The Gallbladder is one of those things that a lot of people don't think about until they have an issue that lands them in the ER with excruciating pain and a gallbladder removal surgery. I think it's a great thing to talk about BEFORE it's an emergency situation!
The gallbladder is connected to the liver. The liver actually created something called bile. Bile is essentially a detergent that breaks down or "emulsifies" fat. That means it helps break down and digest fats in food AND break down fatty, waxy substances like hormones that are made from cholesterol. The liver produces this bile and drips it into the gallbladder. The Gallbladder stores and concentrates it. Bile is released as needed. If you eat a higher fat meal or need something fatty broken down, you release the right amount of bile. You get the picture...
But, what happens if bile production slows down? Maybe you don't produce enough or maybe it's more like thick sludge and doesn't work as well as it should. You may start to notice that fatty foods upset your stomach, make you queasy. You may have diarrhea or constipation or alternate between both. You may have pain on your right side above your belly button. If you accumulate cholesterol or calcium based gallstones and one gets stuck, you are off to the emergency room and possibly told your gallbladder needs to come out.
So now you know why the gallbladder a bile are so important. What can you do if you think your might have an issue? If you have insufficient bile or it's thick and sludgy, you can try two things: 1) Drink 32 oz of water on an empty stomach first thing in the morning with a lemon squeezed into it. Easy peazy lemon squeezy :) It truly is helpful 2) You can add a supplement that helps support healthy bile flow and gallbladder function. This can be very helpful. The one I like is called LV-GB and can be found in my my online dispensary It also happens to have a nice bit of liver support so that's a bonus for most people!
What if you don't have a gallbladder? In this case, your liver drips bile continuously into the small intestines. Sometimes that works just fine, but for others, it leads to diarrhea or other unpleasant conditions. It can also make it hard to tolerate fattier foods, even healthy fats. That makes something like a keto diet potentially tough on those without a gallbladder. The LV-GB supplement can be a game-changer in that case. It can provide the missing piece now that the gallbladder is gone.
How in the world does the gallbladder relate to hormone balance? I'm glad you asked... The gallbladder helps break down fatty, waxy substances which includes hormones which are made out of cholesterol. These need to be broken down so they can be metabolized out by the liver. I have seen cases where the gallbladder is missing or not effectively doing it's job and hormone clearance is negatively impacted. Hormones can back up and situations like estrogen dominance can be made worse. In this case, the LV-GB is super helpful because it supports the gallbladder and the liver so you can better break down the fatty hormones and clear them from the liver. Of course, there are diet and lifestyle changes that must happen to optimize this, but the root cause may link back to the gallbladder and/or liver. Most people never saw that coming and would not have been able to resolve the issue fully without addressing those things.
I hope you found this information helpful! You can check out lnk.bio/drjeni for more info. on all my social media channels.
If you would like to chat about a specific health concern, we offer FREE discovery calls where we will listen and see if we can help!
To your health!
Dr. Jeni
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