Your Liver, Your Gallbladder

You might be surprised at all of the functions of these somewhat over looked organs of the body. I know I was. Only after discovering I've been suffering gallbladder attacks, pancreatitis and gallstones the last two years did I actually start doing the research on the health of the liver and how important it is to body function. (You only fix something once you know it's broken, haha).

Little did I know that, first of all, gallstones can feel like back pain. For two years I thought Iwas suffering from a bad back from having an epidural during childbirth. I thought it was all chiropractic. I had no idea that the pain of gallstones could feel like your back is going out. You get a band around your chest, it's hard to breath, and you have sharp pain in your upper middle back and chest area. The first time this happened, (a month after my son was born), I thought I might be having a heart attack. Then later I started to think my back was out. Eventually when I went through the whole ordeal of having a gallstone get stuck and being jaundiced and having to go to the emergency room = ultra sound, x ray, blood tests. All confirmed my gallbladder was enflamed, my pancreas was unhappy with me and my liver was having problems functioning. Great! So, it would of been nice had all those times I went to healthcare professionals for this "back problem" that someone might have mentioned to me about gallstones!

Let me clue you in on a few of the very important details I have discovered from my research...

1. The Liver :  "Liver: Biology of the Liver and Gallbladder"

The wedge-shaped liver is the largest—and, in some ways, the most complex—organ in the body. It serves as the body's chemical factory, performing many vital functions, from regulating the levels of chemicals in the body to producing substances that make blood clot (clotting factors) during bleeding.The liver manufactures about half of the body's cholesterol. The rest comes from food. Most of the cholesterol made by the liver is used to make bile, a greenish yellow, thick, sticky fluid that aids in digestion. Cholesterol is also needed to make certain hormones, including estrogen, testosterone Some and the adrenal hormones, and is a vital component of every cell membrane. The liver manufactures other substances, including proteins needed by the body for its functions.

2. The Gallbladder : "Gallbladder and Biliary Tract: Biology of the Liver and Gallbladder"

The gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped, muscular storage sac that holds bile. Bile is a greenish yellow, thick, sticky fluid. It consists of bile salts, electrolytes (dissolved charged particles, such as sodium and bicarbonate), bile pigments, cholesterol, and other fats (lipids). Bile has two main functions: aiding in digestion and eliminating certain waste products (mainly hemoglobin and excess cholesterol) from the body. Bile salts aid in digestion by making cholesterol, fats, and fat-soluble vitamins easier to absorb from the intestine. The main pigment in bile, bilirubin, is a waste product that is formed from hemoglobin (the protein that carries oxygen in the blood) and is excreted in bile. Hemoglobin is released when old or damaged red blood cells are destroyed.

These are the main descriptions of the Liver and Gallbladder functions.

3. Gallstones : "Healthy Liver"

Gallstones are made mainly of cholesterol, bilirubin and calcium salts, with smaller amounts of protein and other materials. In Western Countries essentially all gallstones, whether cholesterol or pigmented, arise in the gallbladder, while in the Orient a significant fraction of pigmented stones originate in the bile ducts. In Western Countries cholesterol is the principal constituent of more than three quarters of gallstones. In the simplest sense, cholesterol gallstones form when the cholesterol concentration in bile exceeds the ability of bile to hold cholesterol in solution. Non-cholesterol stones are categorized as black or brown pigment stones, consisting of calcium salts of bilirubin. In normal individuals only about 1% of the bilirubin in gallbladder bile is unconjugated. When the percentage of unconjugated bilirubin increases so does the risk of developing bilirubin gallstones.

So, let me tell you in my own words some of the other things I've learned recently. The liver plays a huge role in your metabolism and can in fact make it impossible to lose weight if it is unhealhty. Also, sometimes what causes gallbladder problems is stones making it clogged to produce enough bile, therefore producing toxic bile which in turn can cause an infection in your gallbladder. It can also leak bacteria into the rest of your body and produce a perfect breeding ground for parasites. Isn't this awesome news? No, it's actually rather disgusting to think about in my opinion.

For many persons, including children, the biliary tubing is choked with gallstones. Some develop allergies or hives but some have no symptoms. When the gallbladder is scanned or X-rayed nothing is seen. Typically, they are not in the gallbladder. Not only that, most are too small and not calcified, a prerequisite for visibility on an X-ray. There are over half a dozen varieties of gallstones, most of which have cholesterol crystals in them. They can be black, red, white, green or tan colored. The green ones get their color from being coated with bile. Notice in the picture (pg. 545) how many have imbedded unidentified objects. Are they fluke remains? Notice how man are shaped like corks with longitudinal grooves below the tops. We can visualize the blocked bile ducts from such shapes. Other stones are composites made of many smaller ones- showing that they regrouped in the bile ducts some time after the last cleanse.

At the very center of each stone is found a clump of bacteria, according to scientists, suggesting a dead bit of parasite might have started the stone forming.
As the stones grow and become more numerous the back pressure on the liver causes it to make less bile. Imagine the situation if your garden hose had marbles in it.Much less water would flow, which in turn would decrease the ability of the hose to squirt out the marbles. With gallstones, much less cholesterol leaves the body, and cholesterol levels rise.
Gallstones, being porous, can pick up all the bacteria, cysts, viruses and parasites that are passing through the liver. In this way "nests" of infection are formed, forever supplying the body with fresh bacteria. No stomach infection such as ulcers or intestinal bloating can be cured permanently without removing these gallstones from the liver.

The liver also manufactures bile, which is sent to your gall bladder (a sac-like organ attached to the liver). When required, the gall bladder discharges bile into your intestines to help break down fats into more easily used components. Your body cannot metabolize fats well if your liver is not working properly, and this can make weight loss especially difficult. Many people have sluggish livers. Common causes of this problem are excess toxins of any kind (alcohol, drugs, environmental pollutants), general poor nutrition over a long period, and/or a diet high in refined foods and sugar. For example, eating a typical fast food meal once a day plus a few cups of coffee and a drink or two daily will almost surely take its toll on your liver, in time.

All in all, two very important organs taken advantage of! I also recall reading several, several times that even when removed you can still get stones, and they can still get stuck. Because some research has showed that "gallstones" don't really originate from the gallbladder, but the liver itself. So, when removing the gallbladder you will end the gallbladder attacks, but not the underlying problem that was causing the poor liver/gallbladder function to begin with.

*sigh* It all comes down to eating healthy, exercise and prayer!