Gallbladder Pain Relief Recipes    For acute symptoms, 3 day fast with the following protocol.

BEET RECIPE -Treatment for Gallbladder Pain

1 large organic beet or beetroot (raw) washed (not peeled unless not organic) and finely grated
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 Tbsps flax oil

(Flax oil is by far the superior choice here as it is an omega 3 essential fatty acid, but if you only have extra-virgin cold-pressed olive oil in the house, you can substitute it temporarily.)

Take one teaspoon of mixture every hour throughout the day.
On day two and three make a fresh batch using ¼ of a large beet.
Take one teaspoon of mixture 3 to 4 times a day or more.

Make this mixture to add to your salads after the three day fast frequently or eat alone as above 2 or 3 times a week. This will keep the bile thin and moving. Note: If you cannot get organic beets, be sure to peel them. Otherwise, use the peel as well.

Lemon Water, in acute symptoms:
Juice of one lemon to 1 cup hot water many times a day for several weeks.

Green Soup Recipe for Relief of Gallbladder Pain
One bunch parsley
3 medium zucchini
½ lb. Green beans
5 stalks celery

Steam together for 8-10 minutes.
Or partially steam and boil in ½ cup water.
If you have a steamer, you retain more nutrients and flavor with that method.
Puré in a blender.

This soup provides relief from all sorts of gastric disturbances such as stomach pain, gas, and indigestion. Do not add any fat or salt to this recipe. It can be used anytime but is particularly useful as a three day fast with nothing else but water. It is both nourishing and easy to digest. You can alter the amounts to taste. More beans add more sweetness.

Flax Seed Tea Recipe in acute phase
Steep 2 Tbsp of organic flax seeds freshly ground in 1 cup of boiling water for 10 minutes. Stir, and sip slowly. Drink two cups a day.

Juice diet in acute phase - Drink 3 pints a day.
Carrot (10oz.), beet (3oz.), cucumber (3oz.)
Carrot (11oz.), beet (3oz.), coconut water (2oz.)
Carrot (10oz.), spinach (6oz.)
Carrot (9oz.), celery (5oz.), parsley (2oz.)

GALLBLADDER DIET, once you are no longer in an acute phase!
HELPFUL FOODS
Beets
Cucumbers
Green beans
Carrot
Spinach
Celery
Parsley
Okra
Sweet potatoes
Vinegars all types
Garlic and onions help with liver cleansing but not processed types like flakes or powder. But some people have trouble digesting them so pay attention.
Shallots
Tomatoes - ripe
cold water fish (Tuna, herring, salmon, mackerel and sardines)
Lemons (lemon juice in the morning with hot water helps to clean the liver)
apples, berries, papaya, pears
Omega 3 oils like flax or hemp. Use these with fresh lemon juice or vinegar on your salads. DO NOT COOK flax oil.

1 tbsp. of bragg apple cider vinegar before each meal.

Limit consumption of raw foods, cooked foods preferred, hot soups blended preferred.

Avoid all fruit juices except organic granny smith apple (self-juiced is best).

AVOID THESE FOODS    
Pork, fowl, oranges, grapefruit, corn, beans, nuts, Trans fats
Hydrogenated, partially-hydrogenated oils
Margarine
Fried Foods
Saturated fats (even coconut oil until feeling better)
Red meats
Dairy products
Eggs (Research showed that eggs caused symptoms in up to 95% of patients.)
Coffee, regular or decaf
Spicy foods
Chocolate
Ice cream
Black tea
Alcohol, beer, wine, liqueur
Fruit juice
Carbonated water
Tap water
Turnips
Cabbage, cauliflower
Colas and all sodas
Oats (for some people)
Gluten -Wheat, Barley, Rye, Spelt, Kamut and any gluten-containing grains
Avoid all artificial sweeteners, sugar, preservatives, refined and bleached foods (like white flour)
Avoid smoking if possible as it can exacerbate the symptoms.
 
Your goal should get to the point where these foods do not cause distress, as they actually target the root of the problem.

DO NOT OVEREAT
DO NOT EAT UNDER STRESS
EAT ONLY FRESH ORGANIC FOODS
DO NOT EAT PACKAGED FOODS
INCLUDE A 30 MINUTE EXERCISE PROGRAM DAILY

You likely don’t get up each day and give your gallbladder much thought, right? Maybe your heart, digestive system, and even your joints and your muscles, but your gallbladder? Eh, not so much. That is, unless it starts to give you trouble. Then, it’s likely all you think about. But we should all know how to take care of our gallbladder, since it’s important for our overall health and can greatly be affected by how well we take care of ourselves.

First though, what does the gallbladder do and where is located?

