How to Totally Stop Gallbladder Attacks and Keep Your Gallbladder, Too (A Case)

“I’d rather keep my gallbladder,” Laura Winston said. “My father wouldn’t let them take my tonsils, I’ve got all my teeth, and I found a way around hemorrhoid surgery. I want to keep my gallbladder, too.” She frowned. “Sure is getting harder with all the pain I’ve been having lately. My husband says ‘just go do it’ but Dora Watkins at church said she hasn’t had one speck of gallbladder pain since she went strictly on your program, and she’d had trouble for years. I asked her what she did and she said ‘you better go yourself ‘cause gallbladder attacks are caused by allergies, everybody’s allergies are different, what works for me might not work for you’.
“I never heard of such a thing, and the doctor says he never did either. But Dora’s fine, and I don’t care for that knife, so here I am. Don’t know a thing about having any allergies, though.”
“Why did the doctors want to take your tonsils out?”
“When I was a child I kept getting sore throat and tonsil infections all the time. It got so bad I was missing too much school. My father did some research about the problem of digesting milk, especially among minorities, and took all the milk and cottage cheese and ice cream out of the house, and I quit having problems near as much. But I thought that was a digestion problem, not an allergy.”
“Very often both,” I said. “Do you drink milk now?”
“Hardly ever. Didn’t want my kids getting sick like me and besides my Dad’s still around. He’d get after me if I gave his grandkids any.”
“How long have you had gallbladder trouble?”
“Started getting little pains here and there just after I turned 40, so about nine years. But it wasn’t too bad until about two years ago.”
“How often does it hurt?”
“Nearly every day, now. Of c’ourse it’s better some times, worse others, but the last bad one was so bad they put me in the hospital. Wanted to take my gallbladder right then but I told them no, just do like the time before. So they gave me pain pills and IV’s and nothing else for three days ‘til the pain went down and they let me go.”
“I’m glad the allergy treatment worked.”
Mrs. Winston shifted in her chair, crossed her arms, and looked at me with an interesting combination of skepticism, surprise, and suspicion. “What allergy treatment do you have in mind? Those doctors just put me in bed and let me lay. I didn’t have allergy treatment!”
“What did they give to you eat?”
She snorted. “Eat? Nothing! That’s why they gave me those IV’s! I’ve been in the hospital three times with a real bad gallbladder, first thing they do is not let you eat!”
“If you don’t eat, you can’t have an allergic reaction to food, can you?”
She looked surprised for a moment, then smiled and relaxed. “Never thought of that. Those doctors were treating me for food allergy after all and didn’t even know it.”
“Right. And it’s been going on for years.”
“Isn’t that something!” She frowned again. “But they tell me the pain is due to stones, and I sure have stones on the x-ray the doctor showed me.”
“Over twenty years ago, Dr. James Breneman demonstrated that the pain of ‘gallbladder attacks’ is triggered by food allergy and can be eliminated by identifying and removing the offending foods. Very rarely, a gallstone gets ‘stuck’ in the bile duct, causing spasm, blockage, and intense pain. But that’s very unusual. A major medical journal concluded a few years back that if a person had gallstones but no pain, so-called ‘silent gallstones,’ it’s best not to operate as the risks of surgery are greater than the risk of blockage of the bile duct.”
“Well, I sure would appreciate my gallstones being silent. In fact, I’d like them to shut up for good right now! Then all I’d be left with is all this bloating, belching, and gas.”
“Tell me about that, please.”
“For years…it goes back before this gallbladder pain…I’ve had indigestion most times when I eat. It’s gotten steadily worse, sometimes the food sits in my stomach, and lots of times my stomach bloats up after I eat. And I’m always all gassy, and get heartburn sometimes. The doctor said that was my gallbladder, too, and cutting it out would fix it. But I’d rather put up with it than be carved on. I’ll just keep taking antacids like I do now.”
“No need to let it go on. Blaming those symptoms on the gallbladder is a common medical mistake. Bloating after meals, belching, indigestion and heartburn are usually due to stomach malfunction, not gallbladder trouble. Years ago, a few doctors pointed out that people with gallbladder problems usually have stomach malfunction, too.”
“What kind of stomach malfunction?”
“Normal stomachs make large amounts of hydrochloric acid and pepsin to digest the food we eat. The most common stomach malfunction is underproduction of acid and pepsin, so food doesn’t digest, and indigestion, bloating, belching, gas and heartburn are the resulting symptoms.”
