Flushing Gallstones and Healing Our Pancreas
Our pancreas does a massive amount of work in helping our body break down and absorb nutrients from our diet, so if we don’t give back, it can become overworked and potentially diseased. When it becomes fatigued or diseased our chances of diabetes can increase as well as our capability to digest our foods decrease. There are a few steps we can take if we feel our pancreas is in trouble.
1. Gallbladder flush: our gallbladder was given to us for a reason and my personal opinion is that we should try a flush before we let the medical field surgically remove it because of stones. Though this is not endorsed by the medical field, this is what I would do to get rid of stones: very low-fat diet for 5 days (this will increase your gallbladder’s sensitivity to fat) and should increase the concentration of bile in the gallbladder, which may make the stones smaller during this 5-day period. Consume 2–3 apples a day, (the pectin in apples supposedly softens the stones). After the 5 days, (on the evening of the 5th day) skip dinner and around 6 pm mix 1 teaspoon of Epson salt (magnesium sulphate) in a glass of warm water and then again at 8 pm. These 2 rounds of Epson salt will help dilate and relax the gallbladder ducts. At 10 pm mix a 1/2 glass of olive oil with a 1/2 glass of lemon juice. Since your diet has been so restricted from fat, the gallbladder should be very sensitive to all the olive oil and should put out a lot of bile. Because the Epson salt has dilated and relaxed the gallbladder ducts, the stones should be able to drop out rather easily.
2. Gallstone prevention: clearing our gallbladder from stones helps ensure the shared duct (our pancreas uses to drip enzymes into our digestive tract as our food passes through) stays clear. Consuming lots of water, and a fiber rich diet with plenty of green leafy vegetables, legumes (kidney beans, black beans, soybeans), Atlantic cod, salmon, eggs, milk, peanuts and other foods high in lecithin may keep gallstones from forming, by keeping them in a dissolved state. Eat vitamin C rich foods, (you can also add a vitamin C supplement to your diet).
The above listed foods can assist in turning the cholesterol into bile acid and if we can have a stronger bile acid mixture in our gallbladder (bile storage tank) we can possibly avoid this excess cholesterol from forming lumps (gallstones). It makes sense that if this bile becomes strong enough in our gallbladder it should dissolve stones as well. The addition of wheat bran, wheat germ, spinach and beets are a great food source for Betaine, which helps with bile flow.
3. Foods and herbs that heal the pancreas system:
Mushrooms are shown to help block the MMP gene that has been linked to the development of pancreatic cancer.
Cherries are a rich source of antioxidants and perillyl alcohol a compound proven to help prevent pancreatic cancer.
Garlic, onions, chives, fenugreek, shallots and leeks contain sulfur, arginine, selenium, oligosaccharides and flavonoids that have been shown to prevent pancreatic cancer.
Turmeric is shown to be effective against many cancers, including pancreatic cancer.
Yogurt and other probiotic rich foods help aid the digestive system and should provide some relief to the pancreas. Do not use the yogurt that tastes like sweetened pudding, (use the unsweetened kind). The medical experts at the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrueke recommend the best way to protect your pancreas and lower risk of pancreatic cancer is to consume a diet high in spinach or more specifically leafy green veggies such as kale, spinach, mustard greens, and Swiss chard with elevated levels of B vitamins and iron.
If you’ve had your gallbladder removed, I would highly recommend regularly eating foods rich in choline (such as salmon, eggs, dark chocolate and beef liver) as well as Betaine rich foods (such as wheat germ, wheat bran, beets and spinach). Betaine helps with the natural breakdown of fat; choline helps with the absorption of fat and cholesterol. Keep a bile salt supplement for times you slip up and consume a meal with too much fat or greasy food.
Our pancreas and gallbladder help with digestion and the breaking down of food particles into nutrients that our body can absorb. The health of especially the pancreas is vital for overall health of the body and is a big factor in helping us to sidestep diabetes, after all the pancreas is our body’s natural insulin pump!
Next week’s article will be on what we can do to prevent diabetes, and no longer live diabetic.
