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I had never heard of cleansing one's gall bladder before. Apparently there's a method with some rather pronounced effects on the, um, stool. However, we don't really know the stuff coming out is crud from the gall bladder. It could be some kind of wild chemical reaction between the olive oil, beets, and lemon acid. Heck, for all we know it's from the medulla oblongata.

Since it seems we have more than a few gall bladder-less among our number, and since self-experimentation is all but a tenet of the paleo way, would any of you gall-less folks like to try a cleanse and report back whether you get the green & white stuff?

If you do while not having a gall bladder, then clearly something else is going on. Of course, if you don't, well -- absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but it would still be interesting results.

I'm so fascinated by this I'm even ready to offer a 100 point bounty. I just need to think of a way to confirm the results (suggestions welcomed). I don't want to pay-out to someone pulling my leg. Yes... the gall of some people.

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 Hmm, not sure if this would be a good idea if you don't have a gall bladder as it would be harder to deal with that level of fat intake without one. From a scientific perspective, I'm curious, but from a health perspective, it's not something I would play around with unless I had a pressing need. – Eva Dec 12 2010 at 5:30
I tried a cleanse twice when I still had my GB. Not much fun. Sorry but not interested in trying it again. PS: I think I must be one of those lucky ones who can eat prodigious amounts of fat with no problems. As an experiment I consumed over 3500 calories of cream and butter and coconut oil in one day with no ill effects. PPS: I'm sure it's not from the medulla oblongata. – Alan Dec 12 2010 at 8:55
Not sure what you mean by "deal with." The fat is in your intestines. Either it gets absorbed or it passes through. Bile helps emulsify the fats so they can be better digested. Sans gall bladder just means there's going to be less bile, therefore less emulsion, therefore more passing through. Well as the whole point of the cleanse is to overload the gall bladder's ability to supply bile, I think all it means is someone without a gall bladder can probably get by with consuming less for the same effect. – PortlandAllan Dec 13 2010 at 3:31
As regards bounty, it occurred to me if someone you tubes drinking an unopened bottle of olive oil and sucking a lime, that would be pretty good evidence. I'll take their word for whatever the effects are. Don't need video of that part of the experiment thank you very much. :-) I'm ready to bounty up 400 points if there would be any takers. – PortlandAllan Dec 13 2010 at 3:36

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Not quite the same, but another interesting experiment would be for a regular person to take a 1/2 pint of olive oil without any accompanying lemon juice and note whether any gall stones are expelled.

I'm rather convinced a 1/2 pint of oil will get the gall bladder to purge every last drop of bile it may have. What I'm not sure about is whether that means the "stones" being eliminated are really gall stones, or what the function of the lemon juice is.

My current best guess is that the lemon juice is to help pass the oil through the stomach. Perhaps keeping the stomach pH acidic moves the oil to the intestines faster. Thoughts?

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I tend to agree with the one guy who said that the apparent 'stones' that are excreted are likely caused by saponification of the oil via the acid, thus causing little stones of soap to be excreted. However, extreme intake of oil and digestive distress could potentially also cause the gallbladder to work overtime trying deal with all that fat. I would imagine the gallbladder would be doing everything it could to pound out the bile in such situations. So it would not be beyond the realm of reason to suspect that this method might still help some people clean out their gallbladders. There does seem to be a lot of people who claimed they felt better. Plus it often occurs that people feel gall bladder pain or pain in the area of the gallbladder, even though no stones show on xray. So there are often probs there that are not well understood. Certainly, it is known that gall stones can both form and disintigrate with no direct doctor's intervention. The problem lies in the environment in your body. Perhaps for some people, this treatment could MAYBE alter the environment within the gallbladder or the area of the gallbladder enough to be therapeutic for some individuals.

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 Actually saponification requires a base, such as lye. I'm inclined to think the citrus acid is either superstition (many old wives tales are 1/2 truth, 1/2 superstition) or the acid acts on the bile somehow once the slug of olive oil has induced the gall bladder to purge itself. – PortlandAllan Dec 11 2010 at 19:57
Of course if a gall bladder-less person were able to eliminate "stones", then that would definitely suggest this home-remedy is doing some chemistry to make the "stones" rather than pulling them from the gall bladder. Also, this is not to say the slug of oil isn't a good work-out for an inflamed gall bladder, because yes, a lot of people are experiencing a lot of relief from the method. – PortlandAllan Dec 11 2010 at 20:05
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Allan, I had my gall bladder removed after my second attack. Between the first attack and the second I attempted to 1. clean up my diet ->FAIL and 2. a couple "cleansing" methods -->FAIL. After the removal I haven't had any issues. My diet sucked and I was not paleo at the time of either attack.

The cleansing involved olive oil and lemon and resulted in an interesting amount of "stuff". I would not do it again. Do you know anyone personally who has done this with success? All of the testimonials I saw were on the internet...looking back I feel foolish. But I was looking for some alternative to surgery.

good luck, bob

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