Readers Summary:
- Why is bad living tied to mediocre thinking?
- What does a modern human need to know about gallbladders?
You must become aware of the high cost of low living by cheap thinking. In biology, we often get what we deserve when we forget this. Today’s CPC will illustrate that point for you. Wasting your time doing things that do not get you to Optimal is causing you to miss out on the opportunity to improve yourself. Today, and every day from here, become very aware of time. Be wise in the use of time. The question for living an Optimal life is never how much time do I really have, it is in how you use the time you have, and realizing you can reverse the errors you made in that time by starting NOW.
There is a great lesson here for those willing to think. I hope the sharpness of this message strikes you in the correct fashion. When you think average, you get average. Reject mediocre… demand optimal from me, your loved ones, and most importantly, yourself. When you get this lesson, you will understand why there is much harm in wasting your most valuable asset: Time.
On to the Science and Medicine
Removing a gallbladder is one of the most common surgical operations done in the USA. The reason for this is two fold. If you eat a standard western diet, you are helping cause an ‘epigenetic signal’ to our gut that favors gallstone formation. The second one is that since this diet is so common, it leads to major neolithic disease and symptoms that show up in our ERs and provoke surgeons to do ultrasounds and HIDA scans to find the stones and sludge. Once they see a stone or sludge, you will be loaded onto the medical conveyor belt for having your gallbladder removed faster than you can think about this comment. You will be told how simple the operation is and how slick it is. These are both true, by the way. You will recover quickly and your risks are low from the surgery.
But what you won’t be told is that once your have no gallbladder, you become a ticking time bomb for the development of neolithic disease because you begin to concentrate a hormone slowly, chronically that will eventually limit your longevity and kill you in some fashion. You also lose your ability to recycle Vitamin K2. This sets the stage for the development of heart disease and atherosclerosis. Remember: heart disease is still the number one killer in men and women today.
Something simple and unobtrusive with low short term risks can morph into something that scares the shit out of you. I want you to pause and think before you sign the consent form for having your gallbladder out: is the gallbladder really the cause of the disease? Stop eating a standard diet and move to paleolithic diet that can REVERSE GALLSTONES over time, slowly. It won’t be the easy choice when you’re miserable in pain, but I can assure you it is the an option you need to seriously consider.
Some general surgeons believe the gallbladder was put there for them to remove. Many view it as useless. I do not believe that at all. I look at the gallbladder as the pacemaker of the gut…the most important thing it does for us is releases massive amounts of CCK, the pacemaker that sets up the amazing coordination of digestion of fats. It works in concert with leptin. There is a receptor in the mouth called CD36 (we heard about in the CT series) that is the first fat sensor…it is the canary in the coal mine for the gallbladder to tell it to get ready, a meal of fats is coming. Eating fats at dinner is critical, and they should be part of an ancestral template. Try to concentrate on 10-18 carbon fats because these are best at stimulating Cholecystokinin (CCK) that destroys the nighttime appetite. I use coconut oil, ghee, pastured butter, and bacon lard to get this effect. I use the fat to cover the carbs and the protein most times in sauces.
CCK signals the liver to begin to make bile to emulsify the fat in the meal. People who get gallstones tend to eat a high carbohydrate and low fat diet. The best evolutionary adapted diet for all mammals is a Epi-Paleo diet. I have laid out why that is the case in my book. Most vertebrates have gallbladders, whereas invertebrates do not. There is a damn good reason for this evolutionary novelty, tied to the reason we are best adapted to this diet. Within the broad boundaries of this diet lies the best type of diet for us……the ‘ketogenic’ Epi-paleolithic version of it. This is the one that confers to us the most evolutionary adaptations for maximum survival, in my opinion. It is also one that has the highest amount of fats, like DHA, within it.
Becoming a lipophile allowed us to shorten our guts from our primate ancestors and increase our intake of fat to form the most amazing biologic machinery ever created by evolution: the human brain. The evolution of the human brain has speed up the speed of evolution by a factor of 100 according to most evolutionary biologists. If this is true, than having a gallbladder becomes one of the most important things for the human GI tract because without it, we become suboptimal, unable to properly use the diet that is best adapted for our gut.
If you look a medical text book of risk factors for gallbladder disease, you will see these words somewhere in the chapter… FAT, FEMALE, FORTY, and FERTILE. Every medical doctor on the planet knows this information. You know what they do not appear to know, though? Why is it that those four things really cause gallbladder disease? All four symptoms have one common tie: excessive estrogen production. The most common type of estrogen in people with gallbladder disease is estradiol, what we call E2 in medicine.
