Some of you might be sick of me going on and on and on about the gallbladder and how important it is to us. It’s an organ that is essential for our health for multiple reasons. But you would be amazed at the amount of people that we see in clinic that have had their gallbladders removed.
What is the dictionary definition of your gallbladder? What is the gallbladder’s function in our bodies? Our gallbladder is the holding vessel for our bile. Yes, our liver produces the bile, but it’s held in our gallbladder. What does bile do in our bodies? Bile in our bodies helps us to digest fats. I also like to talk about it like a magnet. So it’s kind of like a river flowing through our bodies. It magnetizes or pulls out all the toxins and the chemicals so we can then eliminate them via our stools. Because what is our poo health? Basically water, fiber, and all our toxins. So that’s what we are trying to eliminate when we’re pooping. Yes, it’s just the crap in our bodies – literally.
The way we get all that to happen is from the bile. The bile flowing through our bodies is what pulls on all these toxins. So if your gallbladder has been removed how is this happening? It is left to a very very small amount in our liver, but we don’t have this bile on tap to be able to do this. That’s the whole point of the gallbladder – it is storing the bile for when we’re eating fats so it can digest them and pull out the toxins.
Now a lot of you know about the fat soluble vitamins. We talk about these in clinic. They are A, D, E, and K. so if you don’t have bile happening, or if you don’t have a gallbladder, how are you digesting those four essential vitamins? Even if you’re supplementing with them, how are you actually digesting them? You need fats and you need fat digestion because they are fat soluble. So when you have no gallbladder, you still need to be eating fat because our steroid hormones are based on good quality dietary fats. Olive oil is a really good source of fats for us, especially when we don’t have the gallbladder and any of our fish oils are really key at this point in time because we also need to bring down the inflammation and our bodies.
Having no gallbladder is hugely inflammatory in our bodies, because guess what? Now you’ve got this lack of fat digestions and bile dripping into the small intestines.
Guess where our gallbladder is, or where it should be? If you’ve been in clinic and had a Functional Evaluation, you will know this test where we go up and behind your ribs, behind your liver to try and feel where your gallbladder should be. So it is on your right side. Feel to the bottom of your rib cage. Then, if you are to press in and behind, that’s where your gallbladder is. It’s very little, but that’s where it is. So you can now see how important it is. It is a vital in so many ways.
Another thing that our liver has to do every single day is clear excess hormones, especially estrogen. So if we don’t have a gallbladder, how are we clearing these hormones? We are now getting a build up of toxic hormones in our bodies because we’re not able to eliminate them properly.
So often, three to six months after people that have had their gallbladders removed, they end up with huge hormonal imbalances, which then puts more of a stress on their body, which means their hormones are even more out of balance. So I suggest if you’ve had your gallbladder removed, you definitely want to do Dutch hormone testing to really work out what’s happening with your hormones, and really get concrete evidence for where they’re at, because it is crucial.
It is a key part of your healing journey to really stimulate the bile in your body. You can do this with beetroot, lemon, olive oil, and raw carrot. Cucumber is also very useful. The other thing we recommend in clinic (but you want to talk to a practitioner) is you want to be supplementing with ox bile because you need this bile stimulation to be happening in your body. It is 100% crucial and it makes such a difference.
With clients who come into clinic, who have had their gallbladder removed, as soon as we see that on their intake forms, it’s like alarms are going off in my head. I’m thinking, okay, they could be dealing with inflammation, digestive issues, bloating, poor stool health, low energy levels, upset hormones, prostaglandin issues, etc. All of these things will not be working properly. I’m thinking …. How are they digesting their foods? How are they getting the nutrient absorption that their body needs? Once they are facing malabsorption they’re totally drained minerally. We test those people right away and get you straight on an ox bile supplement because it is so crucial for health, wellbeing, energy and lack of inflammation plus your hormonal health. These things are key, and so easy to fix when you have awareness and when you know about it.
The thing that fires me up the most is education equals empowerment, right? You can make different decisions going forward despite the reason your gallbladder has had to be removed. Now you know how to help yourself.
The gallbladder is one of my favorite organs to be perfectly honest. But the hormonal balance, that’s really key. A lot of people aren’t connecting those dots between the gallbladder and the excess estrogens in the body. So there you go.
It is key if you know anyone that doesn’t have a gallbladder, that you talk to them about ox bile at once. Or, if you know that your gallbladder isn’t functioning properly, we’ll heal it before it needs to be removed. Let’s do something about it. There is no waiting for these things. You don’t want to be at the bottom of the cliff. You want to pay attention well before then. If you’re not digesting your fats properly, it’s a cause to be concerned. We definitely want to help you, and get your gallbladder sorted as fast as possible. If you have had your gallbladder removed that is also no problem at all, you just want to supplement with ox bile!! It’s never too late!!