I'm trying a different dietary approach

[Guest guest]

This is a first time post for me. I have been reading the back messages from

the past couple of months and I think I have gotten a general feel for what is

recommended here.

PAYING MY DUES TO ENTER THIS GROUP:

After about 10 GB attacks (1-2X a month) I was hospitalized in August of

2003 with severe gallstone pancreatitis (Ashcroft disease, yipes!). I

successfully avoided any and all invasive surgical procedures but was

hospitalized for 11 days, could have died, and racked up an enormous

medical bill. To get released I agreed to come back for the big surgical " cure " ,

knowing then I would never do this except as a last resort.

Since release from the hospital I have had another 8-10 attacks (no hospital

trips) and quite a bit of pain, but I am learning more with each subsequent

attack. HAD I KNOWN A YEAR AGO WHAT IS IN THIS MESSAGE BOARD

(and followed it!), I would have never had to be taken to the hospital and I

wouldn't be in debt! Every attack teaches me something. I learn slowly and

only by pain, it seems.

The latest 3 attacks were last week and I did successful intervention with

fasting, epsom salts, castor packs, rescue remedy, enzymes, and stress

management. In the process I passed several hundred stones after one of

the midnight attacks. This was the FIRST concrete evidence I've seen that I

am making forward progress. Ever since being released, I have been afraid

of doing a real cleansing flush since the ultrasounds had shown about a

dozen 2 cm stones (the sticking size). So I decided to stick with the

DISSOLVING plan with diet, exercise, weight loss, stress-management, malic

acid, apple juice, enzymes, hydrangia and several other herbs.

DIET CHANGE:

Where I differ from what all the others are doing and/or recommending on

this discussion group is that I am EATING LOTS OF HEALTHY FAT. Let me

explain. I had been on a low-fat diet for almost 30 years and a vegetarian

most of that time. However, in the 2-3 years prior to the big melt-down my

diet was corrupted by increased stress, too much cheap greasy food, and too

much food in general (a dark era in my life, alas). I had actually gotten a bit

too heavy which is not by body type at all. (The hospital trip took care of that

30 extra pounds). A really bad knee injury had also curtailed all good

exercise. I made a whole LAUNDRY LIST of reasons I got sick in the clear

light of coming out of the hospital. Lots of sweaty midnight promises to the

gods followed.

Coincidentally, I had become convinced by a year or so of studying the work

from the people associated with the Weston A. Price Foundation

(www.westonaprice.com) and other like-minded scientists who maintain that

low fat diets, and especially high simple carb diets, can actually help CAUSE

the syndrome (along with stress, low water intake, sedentary life, obesity,

predispositions, et.al). This dietary approach also maintains that ONLY by

eating a " normal " fatty diet can one have a lifetime of normal bile flow and

regular bile flushing. Additionally, people living on the diet that is the

" standard " recommendation for GB patients, i.e. a restricted, bland diet, will

have the inevitable binges or slips and thus make themselves prone to a

nasty flare up. It's also not the real joyous life that we all need, crave and

perhaps deserve.

I had only just begun moving towards their total plan when I got the

obstruction unfortunately. Nor had I done any flushing or cleansing (I didn't

know I was loaded with stones, I was told I had the gerd syndrome). In

retrospect, I don't think the natural diet was causal of my obstruction, but my

several-year-long stress filled, sedentary, french-fry-eating type of lifestyle

caused the chronic damage and maybe even the subsequent crisis.

MY QUESTION....

So, after all this, I am wondering if anyone else here is exploring the basic

work of flushing, cleansing and healing the liver/gall bladder ----IN ADDITION

TO---- changing their dietary standards by slowly getting back to eating this

full, NATURAL, rich. " old-fashioned " 1900-era farmer diet? Am I all alone in

this pursuit?

Will in Minneapolis