GEEKS: People with gallbladder disease tend to be estrogen collectors in their tissues and have many estrogen dominant diseases. Estradiol is normally conjugated in the liver by sulfate and glucuronide formation and, as such, is excreted via the kidneys. Some of the water-soluble conjugates are excreted via the bile duct (think gallbladder) and partly reabsorbed after hydrolysis from the intestinal tract. This enterohepatic circulation contributes to maintaining estradiol levels.
NON GEEKS: In English, this means that when fat is broken down, it liberates E2 into our guts to get rid of the excess. If you no longer have a gallbladder, you slowly concentrate E2 in your body. The fatter you are, the worse it gets. Fat people are estrogen sinkholes. This is why many neolithic diseases are tied to obesity and high estrogen levels. This is the main reason for estrogen-sensitive breast cancer in older females. Humans become estrogen dominant (both male and female) when they eat the standard Western diet. You need a gallbladder to rid your body of excess E2. It is a critical point. I could write 2000 diseases right here that all have estrogen dominance as a cardinal feature. This is how an innocent error can lead to a magnificent mess twenty years later when you get diagnosed with some new neolithic disease. It seems few in medicine see the link between removing a gallbladder and that mess. If you show them this blog, they will downplay it and tell you there are no good studies to prove this might be true.
They are right, but I contend that they really do not want to know the answer and that is why the study will never be done by modern medicine. If you don’t look for something, it is awfully hard to find the answer. Evolution put your gallbladder there for a damn good reason, and to remove it, you better have an even better one in my view. Remember, most modern doctors will default to the standard RCT excuse. We saw in the Atlantic magazine article, “Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science” that most RCT are not worth the paper they are written on. Most Ivory Tower doctors still tell you RCT is the gold standard. Remember what I just told you in CT 10 about Ivory Tower docs and calls for moderation. I’d like you to recall what veteran medical researcher, Dr. John Ioannidis, had to say on this from the article in The Atlantic I linked above. This article made it easy for me to question everything I believe and learned to be true in my medical career. It caused me to erase myself many of the beliefs I held as dogma. I do not believe any article I have read has ever made a greater impact in my life.
Now you can see why it’s important to understand how one system ties into another, leading to a biologic mismatch, altering signaling and causing cancer, heart disease, and atherosclerosis over time. The next time someone says, “let’s just remove your gallbladder,” I want you to rely on your own primal instinct and not on the RCT that any medical student can recite as you are doubled over in pain in some ER. You won’t hear this naked truth from my profession. Remember, they honestly believe that God put the gallbladder there for us to remove when it has stones or sludge in it. I cannot tell you how many time I have heard this in my training and from many surgeons with whom I’ve worked.
You might be thinking, how in the world does this iatrogenic error happen?
The reason is simple: most doctors and surgeons have no idea about the connectiveness of the delicate micromachinery of how our gut evolved, and why it shortened from our primate ancestors. There is no course in any doctor’s training about how all the information they cram into our heads integrates and works like a symphony. We are left to figure that out by trial and error and thinking. Most surgeons honestly believe the gall bladder has no real purpose because that is what we were taught. Do not blame them. I learned this crap, too, as a surgery resident, and fell prey to it more than I care to admit. The system propagates this nonsense. Reading the truth serum Dr. Ionnidis provided me years ago allowed me to question everything and to look for the real reason why gallbladder disease shows up so often. I believe it is best treated using an evolutionary medicine perspective.
If you’re missing a gallbladder, consider supplementing NAC, MSM, and DMSO to speed up the removal of the serum estrogens like E2. You might re-read my Vitamin K2 blog, too. The links made here to heart disease and atherosclerosis are critical for you to understand because your doc will minimize them. You can even do a test to check your clearance of estrogens from the liver. When it builds up in men, this is how they get man boobs.
Those lacking a gallbladder would do well to get a lot of sunlight too. Living in a low quantum yield world of blue light makes your new “organless” existence more tolerable. Sunlight lowers estradiol on your skin in case you did not know this. You need to expose a lot of skin and eye to get rid of your estrogen collection if your gallbladder is in a surgical pan.
To become optimal, you must handle dietary fats like a true champion. This requires a functional gallbladder. Always guard your guts from bad foods, bad diets, and bad medicine. Remember that iatrogenic medical thoughts of omission from my profession might lead to proximal harm as you age, as I outlined here. That is my best advice to you on why this organ is critical to a primal life. Protect your gut and it will protect you.
Your Shopping List for this Post
Additional Resources
- My Leptin Prescription
- The Cold Thermogenesis Protocol
- Cold Thermogenesis 10: Is Good The Enemy of Great?
- Brain Gut 16: Adrenal Fatigue Rx
- Osteoporosis 2: The Vitamin K2 Story
Cites
- www.uky.edu/~hadleyr/PA2009/Butler.ppt
- Yadav VK, Ryu JH, Suda N, et al. Lrp5 controls bone formation by inhibiting serotonin synthesis in the duodenum. Cell 2008;135: 825-837.