Gallbladder 101
Not to be confused with your actual bladder, the gallbladder sits right under your liver.Shaped like a tiny pear, the gallbladder stores bile that’s produced by your liver during digestion. Before you sit down and eat each delicious meal or snack, your gallbladder is full of bile. After you eat, it stores bile from the fat you eat, and starts to fill up until it’s full. As digestion and elimination hum along as normal, the gallbladder releases the stored bile into your small intestine where it enters into ducts (tubes). As it does, the bile helps digest the fats you eat. Though people can have their gallbladder removed and be fine, some people who have it removed may find they have issues with diarrhea and malabsorption. The take-away: Your gallbladder is there for a reason, so take care of it however possible.

Symptoms to Look Out For
If a person’s gallbladder isn’t functioning normally, it’s likely due to inflammation in the gallbladder, trouble digesting high amounts of fat, or could be because a duct in the small intestine that has become clogged. If a duct is clogged, this causes a back-up of bile, the condition known as gallstones. Gallstones can cause immense pain after a high fat meal because the bile storage and release process isn’t functioning as it should. Symptoms of gallstones include extreme pain after eating, nausea, vomiting, pain for days right under your ribs, and poor digestion after meals. You can have tests done at your trusted health professional’s office to see if you have gallstones. If so, you’ll have to have removed and will need to watch your diet carefully by eating a low-fat diet. If you don’t test positive for gallstones or another disorder related to your gallbladder, you may just be eating too many high-fat or inflammatory foods. If this is the case, switching up your diet is easy to do.

Foods to Eat for Your Gallbladder
Generally, not all fats are bad, so don’t get the impression you need to eat a fat-free diet. However, maintaining a healthy weight is key to taking care of your gallbladder since obesity increases your risk for gallbladder disease. The key is to choose smaller amounts of fat at each meal and eat a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes (if you tolerate them), and modest amounts of nuts, seeds, avocados, coconuts and olives (no more than 2 tablespoons per meal, but for some it may be less). Avoid oils which are more refined than the whole foods they come from and are very hard on your gallbladder, especially when eaten in excess.

Also focus on adding fiber to your meals since a low-fiber diet is often associated with gallstones or gallbladder problems.

Here are some high-fiber foods to choose:

• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Leafy Greens
• Herbs
• Celery
• Carrots
• Sweet Potatoes
• Artichokes
• Onions
• Asparagus
• Apples
• Oranges
• Bananas
• Berries
• Zucchini
• Pineapple
• Papaya
• Cherries
• Whole Grains
• Beans
• Legumes

Foods to Avoid
Foods to avoid include animal fats, which lead to high cholesterol and are very hard on the body to digest, fried foods, processed foods, and oils. This will also help you naturally manage your weight, heart, and overall health much easier. Many researchers believe that gallbladder problems stem from the Western diet that is high in animal fats and processed, refined carbohydrates (which can also lead to obesity and gallbladder problems). You can follow our healthy, low-fat vegan meal plan if you’re unsure of what to eat to naturally set you up for success.

So, as with most health tips, when it comes to taking care of your gallbladder, healthy, whole foods from plants win again. Thank goodness, because we love them!


Reference: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/natural-health/foods-to-eat-and-to-avoid-to-take-care-of-your-gallbladder/


For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Marijuana, Apathy and Chinese Medicine, Part 1By Leon I. Hammer, MD

This article was written in response to the unheeded acceptance of marijuana as a harmless substance that potentially does good when used for the medical relief of pain. I wish to register my experience with marijuana over these years, as a substance extremely functionally, if subtly, destructive to people.

At the same time I wish to make it clear that I oppose the "war on drugs" as a counterproductive, misguided predictable failure, as if we did not learn anything from the cultural experience with the attempt to control alcohol with prohibition.

The Individual
I have been a physician for sixty-one years, during which time I directed many drug-abuse councils and worked with thousands of addicted young people as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. With more than fifty years of experience with marijuana as a clinician and as an observer in social settings, I feel that it is important to share my experience of marijuana as a substance of substantial danger to both individuals and to society.

Marijuana allows people to make extensive and sometimes unrealistic, even grandiose plans for their life, and robs them of the ability to realize these plans. They are left often with a life sometimes filled with excellent designs and without the will or energy to execute, to make decisions and follow through.

Among so many people, clients, friends and acquaintances, I have seen lives lived in fantasy and futility in many degrees of severity with endless energy depleting maneuvers to hide their failure from others and themselves. Somewhere deep inside each loss is registered if not faced. However, marijuana is the feel-good substance that is even more dangerous because it deadens the pain that would signal danger and engender change.

On inquiry, the reason given is fear; fear of the emotions that would otherwise lead them to encounter struggle. Fear of their own anger and that of others; fear of failure to cope with stress and the consequent loss of self-esteem and a deep need to avoid battle and disapproval were most often cited.

Western medical studies are long since quoted saying that marijuana is physiologically harmless. Of course, people vary in their ability detoxify it. One problem stated in the literature is that it has been difficult to obtain enough marijuana of uniform strength and quality to conduct large-scale research.

