julia changs herbs work great to soften/ break up stones, but there is no alternative to the liver flush, just simply softening or breaking them up won't do the trick, you have to flush them out afterwards, i personally have had a lot of good results with using the tincture gold coin grass and then Liver Flushing after 2 weeks of that.

excerpted from http://www.askshelley.com


Stone Dissolvers

Some people don't need to flush so much as dissolve stones. Anyone who plans on flushing should dissolve stones as much as possible before sending them thru the bile duct. These are all good options for softening and dissolving stones. You can do just one, but preferably two or more. If you do this thoroughly, you will see more sand and chaffe than stones when you flush.

Drink a gallon of good organic apple juice or country apple cider, however long it takes.

Eat a green or red apple (Fuji are great, not as tart as Granny Smith) every day.

Take one tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar 3x daily. Try adding it to the apple juice, it cuts the tartness.

If you are hypoglycemic or candida challenged, take Malic Acid supplements from the health food store, it's the same as apple juice. 1,000 mg - 2,000 a day for 3-7 days.

Eat one tablespoon of lecithin granules 3x daily for 3-5 days.

Liquid PhosFood, available online for about 7 dollars, is what my naturopathic doctor recommended. Take drops as recommended on the bottle for 4 days, usually 10 drops 3x day.

"Stone Free" by Planetary Formulas, an herbal remedy for kidney and gb stones.

"Gold Coin Grass" by Julia Chang available at http://www.sensiblehalth.com in Canada for about $30.00. Espensive but effective! Will stop GB pain. Take for 10 days prior to a flush.

Hiya vanadeux,

I think Concerned Aunt has given great advice.

I'd like to add my observations concerning Gold Coin Grass and liver herb supplements.

Before the GCG and herbs, I got about 50% tan stones and 50% green (bile) stones. I also experienced tenderness in the major exit of the common liver duct, the point where all stones and toxins leave the liver itself. I felt this with every flush.

I tried taking liver support herbs (Ultimate Liver Cleanse, by Nature's Secret, but any other supplement similar to this would be just as good) and found that the pain vanished within 24 hours. It returned with the next liver flush, but again vanished once my new herbs arrived and I took them.

Next, I tried GCG. Both flushes that followed produced 90 - 95% green stones, and a greater quantity of tan sand. I'm guessing the sand was originally stones which had lost cohesion due to the GCG. Both flushes produced a much larger quantity of stones than before.

I would guess that GCG and similar herbs are great at making the tan stones fall apart, but not the darker green stones. And while having the tan stones in fragments is better than in their original larger form, they still have to be flushed out.

Hope this helps.