- GASTROENTEROLOGY 2011;141:439-442
- http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/9/e147.full
- Shea MK, Booth SL, Gundberg CM, Peterson JW, Waddell C, Dawson-Hughes B, Saltzman E: Adulthood obesity is positively associated with adipose tissue concentrations of vitamin K and inversely associated with circulating indicators of vitamin K status in men and women.
- J Nutr. 2010 May;140(5):1029-34
- PMID: 17145139 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
- Wu S, Liao AP, Xia Y, Li YC, Li JD, Sartor RB, Sun J: Vitamin D Receptor Negatively Regulates Bacterial-Stimulated NF-{kappa}B Activity in Intestine. Am J Pathol. 2010 Jun 21
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16942519
I can’t count the number of people I know who had this surgery. If that’s their “in” to reading your blog and getting optimal, it would be fantastic! I can see lots of fwds and shares of this post….
@Shari I fI can help one person it was worth it.
You are helping me right now! I have had numerous MD’s tell me I have gall stones (and hence need surgery) and only one tell me that I didn’t need to do anything about them. You are confirming my intuition!
Hi,
I think it’s important for people to read well-written, non-threatening literature. I fully agree that gall bladder surgery is overdone and that the Western diet is unhealthy. Having said that, not all doctors are interested in the gall bladder in any way, including surgery. I was having hours of agony days on end. I had definitely eaten fat, and it’s accurate to say that my diet was likely more carbohydrate based due to a full lack of appetite. In my case, I was young when I first had symptoms. I kept telling doctors, but after my twin pregnancy, I was in a hell I can’t describe. They said, “It’s acid reflux.” After a lot of nagging by me, they reluctantly did an ultrasound and my gallbladder was as big and packed with stones. The didn’t fast track me at all. I was yellow one night and they sent me home from the ER. By the time surgery was performed, my gallbladder was the size of my liver, the last stone passed was caught in the common duct, and there was a thick skin on the gallbladder. It had to be cut in many pieces and removed. My doctor told me prior to ever considering surgery that it might NOT work. He didn’t make it sound easy at all, and my surgery ended up being a 2 and 1/2 hour procedure. I would have died had it not come out at that point. The culprit in my case was borrelia, which attacked the gallbladder, my thyroid, and uterus. I think it’s important to note that I was 30 and had fertility issues, in addition to being very thin. I appreciate the ideas, but perhaps consider less fear in your writing. Believe me when I say, I am frustrated with the medical system and our diets, but there is no one-size-fits-all with diet either.
Good thing this site is not about diet. It is about light water and magnetism. As you read deep into the series you’ll see that manifest
Thank you for a great post. It is sad that some researchers cannot put one foot in front of the other without a couple of cups of RCT. Yes, there are other ways to get through the day.
@Exceptionally Brash You would not know it reading some blogs that is for sure.
Haha. Love it. Now to pass on a story which may amuse you.
Several years ago my physician ordered an ultrasound to determine if the sound he heard within me was an aneurysm bruit. Once at the clinic, we got things clear that I wasn’t there for a pregnancy test! As the scan progressed, I asked a question rather dumfounding the technician: do I have a gall bladder. Since my question was outside of diagnostics, she assured me that I did indeed have a gallbladder, then inquired why I asked such an odd question.
In the 1980s our family physician, Dr Benson McGann, one time President of the California Medical Association, ran tests on my mother. Dye uptake for gallbladder indicated her’s was blocked and surgery was ordered to relieve her painful symptoms. Once in surgical process, it was discovered she was born without a gallbladder; hence, dye uptake was not a reasonable possibility! Turned out she had an easily fixed hiatal hernia. Nevertheless, her diet of highly refined grains, legumes, and a fixation unto addiction of sweets bore its toll. She died at 83 of pancreatic cancer.
@Ken Funny you should mention it because in my career I have seen three people this also happened to. It is a rare issue but it is clearly present.
Dr. Kruse,
Does DIM work for balancing E2 in your opinion.
The Best
@Conan I use DIM for my toxin dump for CT so I believe it does.
Jack, sorry for the off topic comment, but my forum login is whacked. Just wanted to say I’m going to the NY museum of natural history this Friday on a mission.
@Martin Great place…….I could spend weeks in there.
I recently had a bout of kidney stone symptoms and the scan found one 11mm gall stone too. I am sure these stones formed during the years I ate the SAD and the AHA way.
I have been paleo/primal for the past 3 yrs. Anything more than eating the 10-18 carbon fats to help get rid of this stone?
The only time I get pain in my gallbladder area is when I eat too many carbs(rarely).