Marijuana, according to Chinese herbal medicine is what is known as a "cold" herb, draining the essential energy called yang primarily from the Liver, rendering the Liver relatively unable to perform its functions of moving physical and mental energy and containing it for when it is needed. The result is that while there is no problem making plans, when it is time to move on these plans, there is no coherent energy to do it.

Liver Physiology-Pathology And Marijuana
In the recent literature from the East, nor in either the Nei Jing or Nan Jing, have I found any reference to conditions that I find constantly increasing since first learning about it from Dr. John Shen OMD, more than thirty years ago. The conditions are Liver Qi deficiency, Liver Yang deficiency and the Separation of Liver Yin and Yang.

Liver Qi and Yang deficiency was associated by Dr. Shen with overwork (beyond one's energy over a lifetime) and found from late middle to old age. The principal consequence was easy fatigue and less stamina in performing daily tasks. The concept of "beyond one's energy" means simply that we are not all created equal, and that work that might deplete one person might have little effect on another. Constitution essence and body condition along with the stress were the determining factors.

What I am about to describe differs from Dr. Shen's observations in that it presents with a greater degree of deficiency on the pulse. Besides fatigue, there is lassitude, lethargy and procrastination always associated with varying degrees of a clear inability to follow through and move forward on plans and decisions about which there is endless discussion and little or no action. The consequence is that ideas rarely become reality. The most serious long-term outcome described by Dr. Shen is the development of a lymphoma of the Liver.

I wish to make it clear early in this discussion that as stated already, we are not all created equal. Some people with very strong Livers will tolerate much more abuse than others with less substantial Liver function. There will be many who can honestly say that they have used and abused the cold substances with no obvious consequence.

On the other hand, there was the teen daughter of a friend to whose side I was called in the middle of the night in a psychotic state because she had for the first time had one puff of marijuana. She was brought home early from a party by friends, disoriented, irrational and severely agitated. Her friends reported her to have taken one puff from a joint that was being passed around. It was necessary to hospitalize her for a few days when she recovered and fortunately did not resume smoking marijuana, going on to a successful life. While psychosis in my experience is the exception, I have witnessed it more than this once.

Liver Qi deficiency is identified on the Shen-Hammer pulse at the left middle position by increasing degrees of deficiency by a yielding and diminished qi depth, spreading (absent qi depth and separating blood depth), by a reduced substance and pounding, and a diffuse quality especially at the blood and organ depth.

Liver Yang deficiency is described as the entire left middle position being feeble-absent, deep and/or beginning to separate at the organ depth (empty quality). Separation of Yin and Yang of the Liver is found in various stages with middle finger pressure on the radial artery, first with separating at the organ depth and later at the blood depth until there is a complete disappearance of the blood and organ depths and retention only of the qi depth (the empty quality). An even more serious pulse sign that indicates the separation of Yin and Yang or empty quality, is changing qualities at the left middle position.

Years before I studied Chinese medicine or met Dr. Shen, I had observed the phenomena of easy fatigue, inability to recover energy and an inability to follow through on plans with hundreds of young college students who I encountered in the late 1960s and early 1970s in my capacity as a psychiatric consultant to a student health clinic in a local college. During the 1970s, I also observed this in friends and acquaintances. They all had one common lifestyle, though some were obviously more vulnerable; they all smoked marijuana fairly constantly.

When I began to teach the pulse in 1983, I used the student's pulses to demonstrate positions, depths and qualities. I found an alarming number of them to have an empty quality at the left middle position. It was incumbent upon me to share the interpretation with the class and soon found that rather than wanting to hide this widespread use of marijuana and LSD, the cold substances that were draining their Liver Qi, the participants were eager to share their stories. The pulse workshops were becoming group therapy sessions and the story from mostly health professionals was that they had turned to Chinese medicine in the hope of recovering their health. I began to use subjects referred by the practitioners for demonstration rather than the practitioners themselves. Gradually I realized that substances such as LSD and heroin were equally cold Qi-Yang draining substances leading to the same symptoms and pulse picture.

During the time that Dr. Shen and I worked together he was unaware of the effect of substances of abuse as an etiology of Liver Qi-Yang deficiency and separation of Liver Yin and Yang. In my practice, it was increasingly clear that this was becoming the major cause of the pulse findings described above.

The Liver has two functions with regard to qi. The Liver moves the qi (metabolic heat) for the entire organism and Liver qi contains the qi in the form of repressed emotions in order for a society to follow the Ten Commandments, especially though shall not kill. Think of how often that would happen, or even lesser violence, if the Liver did not provide us with the ability to stagnate, actually contain, our emotions. Liver qi stagnation has gotten a bum wrap and is blamed by students and practitioners for almost every pathology in my experience as a teacher of Chinese medicine; this, along with a misunderstanding of Liver Qi rising. It must be kept in mind that the Liver is the detoxifying organ whose deficiency will greatly exacerbate the effect of any toxic substance.

