Maybe I can answer this. People often call the gallbladder flush a LIVER flush, when in reality it is flushing the gallbladder and the bile ducts. Remember the bile is produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder. Due to chemical signals the gallbladder contracts and forces the bile out and toward the intestine so that it can be used to digest foods in the intestine. There are several types of these bile ducts (as a group they are called the hepatobiliary ducts): the hepatic duct, the cystic duct, and the common bile duct. [I'm not even getting into the pancreatic duct!] I think that stones are primarily formed in the gallbladder, but then some can get pushed along and can lodge in the ducts. Because the liver produces the bile originally, people often call this a Liver Flush and refer to the stones as liver stones .. probably because the liver is the beginning of this 'bile system.'
Now I'm not telling you that there are no such thing as liver stones (intrahepatic calculi), but these are very rare in the West. For some reason they do appear more in the Far Eastern countries. Their cause is unkown but some think it is a defect in the way the liver processes cholesterol.
So I'm guessing that your doctor friend has not seen intrahepatic calculi - though they do exist - because she's a Western doctor. However, I'm sure she's seen Gallstones (both in the gallbladder and in those bile ducts)!
Hope this information helps...

That is the problem in asking someone who has insufficient experience that is gained in a classroom dissecting pig livers. I guess because your friend has a white coat it makes all the difference.

There is plenty written about intra-hepatic stones if look.

This adds more evidence that doctors are inadequate trained in some disciplines.


Intra-hepatic stones (IHS) have been described as early as the 16th century; however, the first detailed description of the disease in English literature was not until 1906.1 IHS is more prevalent in eastern Asia, with the highest incidence being in Taiwan, followed by China, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia and Japan. There also seems to be a high incidence in Brazil. On the other hand, the Western world and India have a low incidence of IHS.

In the Western world, IHS is generally thought to be secondary to stones originating in the gall bladder or primarily resulting from benign strictures cysts or malignant biliary tumours.

In the East, however, IHS is regarded as a separate entity altogether. The majority of IHS is associated with recurrent “pyogenic Cholangitis ” (bacterial infection of the biliary tract) which affects both genders equally and has a peak incidence in the third and fourth decades of life. It is more common among poor people and those in rural rather than urban areas.

The diet of the Orient, predominantly high in carbohydrate and low in fat and protein, has been implicated as an etiological factor for RPC. As saturated fat causes the hormone cholecystokinin to be released which contracts the gallbladder, a diet low in saturated fats could conceivably lead to biliary stasis, predisposing to IHS. A low-protein diet is also responsible for a decreased level of “glucaro-1.4-lactone”, leading to formation of calcium bilirubinate stones.

Recent studies from Korea report that presently about 40%-50% of IHS are of mixed variety, and some stones being pure cholesterol stones have lent support to the dietary theory.

My experiences are different again than the majority of posters here, although I haven't read in the archives.

I, like many, was wary of trying an actual 'flush' for a long, long time. Instead, I added large salads with olive oil, lemon juice, and often garlic, to my diet. (I have eaten lots of eggs, and quite a bit of fish, chicken, but little red meat, all of my life. I am a vegetable person, but have a hard time getting down much fruit most of the time.)

After months of the salads, sleeping sitting up in the car for 3+ hours, I passed a stone the size of a pullet egg, smooth and black with bright green flecks. Though I flushed too quickly, there was no mistaking what it was.

More than that, I had felt either this one stone, or a series of smaller stones, 'scooting' along the duct from my gallbladder toward the stomach area and downward over several days.

Over the next two or three weeks (as best I can remember), I distinctly felt three stones (or whatever they were) 'dropping' in my liver. Each was quick and sharp, though not intolerable...two large and one smaller.

I had thought they were moving toward or into the gallbladder, but I was mistaken.

Wherever they were resting, as the pressure built over months, they were too high for the gallbladder. I could feel the odd twinge in the area of the lowest ribs.

Eventually the pressure built to an alarming level, so I did two or three sessions of 3 - 4 hours of rhythmic swinging activity to 'settle' the pressure.

Still, over time, the pressure again built to the point that I knew I had to 'flush' in some way.

I decided on the herbal tea preferred by White Tiger, and bought the ingredients.

I didn't get the 'enteric coated peppermint caps' he likes for preparation. I should have. Instead, I took large pinches of dried peppermint leaves and chewed them during meals, once or twice each day.

Still, I stalled drinking the herbal tea for another two weeks. (Don't know why except that I am chicken.)

After I began the tea, a large cup each day, my husband awakened one morning with a very bad case of labrynthitis (vertigo). Caring for him in bed, and the tea being so mild and pleasant, I drank all four cups of the batch in one day. Thereafter I FELT (!) the stones move out of the liver into the gallbladder, one at a time.

The only way I could get relief from the sharp (but not intolerable) pains was to sit down. Because my sleep is so gibbled over the past few years, I often fall asleep in this chair. Each of the four or five (?) stones moving in this week of drinking the tea, seemed to move when I was asleep in this chair...without my feeling them.

I knew they were different stones because the sharpness was in slightly different spots...the last felt as though it was against my back ribs.

I stopped the tea, and the rest of the story is about the heaviness in my gallbladder; enteric coated peppermint caps (they look like little footballs) to break the stones; BM's; etc.

I started the tea again, but there is no more activity in my liver that I feel. Even the heavy achiness in my gallbladder is subsiding with the various herbals I am trying.

This has been a long story, but I thought you might be interested.

If those stones weren't in my liver (probably for a long, long time), how could I have felt them, individually, on their journey?

There are no other organs in that area.

And, no, I am not obsessed with 'flushing'. I'd rather the whole question vanish into thin air, thank you very much.

However, the improvement in my sense of well-being is so great that I'd swear that I've dropped ten years...and this is after only ONE try!

I must say that I pay close attention to White Tiger's every word.

You seem to be a reasonable person, seeking answers, Meryem.

I hope there is something in my experience that helps.

My best,

fledgling