@Anne Eat more fats and it will resolve. I also recommend more PC and PS for those with GB disease and ox bile salts help too.
Jack, what is your view on removal of appendix and adrenoids/tonsils?
@Glamorama Those are future posts for you to read when your CTing this winter down under.
uh, yeah. My mom, who died of estrogen sensitive breast cancer and who always struggled with her weight, despite going on one version of SAD after another, had her GB removed at age 40. That was 2 years after her hysterectomy after which she was put on premarin……don’t get me started.
@Lisa Sorry to hear it but here is your link……
I know I have stones and a HIDA scan was inconclusive. A surgeon wants to remove my gallbladder ”just in case”. I want to keep it and follow a primal diet. Should I do more?
@Dee you need to eat a paleo version of the diet that is higher in 10-18 carbon fats. Embrace coconut oil in your foods, smoothies, and coffee as I do daily.
I was thin (100lb), 30 and never on low-fat or any kind of diet a day in my life. Yet my gallbladder was completely filled with gallstones. Why?? I believe it’s the pill. I was on it for almost 15 years… I read afterwards that according to clinical trials the pill increases the risk of getting gallstones. No doctor has ever mentioned this to me when prescribing it…
I tried very hard to keep my gallbladder, but after rolling on the floor in agonizing pain for over a year and losing 10 lbs because I couldn’t eat anything that had fat, I had to have it removed.
So, I’m doomed??? What should I do now that I don’t have a GB??
@Julie the pill can cause many issues……and this is one of them. When you eat a SAD of high carb low fat diet is compounds the issue. Read the blog and read the Vitamin K2 linked blog. There is much you can do.
Another point I’d like to raise (and what most docs fail to mention) is that even with the GB removed most continue to have pain. If people continue to eat SAD (and a few other common food triggers) the biliary colic continues.
@Doug I have a good friend who just had hers removed and she can vouch for that.
So is this yet another piece to the puzzle of why I am having trouble losing weight even though I’m doing the leptin reset, beginning CT etc? Plus I’m on BHRT since I’m missing THOSE parts as well.
I DO take a bile acid factors capsule before breakfast but manage to forget it after any other meal.
sigh. great. just great.
Good post though. Very informative and I’m sending off to my sister and SIL who are also both missing their gallbladders.
@Darleen dont be discouraged…..become powerful with this new knowledge. It just means you have to adapt your approach and do some things differently than most.
Unfortunately this information came to me about 1 year too late. I struggled for 3 years with GB attacks and the last one did me in and I had to have it removed, or so I thought. So, it’s great that you tell people not to have it removed but I would wager a good number of your readers have had them removed.
It would be helpful to give tips on what to do with a missing GB. Paleo, CT, Bioidentical Hormones are all things I have learned about in the last few months and have incorporated.
Once it is gone it’s gone, can’t get it back. So the only thing to do is move forward. What can you tell those of us in this position?
@Pam M that too is coming down the pike…..in another blog.
Hi jack Thank you dearly for all of the information in your book and this amazing website… I don’t think my life will ever be the same again.. Have you done this blog yet about what to do after the GB is removed? I would love to know more about what you feel I can do to help my mother. Thank you SO much for your time.
A gallbladder performs several important roles in your body:
Enables fat digestion
Enables absorption of fat soluble antioxidants and vitamins A, E, D and K
Assists the removal of cholesterol from your body
Assists the removal of toxins that have been broken down by the liver
Obviously you can survive without a gallbladder, but you are more prone to developing certain health problems. In particular you are at greater risk of developing a fatty liver, experiencing indigestion and developing deficiencies of essential fatty acids and fat soluble nutrients
What happens when you don’t have a gallbladder?
Your liver continues to manufacture bile, but there is no longer a place to store it or concentrate it. Therefore bile continually slowly trickles into the intestines. If you eat a fatty meal, you will not be able to secrete a large enough amount of bile into your intestines, therefore the fat will be poorly digested. This means many people experience diarrhea, bloating, nausea or indigestion.
Not digesting fat well means you will not be able to digest essential fatty acids, including omega 3 and omega 6 fats. It also means you’ll have a hard time absorbing fat soluble vitamins such as vitamins D, E, A and K. A lot of the antioxidants in vegetables are fat soluble: lycopene, lutein and carotenoids are all fat soluble. If you don’t produce adequate bile, you will not be adequately absorbing these life saving compounds from foods. If you take any of the above mentioned nutrients in supplement form, without sufficient bile you will sadly not absorb them well.
Some common symptoms of poor fat digestion are dry, brittle hair; dry skin and premature aging of the skin; weak nails and painful joints. Essential fatty acids are important for optimal brain health, therefore low mood, anxiety, depression and impaired cognitive function are all possible manifestations of poor fat digestion.
