ALTERNATIVES TREATMENTS USED TO 'DETOXIFY‘ THE GALL BLADDER Effective medical treatment or just the new fad? Quick List of Facts  Gall stones formation  Due to several factors, including:  Super saturation of bile with cholesterol  Bile stasis  Delayed gallbladder emptying due to impaired gallbladder motility. Detoxification Plan  1. Monday thru Saturday noon drink as much Apple juice or Apple cider as your appetite will permit  2. At noon Saturday eat a normal lunch  3. 3 hours later take 6 capsules of Disodium Phosphate Detox Plan Cont.  4. 2 hours later repeat the 6 capsules of Disodium Phosphate  5. For the Saturday evening meal have a grapefruit, grapefruit juice, or other citrus juice. Detox Plan Cont.  6. At bedtime take ½ cup of warm unrefined olive oil, followed by small glass of grapefruit juice or fresh lemon juice to cut the taste of oil.  If you should vomit, it need not be repeated Detox Plan Cont.  7. Go to bed immediately, lie on your right side with the right knee pulled up close to chest for 30 minutes  8. Sunday morning 1 hour before breakfast take 6 Disodium capsules Detox Plan Cont.  9. Take your coffee enemas  3 cups of brewed coffee  3-4 tbsp plain Dannon yogurt Biological Relevance?  Apple juice  Contains malic acid  Thought to weaken adhesion between solid globules.  Disodium Phosphate capsules  Blood buffer salt – “stimulates gallbladder function” Biological Relevance?  Olive oil  Causes gallbladder contractions  Oleic acid in oil shown to increase bile cholesterol saturation  Yogurt  Contains L. acidophilus, which reduces serum cholesterol levels as well as produces lipases that digest fat Biological Relevance?  Citrus juice  Thought to clean the gallbladder indirectly by cleaning the liver.  Coffee enema  Caffeine thought to stimulate the liver and bile ducts, resulting in the releasing of toxins in the liver ducts.  This allows other toxins in the body to undergo processing by the liver.  Alkaloids stimulate production of glutathoine-Stransferase. Alternative Medicine Support  Everyone seems to love it  The enema is said to leave a ‘clean and refreshing feeling’, can’t harm you  Don’t need to wait to be diagnosed, there are sites that list the symptoms for you  The sooner the better  All natural Example of the Treatment  Slightly different regime  Epsom salt used instead of Disodium Phosphate.  Subject noted that when drinking the oil and lemon juice to alternate and drink in small amounts.  When mixed the two congeal.  Claims that this is not observed with the grapefruit juice.  Apple juice focus completely absent, and no coffee enema either. The Results Subject’s results  Was very pleased with results  Claimed that ‘chaff’ continued to pass for 8 months after the ‘treatment.’ Skeptics of Treatment  The detox ‘flush’ is referred to as a folk remedy  The patients of these treatments often experience diarrhea and abdominal pain  Next morning they pass soft green/brown spheroids that are presumed to be gallstones. Skeptics of Treatment  They question this claim  Most spheroids not chemically analyzed  Patients had no follow-up to record that they no longer had gallstones. Skeptics of Treatment  One group analyzed showed spheroids consisted of mainly fatty acids and no cholesterol, bilirubin, or calcium  Were found to be “soap stones” that were created by internal reactions between digestive compounds and certain components of olive oil & lemon juice. Replicated Results  A study successfully created the observed ‘stones’ outside of the human body using equal parts oleic acid, lemon juice, and a few drops of potassium hydrate solution. Conclusion  Many users of these alternative medicines continue to use them because it ‘worked.’  “Neither the healer nor the client can know, without a control group for comparison, whether the recipient would have recovered just as well without the treatment.” - Barry Beyerstein, PhD  Lots of misinformation available Conclusion  Medical community cautions that, if the treatment is viable and results in passing of gallstones, then there is the risk of the stones lodging in bile duct  Medical emergency requiring immediate surgery.  Consult with your medical physician if considering starting any alternative medicine Conclusion  Individual components of treatments have shown effect on gallbladder in scientific studies.  As of yet there is not enough evidence to determine if treatment as a whole is effective, more case studies of the treatment are needed  Possibly unknown, unexpected interactions between the different components. References Baggio, G., et al. ( 1988). Olive-oil-enriched diet: effect on serum lipoprotein levels and biliary cholesterol saturation. Am. J. Clin Nutr. 47, 960-964. Sies, C. W., & Brooker, J. (2005). Could these be gallstones? The Lancet. 365 (9468), 1388 doi: 10.1016/s01406736(05)66373-8 Beyerstein, B. (1997). Alternative Medicine: Where’s the Evidence? Canadian Journal of Public Health. 88 (3), 149-150. Gaby, A. R. (2009). Nutritional Approaches to Prevention and Treatment of Gallstones. Alternative Medicine Review. 14(3), 258 – 267. Lee, L. (2007) Unwanted Stones – Kidney Stones and Gallstones. Retrieved on Dec 1, 2009 from http://www.litalee.com/ Nebraska Cultures. (n. d.). L.acidophilus DDS-1 Resource Document. Retrieved on Dec 1, 2009 from www.stewartitalia.it/backoffice/files/dds1_resource_document.pdf The Coffee Enema for Liver Detoxification. (n. d.). Retrieved on Dec 1, 2009 from http://curezone.com/art/read.asp?ID=28&db=5&C0=818 Standard Process. (2009). Disodium Phosphate. Retrieved on Dec 1, 2009 from http://www.standardprocess.com/display/displayFile.aspx?docid=94&filename=/Public/Lit/TabSheets/disodiumph osphate3600.pdf Liver cleanse – gallbladder cleanse- liver flush. (n .d.) Retrieved on Dec 1, 2009 from http://curezone.com/cleanse/liver/huldas_recipe.asp http://www.iom.edu/en/Reports/2004/Dietary-Reference-Intakes-Water-Potassium-Sodium-Chloride-and-Sulfate.aspx http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/dietarytherapy/a/LiverFlush.htm http://curezone.com/art/read.asp?ID=28&db=5&C0=818 http://www.gallbladderattack.com/beetrecipe.shtml References - Pictures  http://freshtomarket.com/01-04/barsotti-apple-juice      large.jpg http://www.worldofstock.com/slides/PFO4889.jpg http://static.open.salon.com/files/how-olive-oil-works31222748225.jpg http://flamindevil.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/clip_artsleep11.jpg http://www.citysackers.com/images/dannon%20all%20nat ural%20nonfat%20plain%20yogurt%2032oz.jpg http://vanessagx.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/coffeeenema1a.jpg http://www.enemainfo.com/enemas/coffee_enema.jpg