Treatments typically used to deal with gallstones aim at either dissolving gallstones directly within the gallbladder or removing the gallbladder through surgery. However, these treatments have no effect whatsoever on the large amount of stones congesting the bile ducts of the liver. It is important to realize that every person who has gallstones in the gallbladder has multiple times as many stones in the liver. The surgical removal of the gallbladder or its stones does not substantially increase bile flow, because the stones that are stuck in the liver bile ducts continue to prevent proper bile secretion.

Even in the case of surgical removal of the gallbladder, the situation remains highly problematic for the body. Since the pumping device for bile (the gallbladder) is now gone, the small amount of bile that the liver is able to squirt out through its congested bile ducts comes forth merely in dribbles. Both insufficient bile secretion and the uncontrolled flow of bile into the small intestine continue to cause major problems with the digestion and absorption of food, particularly if it contains fats. The result is an ever-increasing amount of toxic waste that accumulates in the intestinal tract and lymphatic system. The restricted ability to digest and assimilate fats stimulates the liver cells to increase production of cholesterol. The side effect arising from this emergency maneuver of the body is the generation of more gallstones in the liver bile ducts. Therefore, removing the gallbladder is not a solution to digestive problems but, rather, a cause of further and more serious complications in the body, such as cancer and heart disease. Balanced bile secretion, on the other hand, protects the body against most diseases.

Any treatment of the gallbladder, however advanced and sophisticated it may be, can only be considered a drop in the ocean of cure because it does not remove the main problem, which is the hundreds or thousands of gallstones blocking the bile ducts of the liver.

Conventional medicine offers three main approaches to treating gallstones:

1. Dissolving Gallstones

For patients with mild, infrequent symptoms, or those who do not want surgery, various drugs are available that claim to dissolve gallstones. On the surface, it seems like a good idea to gradually dissolve gallstones through drugs that contain bile salts (oral dissolution therapy). Given in pill form over a period of twelve months, these drugs may achieve a decrease in cholesterol levels in the bile. But there is no guarantee of this. According to the British Medical Journal, the use of bile salts has a failure rate as high as 50 percent. In addition, many “successful” patients simply do not experience complete gallstone dissolution in their gallbladder. For the few patients who do, the recurrence rate can also be as high as 50 percent. Other dissolving agents, such as methyl tert-butylether, have no advantage over bile salts. Unsuccessful treatment may lead to surgery.

More recently, solvents have been directly instilled into the gallbladder by means of a small catheter placed in the skin. This approach has been shown to be more effective in dissolving cholesterol stones, but it still fails to resolve the major

issue—the accumulation of gallstones in the liver. Insufficient scientific research exists to determine what side effects accompany this method of treatment.

2. Shock Waves

Another alternative method to surgery is lithotripsy, a technique by which the gallstones are literally pounded into submission by a series of sound waves. According to a 1993 report by the medical journal Lancet, this therapy has great setbacks because it can result in kidney damage and raise blood pressure – risks that have remained unchanged until today. Both these side effects can lead to an increase in the number of gallstones in the liver. (See Disorders of the Circulatory System andDisorders of the Urinary System in Chapter 1 of my book The Amazing Liver & Gallbladder Flush)

In addition, this procedure, in which gallstones are fragmented through shock waves, leaves toxic gallstone residue behind. This residue can quickly become a breeding place for harmful bacteria and parasites and, therefore, infections in the body. Recent studies have confirmed that most patients undergoing this kind of treatment experience internal bleeding, ranging from a small hemorrhage to major blood loss that requires blood transfusion. This treatment also has a high stone-recurrence rate.

3. Surgery

In 1996, some 770,000 Americans had their gallbladder removed through surgical intervention. Since then, the number has steadily increased. A gallbladder operation costs between $8,000 and $10,000 and takes about thirty to forty-five minutes with laproscopy. While open gallbladder surgery—cholecystectomy—is still commonly used for patients with frequent or severe pain, or with a history of acute cholecystitis, laparoscopic cholecystectomy has now become the preferred surgical technique. With traditional surgery, the gallbladder is removed through an open technique requiring a standard skin incision and general anesthesia. During laparoscopic cholecystectomy, also called a “keyhole operation”, the stone-filled gallbladder is literally pulled through a small incision in the abdomen. Sometimes, open cholecystectomy is required if the keyhole operation fails.

With a keyhole operation, patients seem to recover much faster and often leave the hospital and return to regular activity within days. However, since its introduction, this “Band-Aid” approach to treating gallbladder disease has prompted many patients to have a gallbladder operation unnecessarily; that is, to rid them of some persistent symptoms of discomfort.

Apart from having had no effect on the overall mortality rate from gallbladder diseases, laparoscopic surgery does have its risks. As many as 10 percent of patients coming out of surgery have stones remaining in the bile ducts, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health. (Note: The bile ducts referred to here are not liver bile ducts). According to Mayo Health Oasis, other hazards include lost gallstones in the peritoneal cavity, abdominal adhesion, and possibly infective endocarditis. Moreover, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, the procedure can cause hemorrhage, inflammation of the pancreas (a potentially fatal condition), and perforation of the duodenal wall. There may also be injury and obstruction of bile ducts and the leakage of bile into the abdomen, increasing the patient’s chance of suffering a potentially serious infection. About 1 percent of patients are at risk of dying from this kind of operation.

Bile-duct injuries have increased dramatically because of using keyhole surgery. In Ontario, Canada, where 86 percent of all gallbladder operations are performed in this way, the number of bile duct injuries has risen by over 300 percent since this method has become standard practice in the mid 1990s.

In a number of patients, gallstones are caught in the common bile duct (the main bile duct leading to the duodenum). In such cases, the removal of the gallbladder does not alleviate the symptoms of gallstone disease. To help the condition, a flexible tube is placed in the mouth and advanced to the point where the common bile duct enters the duodenum. During the procedure, the opening of the bile duct is enlarged and the stones are moved into the small intestines. Unfortunately, many of the stones may become stuck in the small or large intestine, becoming a source of constant intestinal infection or related problems.

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[This is an excerpt from my book THE AMAZING LIVER & GALLBLADDER FLUSH, available on http://www.ener-chi.com/book.htm]