“Sounds like the stomach just gets old, worn out, and tired.”
“In many cases, that’s exactly what happens.”
“Makes sense. But…” she thought for a moment “…that means those antacids are the wrong thing.. They can’t help my digestion.”
“No, they can’t. We’ll run a test to make sure, but chances are what you very likely need is replacement hydrochloric acid and pepsin in capsules with meals, which not only relieves symptoms, but improves digestion, and your health, too!”
Two months later, Mrs. Winston was back. She looked a lot happier and much more relaxed than on her first visit.
“Haven’t had one of those gallbladder pains, not one, since I quit eating all that allergic stuff!” she said enthusiastically. “I like this kind of food allergy treatment better than that one with IV’s! And that hydrochloric acid and pepsin stuff, it takes care of all that indigestion and bloat! Gave me a little trouble at first, but I figured my stomach just needed to get used to it ‘cause it hadn’t had much around for a few years. So I went slow and now my digestion’s just fine, thank you. But I have some questions….” she rummaged around in her purse “…written down here. Your nutritionist who helped me put my diet back together…I sure was allergic to a lot of foods…explained a lot to me, but I need to ask again, ‘specially cause if I’m the cook that’s how we’re going to eat and my husband wants me to make sure.”
“Now…I’ve gotten rid of all the sugar and white flour products from our house. Tell me again why that’s important.”
“Research work in large populations has shown that the more refined and processed the food supply is, the higher the incidence of gallstones. Some populations, like pre-1950’s northern Canadian Eskimo, had a record of no gallstones at all until their diets became ‘civilized.’ Very low sugar, high fiber diets also are associated with a much lower incidence of atherosclerosis and heart attack, diverticulitis, hemorrhoids, and colon cancer, as well as less gallbladder problems.”
“My husband’s family is heavy on heart trouble. So this change is as good for him as it is for me.”
“No sugar and unprocessed, high fiber food is good for everyone.”
“Long as they’re not allergic to it. Which reminds me: how long do I need to avoid all those foods. I’m taking those desensitization drops…”
“Which work for most things, but not necessarily everything. And there are some things I don’t recommend desensitizing as they’re not good for us anyway.”
“Like milk?”
“Like cow’s milk. As the saying goes, mother’s milk is best for babies, and cow’s milk is for little cows. Please check back with the technician who screened you for allergy and sensitivity, she’ll tell you when it looks like you’ve desensitized and it’s safe to try those foods again. But be cautious, try them one at a time.”
“That way I can tell if any of them are still trouble, and which ones, right?”
“Right. Your own body reaction is the best test.”
“The nutritionist also said you’d tell me about some vitamins and things that might cut down on making more gallstones, and maybe even help dissolve the ones I got.”
“Right. Please remember, though, that as long as there’s no pain, no surgery’s needed to remove them.”
“I remember. But now that I got ‘em to shut up and ‘be silent,’ I figure it wouldn’t hurt to try to persuade ‘em to go away, too.”
“Makes sense. I’ll write down the things that should be helpful.” I gave her the pieces of paper.
“Let’s see…vitamin C, two grams twice daily. Lecithin capsules, 1200 milligrams, three times daily. Fish oil capsules, 1000 milligrams, twice daily. Vitamin E, 400 units. Multiple vitamin and mineral, in four capsules daily. And this…” she looked at the second one “…looks like a prescription I can’t read. What’s it for?”
“Iodide, specifically potassium iodide. Iodide helps dissolve cholesterol in test tubes, and it can help dissolve it in people, too. Most gallstones contain a lot of cholesterol. Unless you’re allergic to iodide…and we’ll test you to find out…please use two drops daily for now.”
“Alright. Now I understand I should stay on this good diet forever, but how long do I need to take all these vitamin pills?”
“The multiple vitamin and mineral, and the vitamins C and E should be indefinite. But likely you can adjust the other things downward as time goes on.”
“You said get this iodide tested in case I’m allergic. What about this other stuff?”
“Sensitivity to the other supplements is less likely, but not impossible. So while you’re checking on the iodide, you might as well check those, too.”
“I’ll check on everything. I’ve gotten real fond of not being in pain. I surely want to keep all my original parts!”
It’s been several years now, and except for “a rumble once in a long while when I’m not careful,” Mrs. Winston has had no further gallbladder pain.