You must hack the environment she is in because I have the firm belief that most gallbladders are removed because of massive amounts of RF radiation in the environment that leads to surface gut changes due to alterations in histadine to histamine that leads to many food intolerances. Most people blame it on food post cholecystectomy and this is an error.
I do like the addition of sauces with vinegar to the diet after this removal. You should consider include some bitter and sour foods in your diet. They should help to improve your digestion and make it easier to tolerate good fats in your diet. Suitable bitter and sour foods include lemons, limes, radicchio lettuce, chicory, endive and dandelion leaves. These leaves are fairly easy to grow at home if you are lucky enough to have your own veggie patch.
So Jack did you just give it away? Is Factor X –that which has speeded up evolution– the brain?
I haven’t really been playing the “what’s factor X?” game until now.
Oh heck what’s an ER doc now to do with all those folks with biliary colic? Thanks for educating me. I’ve never looked at medicine in the same way since that blessed day I heard of Dr. Kruse.
@Rob no I did not. The brain is here as a result of Factor X. You need to put them in a high fat diet and one that has a lot of the fat emulsifiyiers in it like PC and PS found in krill. I also like cruciferous veggies for the I3C and you can start by checking their E2 levels and then treating from there.
Dr. Kruse: I’m so happy you finally posted this one.. I’ve been waiting. 🙂
My grandma, mom, and 2 out of my 3 aunts have all had their gb’s removed. It is obviously a genetic thing in my family line. I have been searching for how to keep mine from having issues. No issues so far, but I’m only 28 and they all got theirs out from mid 30’s to late 40’s. I’m worried I will have the same issue to deal with. It’s part of what started me on my paleo journey.
My questions are..
1. Are there any foods that may fall under the “paleo” template that I shouldn’t eat because of my predisposition to gb disease?
2. Is there anything else besides eating paleo that would help keep my gb in good shape?
3. Any supplements I should go on to make sure I don’t have gb problems since I’m predisposed to it?
I feel slightly confused as to what to do besides “eat paleo” and cross my fingers. I don’t need convinced on the need to keep my gb as I am desperately searching on how too do just that before it becomes an issue. The supplements you listed seem to be for people who already had theirs removed.
I’m not sure cleanses ever really work, but if you think they do are there any I should try to make sure I’m clearing estrogen correctly?
@Erica you need to get your E2 checked…..and then increase your 10-18 Carbon fats in your paleo diet until your symtpoms abate. You can also increase your B12, B6, and use of seafoods to get more PC and PS to help slowly dissolve the stones.
This is amazing. In 2003, I was suffering from gallstones. The surgeon wanted to take my gallbladder, but my Dad and I did some research and decided to opt out of the surgery. I was 23 years old. I’ve learned to control my attacks by managing my diet, exercise and stress. This is a AWESOME article. Thank you!!
@jennifer you owe your Dad bigtime!
If I die early in my life never let it be from dogma. Being attached to dogma kills. Yet, people defend their dogma without ever looking at the facts. Tragic, wasteful, and sad. I skipped that stage of having my GB out. Cleaning up my diet over the last ten years, moving to organic and now paleo, has really made a difference in my health. Every day I see small triumphs. One that thrills me the most is my memory recall and thought processing is a lot more acute and complete. WOO HOO! It is making a positive difference in my job performance. At work, I am a rockstar now. Can’t wait until I am one physically too. Keep preachin’ it Brotha!
@Susan smart lady……keep challenging dogma. It will get you to optimal.
Would DIM help postmenopausal women?
@Susan It depends if their E2 is high or their progesterone E2 levels are balanced or not. No way to tell.
So I continue to get pain in the GB area after over a yr paleo. Not when I eat carbs but when I eat too much fat, generally pork or chicken wings. Never seems to happen from butter, eggs, or coconut oil. Any thoughts? I am 44 and not fat, still fertile….
@ michele that could be because your gut pacemaker is off. Ox bile salts and PS and PS may help that a lot.
The Atlantic article made me think about Ancel Keys’ Seven Countries Study. Wrong all around, but we’re still dealing with its effects on conventional wisdom.
@Elin it is also why I chuckle when see and hear just how much many in the community think is true based upon what is published. most of what they think is true is built upon a sand dune and a new wind can change it without them knowing it.
Thanks, will have a hormone panel taken immediately and anything else I see that is missing from the blood work already done. Now I finally have the mindset to get moving on this work.
Dr. Jack,
I had my gallbladder out ten years ago. I am 43 now. I have battled my weight all my life. The last ten (almost) years we have eaten a diet involving coconut oil, butter, lard, and cod liver oi and have worked to get grains out. We went paleo a couple of months ago. I have been concerned because for me the weight loss does not come and my guess has been I am not able to metabolize the fats I pour down my throat.