However, it is the function of the Liver to move rather than contain that concerns us here. That ability is necessary for us to mobilize the energy and put into motion the potential will contained within the Kidney. It is this function, to move from the idea to the act that is impaired when Liver qi is disabled by anything that will reduce Liver Qi-Yang. This is evidenced by pulse after pulse and patient after patient presentation, by the cold substances that rob the Liver of Qi-Yang, and the ability to act, as with the patient presented above.

Therapy
The two most important individual herbs to recovery of Liver Qi-Yang deficiency and separation of liver yin and yang are Astragalus (Huang Qi) and Salvia (Dan Shen). Other herbs in the formula would depend upon that individual's other conditions. The most commonly used formulas are an altered Ginseng and Longan (Gui Pi Tang) and Ginseng and Astragalus (Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang). The latter tends to be too stimulating but is somewhat ameliorated adding the linking decoction (Yi Guan Jian).

Research En Toto
Marijuana and executive function: A broader spectrum of cognitive functions designated as executive functions were investigated (attention, concentration, decision-making, impulsivity, self-control of responses, reaction time, risk taking, verbal fluency and working memory) all were impaired acutely in a dose-dependent manner. The authors concluded that some elements of executive function usually recover completely after stopping marijuana use, but deficits most likely to persist for long periods of time are decision-making, concept formation and planning, especially in heavy users who started using at an early age (Crean et al., J. Addict. Med., 5: 1-8. 2011).

Adverse health effects of marijuana in evidence-based review of acute and long-term effects of cannabis use on executive cognitive functions, there is generally good agreement between the conclusions based on these studies and the clinical impressions based on population studies (Hall W. and Degenhardt L. Adverse health effects of non-medical cannabis use. Lancet, 374: 1383-1391, 2009).

Marijuana and brain function: Cannabis produced dose-related impairments of immediate and delayed recall of information presented while under the influence of the drug. Learning, consolidation and retrieval of memory were all affected (Ranganathan M and and D'Souza DC. The acute effects of cannabinoids on memory in humans: a review. Psychopharmacology, 188: 425-444, 2006).

Marijuana and cognition: Here it is mentioned for chronic users, "by subtle cognitive impairment in those who are daily users for 10 years or more by (Hall W. and Degenhardt L." in Lancet as cited below with a high incidence of psychosis with a family history or personal history of psychosis.

Marijuana and anxiety: There is a strong pattern of cannabis relieving anxiety at low doses and promoting anxiety at higher doses. (Viveros et al., 2005; Moreira and Lutz, 2008; Akirav, 2011). Daily cannabis use was associated with anxiety disorder at 29 years (adjusted OR 2.5), as was cannabis dependence (adjusted OR 2.2). Among weekly+ adolescent cannabis users, those who continued to use cannabis use at 29 years remained at significantly increased odds of anxiety disorder (adjusted OR 3.2), (Degenhardt et al, The persistence of the association between adolescent cannabis use and common mental disorders into young adulthood. Addiction. 2012 Jul 6. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2012.04015.x. PubMed PMID: 22775447.)

Marijuana and depression: High doses of cannabis in humans appear to increase the risk of depression, especially in the young (Ashton CH and Moore PB. Endocannabinoid system dysfunction in mood and related disorders. Acta Psychiatr. Scand., 124: 250-261, 2011).

Higher mortality: In more recent research, marijuana use disorder is associated with higher mortality. A massive study was undertaken to understand the mortality rate of methamphetamine users, in relation to other drug users. Methods: Excluded for space considerations.

Results: Those treated for addiction to cannabis (marijuana) had a higher mortality rate (3.85 times higher than controls), higher if compared to death rate risk of cocaine use disorder (2.96), alcohol use disorder (3.83), but lower than opioid use disorder (5.71) or methamphetamine use disorder (4.67).

The study demonstrates that individuals with cannabis (marijuana) use disorders have a higher mortality risk than those with diagnoses related to cocaine or alcohol, but lower mortality risk than persons with methamphetamine or opioid-related disorders.

Given the lack of long-term cohort studies of mortality risk among individuals with methamphetamine-related disorders, as well as among those with cocaine- or cannabis-related conditions, the current study provides important information for the assessment of the comparative drug-related burden associated with use and addiction. (Callaghan et al., All-cause mortality among individuals with disorders related to the use of methamphetamine: A comparative cohort study. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2012 Oct 1;125(3):290-4).

Dr. Leon I. Hammer is clinical director at Dragon Rises College of Oriental Medicine in Gainesville, Fla. He may be contacted at www.dragonrises.edu.


Reference: http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=33026


For educational purposes only. This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.