What are they?
Bile is a fluid produced by the liver and stored in the gall-bladder ready to be squirted into the duodenum (the first part of the intestine) to aid the digestion of fats. After a meal, unused bile is stored in the gall-bladder for some time.
Gall-stones arise when the cholesterol in bile starts to crystallize out. The stones slowly increase in size until eventually they are so large that they can’t escape with the bile into the intestine. They then start to cause infections in the gall-bladder and other symptoms. Most gall-stones are made of cholesterol.
Gall-stones appear to be a disease of western culture and are seen only rarely in traditional-living peoples around the world.
What causes them?
We still don’t know the exact answer to this question but modern research is getting very close to the heart of the matter.
Under normal circumstances nature’s own bile acid, chenodeoxycholic acid, dissolves any stones formed in this way, and synthetic versions of this natural chemical are now used to dissolve gall-stones. Clearly the answer should be to try to raise the level of this normal protective substance. This can be done by eating fewer fats and refined carbohydrates and by increasing the amount of fibre and complex carbohydrates. According to one study, people eating like this and taking chenodeoxycholic acid dissolved their gall-stones in a third of the time taken by a group using the drug alone.
Interestingly, gall-stones are often associated with certain other diseases, especially hiatus hernia and diverticular disease. Obesity is the factor common to all three diseases and obesity is also linked to diabetes and high blood-fat levels. The link between all of these conditions is the overconsumption of refined foods and fats, leading to a surplus of energy.
It is said that gall-stones are commonest in women who are fat, fertile, flatulent, fair and forty, but they can occur in anyone of any age and are increasingly common in children.
Wild animals very rarely have gall-stones but they can be induced to do so if they are fed artificial diets such as we eat in the West. A lack of dietary fibre seems to be especially potent in this respect.
Prevention
• Eat fewer refined foods, less fat, and more dietary fibre. Eat less sugar. A study in Italy comparing 160 gall-stone patients with a group of healthy subjects found that the stone patients ate much less fruit and vegetable fibre and significantly more sugar and refined foods generally. Eating sensibly will tend to reduce your weight which is the best preventive against gall-stones. Even being 20 per cent overweight doubles your chances of having gall-stones. Don’t worry about reducing your cholesterol intake, though, as there is no real evidence that it matters. The important point here is to eat more dietary fibre as this provably reduces the amount of cholesterol in bile and puts out more in the stools. A recent study of French women who skipped breakfast, having only a cup of coffee, found that they had a much greater risk of gall-stones than would be expected.
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