Your article scares the crap out of me. Here I am doing all I can do and it sounds like I am doomed to an early death or disease. I have five little people at home and a farm to run. Is there hope for me? Is there anything I can do to rid my body of E2 and is paleo eating going to help?
@Jack: You misunderstood.. I don’t have any symptoms yet or stones that I know of. I just know it runs in my family so I want to prevent any issues if I can.
Without symptoms how do I know I’m getting enough fat to prevent stones from forming?
Also, if I get tested and have high E2 what do I eat or what supplements will help remove it from my system?
I have just started taking some b vitamins so that’s good. As soon as I have money I will start krill oil. I didn’t know it helped gallbladder as well.
Could someone tell me what PC and PS stand for? I can’t seem to figure it out.. thanks. 🙂
PC=phosphatidylcholine
PS=phosphatidylserine
Hi Jack,
I had my gallbladder removed in 2006. I was told that they remove them if they function at <30% and that mine was at 0%. Not sure if it could've been revived or not, and I can't get it back, so I'm not gonna stress over it!
Do you have dosing recommendations for the NAC, MSM and DMSO? Should they be taken before every meal?
@Erika I dont make dosing recommendations over the internet. You can check into this with you physicians at home and look them up yourself and have an informed discussion with your physicians.
@Jack you said that NAC, MSM, DMSO, and DIM are good for clearing E2. Is there a reason to take all three? Are there different good things about each that don’t apply to the others? These are all sulfur containing compounds right? Well I think the first three are, but this is the first I’ve seen mention of DIM so I haven’t looked it up yet is that needed separately and also I’d like the answer to Erika’s question on amounts :).
@Jonathan See my answer to Erika. We cant practice medicine over the internet. You can discuss this issue now with your doctors now that you know it may be an issue.
A year and a half ago I went through a serious rough patch in my personal life. I found myself in the GI’s office with pain in my stomach like a knife, anemia, and heme + stools. The egd showed gastric erosions and the ultrasound showed one tiny gallstone and polyps. The GI told me I needed to have the GB out. I said, no thanks. He warned me that small stones move and get stuck and I could get very sick. I said I’d take my chances. I didn’t know why, but I knew I did not want people cutting into me. I took the double dose of prilosec for a month and started gaining weight like crazy. So, what did I do? Exercise more, right? And then make yourself nuts when you still gain weight. If only I had found you sooner, Dr K. I had no idea that I was driving my already stressed out adrenals even further into the ground. But, my point here is, that because I gained weight, I found HCG. And then the low carb, gluten free lifestyle, then Paleo, then Dr K. I had my 1 year follow up ultrasound and no gallstone, no polyps and I never turned yellow and ended up in the ER, which is what the GI doc told me would happen. I did take some bile salts at times but more than anything, it was stress thoughts that gave me severe stomach pain. Still working on the stress thoughts but getting better every day! THANKS DR K!
@Jennifer I love this post because it shows people out in the world that their are alternatives if you are willing to change things to get them. Awesome for you.
i think EVERYONE should do a gallbladder cleanse once or twice a year. Its easy to do in the comfort of your own home. Do an internet search for “gallbladder cleanse”. It consists of olive oil, epsom salts and grapefruit juice. You will be amazed at what comes out!
@Grace I do not advocate that at all…….Change your diet and life style works best.
I want to point out a big connection between thyroid disease (esp. Hashimoto’s) and gallstones, as well as Celiac disease/gluten sensitivity and gallstones (people with untreated celiac disease have a gallbladder-emptying defect).
Of course, gluten-triggered autoimmunity is the common thread, here…
http://ezinearticles.com/?Could-Your-Gallbladder-Problem-Be-the-Result-of-Hypothyroidism?&id=5674577
Here’s an interesting story of a lady that discovered that gluten caused her gallbladder attacks:
http://members.aceweb.com/paden/essays/gallstones.htm
@Erin I agree people with Hashimoto’s and celiac have huge issues with gallstones. It is not something we are taught to look for in surgical training either.
Thank goodness we are up to this Chapter. Not that I haven’t been thrilled with all that CT,
the fantastic Blogs,
the amazing Forum,
all the great readers responses,
printing and running out of paper and ink,
gobbling down all of Jack’s info like a starved woman,
This is like Mammoth–Jack’s Opus- I salute you Dr Jack.
The best I can say is God Bless you.
My gallbladder started acting up after I did 2 rounds of HCG. I had an ultrasound and they found no stones but a “slightly enlarged common bile duct,” said it might have been “sludge” but didn’t recommend any action. After 5 months of eating paleo, I don’t feel anything there at all anymore!
