Re: GB/Liver Flush: Is There Efficacy in the Practice? Questions for ALL

Hello:

Thank you. I had questions when I started out and embarked upon this research.

GB Stones

GB stones are always crystalline and hard with cholesterol substance. Below is a good descriiption for clarification with this excerpt:

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/gallstones/

Gallstones are small, pebble-like substances that develop in the gallbladder. The gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped sac located below your liver in the right upper abdomen. Gallstones form when liquid stored in the gallbladder hardens into pieces of stone-like material. The liquid—called bile—helps the body digest fats. Bile is made in the liver, then stored in the gallbladder until the body needs it. The gallbladder contracts and pushes the bile into a tube—called the common bile duct—that carries it to the small intestine, where it helps with digestion.

Bile contains water, cholesterol, fats, bile salts, proteins, and bilirubin—a waste product. Bile salts break up fat, and bilirubin gives bile and stool a yellowish-brown color. If the liquid bile contains too much cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin, it can harden into gallstones.

The two types of gallstones are cholesterol stones and pigment stones. Cholesterol stones are usually yellow-green and are made primarily of hardened cholesterol. They account for about 80 percent of gallstones. Pigment stones are small, dark stones made of bilirubin. Gallstones can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball. The gallbladder can develop just one large stone, hundreds of tiny stones, or a combination of the two.

The gallbladder and the ducts that carry bile and other digestive enzymes from the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas to the small intestine are called the biliary system.

Gallstones can block the normal flow of bile if they move from the gallbladder and lodge in any of the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the small intestine. The ducts include the

• hepatic ducts, which carry bile out of the liver
• cystic duct, which takes bile to and from the gallbladder
• common bile duct, which takes bile from the cystic and hepatic ducts to the small intestine

Bile trapped in these ducts can cause inflammation in the gallbladder, the ducts, or in rare cases, the liver. Other ducts open into the common bile duct, including the pancreatic duct, which carries digestive enzymes out of the pancreas. Sometimes gallstones passing through the common bile duct provoke inflammation in the pancreas—called gallstone pancreatitis—an extremely painful and potentially dangerous condition.

If any of the bile ducts remain blocked for a significant period of time, severe damage or infection can occur in the gallbladder, liver, or pancreas. Left untreated, the condition can be fatal. Warning signs of a serious problem are fever, jaundice, and persistent pain.

What causes gallstones?

Scientists believe cholesterol stones form when bile contains too much cholesterol, too much bilirubin, or not enough bile salts, or when the gallbladder does not empty completely or often enough. The reason these imbalances occur is not known.

The cause of pigment stones is not fully understood. The stones tend to develop in people who have liver cirrhosis, biliary tract infections, or hereditary blood disorders—such as sickle cell anemia—in which the liver makes too much bilirubin.

Flushing Stones

In the above post that I made, the green (some beige) stones are NOT GB real stones. They aren't crystalline and don't contain the properties for classification of typical GB stones. Because of the chemical make-up of those stones and the chemical reaction that takes place, I think, the term "liver soap stones" is more accurate. If you ever had an opportunity to make soap, it makes sense because the soap process is primarily oil with a small amount of lye (ancient times wood lash was used), a chemical reaction.

Therefore, no matter how many flushes are done using the oil method, stones will continually produce "liver soap stones" and will appear in numbers (without fail), showing no crystalline that would classify as GB stones. Thus, it isn't a phenomenon of stones with each flush. Below is from the previous post, but I'm highlighting it here.

http://www.naturalhealthlibrarian.com/ebook.asp?page=Gallbladder%20Flush

The Lancet Volume 365, Number 9468 16 April 2005

Could these be Gallstones? - Excerpt

Microscopic examination of our patient's stones revealed that they lacked any crystalline structure, melted to an oily green liquid after 10 min at 40oC, and contained no cholesterol, bilirubin, or calcium by established wet chemical methods.1 Traditional faecal fat extraction techniques2 indicated that the stones contained fatty acids that required acid hydrolysis to give free fatty acids before extraction into ether. These fatty acids accounted for 75% of the original material.

Experimentation revealed that mixing equal volumes of oleic acid (the major component of olive oil) and lemon juice produced several semi solid white balls after the addition of a small volume of a potassium hydroxide solution. On air drying at room temperature, these balls became quite solid and hard.

Hypothesis
I do have a small hypothesis on this process and why some people are finding relief with reduction of congestion and liver pain. Since the flushing is creating a soap-type action and making "liver soap stones",  perhaps it is cleansing the liver to a small degree. I have read many testimonies with triglycerides going down, less liver congestion, flushing out parasites, less liver pain, etc. I believe that these are hopeful testimonies.

Whether or not flushing is a "cure" is a question that I don't have an answer for. I question a chronic or life-threatening conditions that flushing alone is the cure-all. It doesn't mean that flushing can't change things, it just  means that things are unanswered  for me. For instance, if this procedure were for someone with liver pain and they do 20-50-100+ flushes and still experiencing pain, I don't see how this is effective. For this reason, it isn't a "cure" -  a cure to me means final, gone, bye-bye, nada, no more, etc.

There is a possibility that something else is going to cause continual  pain or congestion, for months/years on end. What causes these conditions is something that will need to be answered, eventually.