fat and gallbladder WAS More lard in my diet (long)

[Guest guest]

, a little education eased my mind on what " all that fat does

to the liver " and gall bladder. Fat is actually yes, digestible, and

less likely to " cause gallbladder problems " than carbs.

Here is a good layman's article by Dr. Eades:

http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/uncategorized/carbohydrates-and-

gallstones/

And an excerpt for you (warning, long):

" Before we get to the article, let me give a brief review of gall

stone disease.

The job of the digestive tract is to break down the food we eat and

prepare it for absorption, then to carry out the absorption. Fat

entering the small intestine is mixed with bile acids -made in the

liver-that emulsify the fat, making it better able to be further

broken down with lipases, enzymes that break it apart into its

component fatty acids. The bile acids-fatty acid emulsified combo

forms into micelles, molecules that allow the fat to be absorbed into

the cells lining the small intestine. The bile acids then break off

and recirculate back to the liver.

The liver produces bile, which is composed of bile acids,

cholesterol, and a few other substances. This bile travels from the

liver to the gall bladder-a little sack tucked beneath the liver-

through a small tube called the hepatic duct. The gall bladder stores

the bile and waits for a fatty meal to enter the small intestine.

When the fatty meal arrives, the gall bladder squeezes the bile out

through the bile duct (another small tube) that joins with the

hepatic duct to form the common duct and empties into the upper end

of the small intestine. So when the fatty meal arrives, the gall

bladder douses it with the bile it has been storing for just this

occasion. The bile then mixes with the fat and breaks it down for

absorption as described above.

If very few fatty meals come down the tract-for example, if the owner

of the GI tract is following the Ornish or other low-fat diet-the

bile sits around in the gall bladder, unsquirted. The liver continues

to make bile, but slows down a little in its production. The

cholesterol component of the bile tends to become more concentrated

with time and can ultimately become supersaturated and precipitate as

a small cholesterol gallstone (cholesterol accounts for 80-90% of

gallstones). If the stone stays in the gall bladder, it typically

doesn't pose a problem. The problem arises when the stone makes its

way into and occludes the bile duct, or, even worse, if it travels

further and blocks the common duct. In either case, terrible, colicky

pain ensues ending up with a trip to the surgeon.

If one eats fatty foods often, then the gall bladder constantly

empties itself and generally stays free from gall stones. If a one

doesn't eat much fat because one is following a low-fat diet or one

is on one of the modified fasting programs (Optifast, Medifast,

etc.), then one's gall bladder doesn't empty and the bile sits around

supersaturating. Then if one blows it out, so to speak, on a big

steak dinner, or a giant cheeseburger, or any kind of fatty meal, the

gall bladder squeezes this sludgy gunk that may contain a few small

stones into the bile duct, and, bingo!, one has a serious problem all

of a sudden. One of the big problems people have with the fasting

programs and with low-fat diets is a high incidence of gall bladder

disease. We did a large maintenance study a few years ago in our

clinic for the weight-loss drug Orlistat (now Xenical) during which

we had to put patients on a low-fat weight-loss diet for six months,

then they were randomized onto on of a number of doses of Orlistat or

placebo. Before they started the six month low-fat diet, the subjects

all underwent a gall bladder ultrasound looking for stones. Anyone

found with stones couldn't participate in the study. Those without

stones started the diet and had another ultrasound at the end of the

six months on the low-fat diet, but before starting the medication. I

can't remember how exactly many patients developed gall stones during

that six month period without going back through the data, which is

stored 1000 miles away right now, but I do remember that it was a

considerable number, something like 10-20% it seems.

Interestingly, I just pulled out my most recent Internal Medicine

textbook, the 2004 edition of Lange's Current Medical Diagnosis and

Treatment, to see if it listed any kind of frequency of gallstones as

a function of diet (it didn't) and found the following sentence in

the section on gallstone disease:

A low-carbohydrate diet and physical activity may help prevent

gallstones, and consumption of caffeinated coffee appears to protect

against gallstones in women.

I'm surprised they were so enlightened; I'll bet the part about low-

carb diets didn't appear in the 1994 edition. "

> Have you thought of what all that fat does to the liver and

gallbladder?

[Guest guest]

> > Have you thought of what all that fat does to the liver and

> gallbladder?

Dr. Eades offers the long-winded answer. My answer was gonna be, " Ya, I know,

its gonna clean it out! "

Recently, my acupuncturist suggested I do a liver and gall bladder cleanse by

drinking olive oil with lemon juice in the morning, and just lemon juice in the

evening. I've had an ultra-sound and am certain that I don't have gall stones.

It worked well.

Kathy