By the way, I posted this blog on Facebook and at least 5 of my friends have reposted it in an hour! This might be the one that gets them reading the rest if it!
@Jen747 We all need to be there for one another…….paleo it forward.
Good morning Jack,
MSM helps me great. start slowly, because the detox can cause dizziness, I’ve found.
How about SAM-e liver detox? Recommendable?
warm thoughts,
Petra
@Petra I like SAMe too…….
Great post. And please don’t be offended – but this one was an easy read too. 🙂
I lost over 40 pounds using the Weight Watchers method, low fat and high complex carbohydrate. I developed an inflamed gall bladder. I was told by the doctor losing a lot of weight was a risk factor for gall bladder disease. No one told me that at WW! After doing a physical he wanted me to get an ultrasound and he thought I would need to have my gall bladder out. Anyway, I was traveling around the country and couldn’t get continuity of care. Best thing that every happened to me!
I suffered with pain for about a year and then read mercola.com material on gall bladder problems. I went high fat with my diet and the problem just disappeared over a few months. This was over six years ago. I have never had a gall bladder attack since going high fat.
Jack, I’m becoming addicted to your blog. I would love if you could do a post on menopause. It seems there are a million variables with it. Just when you think one thing is sorted you realize you may have screwed up something else. From reading so far I think the most important step should be to get my sleep sorted out and also to ask my Doc for a E2/progesterone ratio. Am I on the mark?
@eileen I believe CT 8 has a lot of that in it.
Dr Jack: thanks for another edifying post. I’m really looking forward to what you have to say about the appendix, since I lost mine two years ago. Seemed strange at age 67 and after several years of paleo, but it was a time of very high stress, don’t know if that could be connected. I’ve been wanting to ask you if appendicitis signals sth I should be aware of now and doing sth about. (The surgeon told me later it was necrotic and about to burst, so I don’t think I had any choice about having it out. I did argue because I know the appendix is a reservoir for good intestinal bacteria, but was overridden by his seriousness when I objected.)
Dear Jack, I had my gallbladder removed in December 2010.I have been “paleo” since March 2011 and eat a very high fat diet. I have lost 65 lbs so far and feel great. I take superzymes to aid in digestion. Besides the supplements you mentioned above, is there anything more I can do to prevent an early demise?
@Maria depends upon your labs and history…..you should sign up for a bio hack
Isn’t CCK made in the small intestine rather than the gallbladder itself?
Yes Holly but CCK acts on many gut targets and that is what is important and its major target is on the brain…..specifically the hypothalamus and how it interacts with leptin
Thanks for sharing this information Jack. You mention the excessive production of estrogen being a factor in gall-bladder disease. I’ve had my estrogen and folate levels checked and I’ve been told they’re both much lower than they should be. Could that also impact on the health of my gall-bladder?
@Stanna that means you like are an excellent estrogen detoxer or do not face many exogenous estrogens in your environment or both. But it still puts you at risk for a vitamin K2 issue unless you adjust your diet. You can assess this with an osteocalcin test. See my Vitamin K2 blog about this issue.
2 years ago I had a couple of gallstone attacks (didn’t know what they were at the time, but is was excruciating!). I was a raw vegan for health reasons, or so I thought… Carrot, orange and beet juice brought it on in no time. Of course the doctor recommended to have my gallbladder removed. But I said no because I had just found Paleo. Now after nearly 2 years, the big stone is still there, but the thickening of the gall bladder wall has disappeared. Might have been scarring from an infection. Scary because an inflamed or burst or blocked gall bladder is life threatening. But now, with lots of fat and no dairy or gluten, mine is recovering! Maybe in a few years the stone will be gone as well.
@Cat you can also have the stone pulverized with ultrasound before you have to have it out….and that can be done while your healthy to pass the stone too. It is an easy procedure to do with little risk.
My appendix was removed years ago as a routine operation “while they were in there”. I have often wondered why the surgeon regarded a healthy organ as unnecessary and what possible consequences I might have because of his decision.
@Donna that is another CPC coming later this yr.
How do you sign up for a biohack?
@maria you go to the this link and choose what you like. https://jackkruse.com/register/
Regarding the gallbladder flush detox protocol found all over the internet. The “gallstones” that are passed with the detox protocol float. Real gallstones sink. Watch this video to find out why.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioZOcAFjLfM
Why do I continue to create gall stones/liver stones? I had issues/pain few years ago with gall bladder and I did the liver cleanse and got rid of lot of stones. But I have to repeat the process every 3-6 months. I know they are cholesterol stones. But told that its my body trying to clean up the inflammation in the body and creates these cholesterol stones around the inflammation. I can tell when the symptoms come on and I think, time to do cleanse again. Recently I started using Bupleurum in a Taoist herbal blend, and after the last cleanse I only noticed only a traceable amount which is good. But I can’t continually use Bupleurum and I shouldn’t have to continue to repeat the cleanse as I would like my body to naturally run and not create these. What you say Dr. Jack?
