine and other bodily fluids circulating through the body’s physical channels. If the digestive juices aren’t alkalinized right from the start, then all the body’s fluids will remain acid.
This is also why lack of bile flow can cause osteoporosis since the bones have to give up their calcium to keep the blood alkaline if it becomes too acidic.
So what creates bile sludge in the first place?
First off, eating and drinking cold foods and beverages can, since the cold allows the fats to congeal, which thickens up the bile.
Also, eating a diet too low in fibers. The soluble and insoluble fibers in the fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes we eat bind to the bile and take it out of the body. If there are too many refined foods in the diet and insufficient amount of fiber, the bile keeps recycling back through the liver and gets too thick over time.
If we become too anxious and worried, we call it high Vata in Ayurveda, then the energy known as Apana, which resides in the lower intestines, which always has to be flowing downwards, can actually move up, slowing up the functioning of the entire digestive system, preventing the gall bladder from emptying on time. Vata in nature is the element of movement, thus it controls all the body’s movements such as the movement of food through the digestive tract.
Too much rushing, stress, and going to bed late can imbalance Vata, which wreaks havoc on our digestive systems. We call it fight or flight in Western culture, and the digestive system comes to a grinding halt during times of fight or flight so you can run from the danger.
So the obvious question is, what can we do about bile sludge? We can prevent it from forming in the first place by eating warm cooked foods, drinking warm or hot beverages. Don’t rush as you go through the day. Eat plenty of fiber-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes.
Don’t eat the more clogging foods, such as hard aged cheeses, nut butters, tofu, and red meats. You can have chicken, turkey, fish and lamb, soft curd cheeses such as ricotta, fresh mozzarella, cottage cheese and paneer.
Don’t take birth control pills as the cholesterol in the pills thickens the bile.
Avoid taking high doses of Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and other fatty oil perles such as fish oil, Evening primrose oil, as too much fat dumping into the gall bladder at one time is overwhelming to the gall bladder.
Especially avoid ice cold smoothies using frozen fruits and heavy fats such as avocados and coconut oil.
Avoid vegetable oils, such as canola, sunflower, safflower and others which form a plastic when you heat them. Just have ghee (clarified butter) which is the easiest of all the fats to digest, olive oil and organic sesame oil.
Eating cooked beets are the best food for promoting the flow of bile out of the gall bladder. Carrots, apples and artichokes are also great.
There are numerous formulas in Ayurveda, such as Triphala, Haritaki and others which can move the bile out of the gall bladder. You have to see which remedy works best for you. And even certain spices such as fenugreek seeds and turmeric and herbs such as neem can also work well.
You will have to work with your Ayurvedic practitioner as some of these, such as fenugreek seeds are a little heating, so you’ll have to see what you can tolerate.
In my book Healing the Thyroid with Ayurveda I discuss how when the thyroid gland doesn’t work properly, the gall bladder automatically doesn’t empty well as they are related to the same acupuncture meridian circuits, so you always see that combination of thyroid and gall bladder problems going on at the same time.
In my book I have a whole chapter devoted to the gall bladder and even discuss how to manually release the bile.
So I hope this video sheds more light on the importance of the gall bladder and the role it plays in our health. If you can thin out the bile sludge, which is quite easy to do, by the way, you will prevent gall stones and gall bladder disease from occurring. I have helped thousands of patients in my practice prevent gall bladder disease…and if you’ve already had your gall bladder removed, you still have to thin out your bile since it is still thick.
I hope you enjoyed this video as I think it’s very important for everyone to keep up with the health of their gall bladder and by doing so, you can prevent a whole host of diseases. Thank you.