This week, I am doing a liver/gallbladder flush. Why? Here is the thing.
While pregnant with baby #2, almost 9 years ago, I suffered from heartburn – what I thought it was – and a lot of it. Spicy, salty, and greasy food would trigger the pain. I would consume tons of TUMS thinking it would help. Many times the pain would keep me up at night, and sometimes, would be so intense that I would throw up.
The problem did not ceased after having my son. So about a year after my son was born, my doctor did an ultrasound of my gallbladder to see if I had any stones; it came back negative
. After intensive research, I found out that even with a negative ultrasound, you STILL can have gallstones as they are most likely located in the back of the organ, which would not be visible with the ultrasound. Makes sense to me.
Since then, I have been holding on to multiple different techniques for flushes but never did anything about it.
Eating clean doesn’t mean free of fat and spices including salt. I eat very clean but sometimes I chose a fattier meat. We rarely eat red meat so the fatty meat comes from pork. I usually prepare my pork a bit spicy. Fat and spicy are big triggers. I suffered another attack on Saturday. I know what caused it. I had pork dishes three times this week. FAT!!!! FAT!!!! FAT!!!! But not on purpose. I will never cook pork twice in the same week because I know pork can be a trigger for me. But Saturday, my middle son had a football game near Denver and we decided to try a BBQ joint over there. I had ribs. FAT!!!! Plus I added sauce. A recipe to disaster.
Before I talk about the protocol, let’s look at what gallstones are:“The gallbladder is a reservoir or holding tank of bile salts, which the body uses to emulsify and assist in the digestion fats. When we eat fat, bile is released into the digestive tract to break fat down into absorbable fatty acids. Bile salts are made of cholesterol. Gallstones are a sign that your body has ‘decided’ to increase its reservoir of cholesterol. Why would it do this? The obvious answer is that it has become ‘afraid’ that the supply of cholesterol is low, therefore it uses the strategy of storing extra for a ‘rainy day’.” Dr. Cowen It is important to remember that cholesterol is a very powerful antioxidant for the body.
Back to the protocol — After feeling ill Saturday night, I decided that it was time to try this liver/gallbladder flush. The one I chose to do is a a 6-day process with the first 5 prepping the organs with drinking 4-8oz cups of apple juice a day…and eating as usual That is easy. right??? I love apple juice and I don’t have to fast in between. However, since the apple juice in the stores might contain preservatives, I decided to fresh-press my juice. So today, I did two-days worth of juice. I use an Omega juicer for all my fresh pressed juices.
The most difficult part will be on day 6 where oil, citrus, and food grade Epsom salt must be consumed.
What is the worst thing that can happen? That this flush is an hoax and that it doesn’t work and that down the road I will have to have my gallbladder removed.
Has anyone done one? What were you results?
UPDATE
I finished my flush on Saturday. Saturday was actually the hardest day because of the Epson salt, oil, and lemon consumption. The salt helps to flush out all solid stuff. It also opens and dilates the gallbladder ducts. The oil lubricates the stones to ease their passage. Lemon juice helps to extract the stones out from gallbladder.
The diluted food grade Epson salt (magnesium sulphate) in warm water wasn’t too bad. Actually the first cup went down much better than the second one. The last part was to consume two parts of unrefined olive oil with one part of fresh pressed lemon juice or grapefruit juice.
I used organic extra virgin oil from Whole Foods – I just gagged the whole time. I think the more “virgin” the olive oil is, the stronger is the taste. Note to self, use regular unrefined olive oil next time. I forgot to buy a grapefruit so I used two small lemons. The acidity burnt my throat. I couldn’t finish both the oil and the lemon juice. But didn’t leave much. After ready many blogs on the issue, it wasn’t recommended to mix the oil and the lemon juice as it would form a jelly. Ewk!!! The chemical reaction apparently does not occur with the grapefruit.
At the end of the day, I am not sure if I passed any stones. Others that have done the flush swear to have counted 20+ stones after going to the bathroom. I am not sure how because they are stuck in your poop. And I wasn’t going to inspect it from up close. So, only time will tell. It was recommended to do the flush a couple of more times, a month apart. Then once every year. If the pain comes back during the year for whatever reason, 1) it could be because the flush doesn’t work and it is a myth, or 2) I didn’t suffer from gallstones and that my gallbladder is simply broken.
To be continued…