Why? Not enough UV and IR light in the AM and too much blue light at night. The answer is in the Ubiquitination series on the gut. Ubi 22-24
Hi, I had an ultrasound last week and was told I have a 6mm polyp on the wall of my gallbladder. I have been told they will monitor it but if the polyp increases in size they will remove the gallbladder. Do you have any advice how to shrink this polyp without removing the GB? I’m a 41 year old woman, has a healthy diet (well I think I do!), am active, slim (8 stone 7 pounds and 5ft 5in) but stressed (dad passed away recently and juggling looking after mum, kids, job etc – perhaps this is the cause?).
Lisa there are many links that show a high fat (seafood laden) low carb diet are quite helpful with this condition. I usually recommend full spectrum sun exposure before the dietary change to maximize the impact of the the DHA from foods.
Dr. Kruse,
I have had my very first gallbladder attack. It has lasted 7 days, lots of pain, fever, sweats, headaches and jaundice. I am 32, female, about 15 lbs over weight with Hashimoto’s. I have been treated by my functional medicine doctor in Nashville for my Hashimoto’s and MTHFR for almost 5 months.
I had blood work done this week for my gallbladder, it came back normal, my ultrasound came back normal. However, my HIDA scan came back abnormal and they wanted to send me to a surgeon to discuss removal. (All very vague). I DESPERATELY want to keep my gallbladder. How do you distinguish between what is life threatening and what can be treated with diet.
Also, what are 10-18 carbon fats, PC and PS
Thank you.
Dr Kruse, i have a sluggish gallbladder, with slow gastric motility, post nasal drip, coughing etc. I think that my problems are from the gallbladder and i want to ask you how to continue from this point? Should i stick with epi paleo rx?
I don’t have gallstones yet, but i have pain after fatty carby protein meals. When i was 25 year old(i am 33) i tried a version of ketogenic diet for weight loss purpose and insulin sensitivity, but i drank so much olive oil that from that point on my gallbladder was never the same(i was on low fat high carb before and weight training).I was eating chicken breast with 10 spoons of olive oil.
Now, meat meals are my biggest issues, because when i was 25 i eat a ton of chicken eggs beef fish , weight train, and now after 2 chiken brests i digest for 6 hours with burpings and fatigue. What is that?
I refused PPI’s and other medicine, and i want to start epi paleo rx. I did the endoscopy and they told me is erosive esophagitis from suplements and high protein diet, but i couldn understand whay i cannot eat meat.
Sorry for the spelling, but sometimes i am desperate in finding a cure for this “mental” condition.
I would like to know if i have ur blessing Dr. Kruse.
Tks a lot , you are doing a beautifull sculptor job. I enjoyed every second of you re youtube talk, UV, Blue, IR etc are my favorite topics and i’m beggining to understand “the hand of the creator”.
Michell the sluggish quality is likely due to a circadian light mismatch in your environment. Diet alone wont fix this problem. You need to maintain hydration and daytime solar exposure while using the high fat diets to reverse the situation.
Is there a difference, in your opinion, for someone who had a gallbladder removed not from stones or sludge but from a scan revealing a non-functioning gall bladder? Do you find the cause/results of both are the same?
missing the organ is a huge big deal.
I still have a gall bladder and took NAC, MSM and DMSO to stave off gall bladder “flutters.” Female, Fat, close to 40 and fertile, of course. Taking the combo above has stopped being helpful. Leptin Reset for years, Regular CT, I’ve fixed the circadian rhythms, water, grounding, and been eating paleo with as high fat as possible, and still plenty of chocolate cravings. I get as much sun as I can. I’m under enormous stress at the moment, so that won’t help at all. Suddenly in the past three weeks, after the fall equinox, no appetite at all. None. No chocolate cravings either. Still some gall bladder flutters. Any ideas? Is it ok to accept the lack of appetite and just eat when needed?
See the sunrise every AM too lower the stress response via the SNS. Then post noon use CT to use the same pathway (SNS) to lower the firing in your brainstem.
Thank you. Thank you for all that you do. Does your answer change at all if I note yellow, greasy stools for the past four months? I just realized I neglected to mention that.
Thank you. I’ve been without a gallbladder for about 22 years and my energy has been often very low.
After seeing some video testimonials for MMS saying it helped older men with there energy, libido and ED, I thought maybe it was boosting their Testosterone.
Now I’m thinking that maybe it was helping the removal of the serum estrogens instead.