Orthomolecular Medicine and Gallbladder Disease
Orthomolecular medicine is a type of alternative medicine or complementary medicine that aims to achieve health through the use of nutritional supplementation and diet. According to this system of medicine, gallbladder and liver disease occurs when there are vitamin or mineral deficiencies that weaken tissues or that block certain physiological events that are necessary for optimal health.Vitamin and mineral deficiency diseases occur regularly and often in modern society, but these deficiency diseases are not labeled as such. Rather, a person who has a low-level vitamin C deficiency may experience bleeding gums and be diagnosed with “periodontitis”. They may be given antibiotics and be told that they have an infection in their gums. Though they may indeed have an infection of the gum tissues, the patient may not realize that they can heal the gum tissues simply by taking a high-dose vitamin C supplement.
In reality, the above example is somewhat oversimplified in that, a person with bleeding gums would probably need vitamin C, vitamin K2, and vitamin B17 at the very least to overcome such a problem, but the exact vitamins and minerals that would be necessary to cure periodontitis, according to this system of medicine would vary from culture to culture and even region-to-region within a given area because nutrient deficiencies tend to be localized to specific areas or sometimes to specific cultures with specific diets.
Because the gallbladder and the liver are important organs in the digestive system, their proper functioning affects the entire body. If bile is not produced properly, in sufficient quantities, on cue, a variety of vitamin and mineral deficiencies can result. These deficiencies can cause low-level deficiency diseases. For example, according to Orthomolecular Medicine a person with a gallbladder issue may develop eye problems such as macular degeneration, cataracts, or glaucoma as a result of vitamin A deficiencies that result from an insufficient production of bile and an inability to digest fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin A.
How to Cure Sclerosing Cholangitis
In this section, we’re going to use sclerosing cholangitis as an example of a gallbladder disease that can be treated or even cured in many cases using Orthomolecular Medicine. Primary sclerosing cholangitis is a disease that affects the bile ducts. The bile ducts are tubes that carry bile from the liver to the small intestine. If the bile ducts become clogged for any reason by something like a gallstone or by scar tissues, or if the bile ducts become too narrow, bile and even pancreatic juices can become “backed up” into the liver, gallbladder, or pancreas to cause inflammation and irritation in these organs.Sclerosing cholangitis happens most often in individuals with inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. This isn’t surprising given that many so-called “autoimmune” diseases like psoriasis (which often includes an inflammatory bowel component as well) often involve colonization of the liver/gallbladder or pancreas with bacteria that silently, but stealthily decrease bile production. But orthomolecular medicine would view the colonization of the liver, gallbladder, or pancreas as a situation that occurred due to a vitamin or mineral deficiency. According to this system of medicine, the vitamin or mineral deficiency causes the weakening of tissues, making them vulnerable to infection/colonization.
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A patient who is self-doctoring at home could take a chicken-or-the-egg approach to initiate treatment for a problem like sclerosing cholangitis and start by killing infectious pathogens using a substance like Chlorine Dioxide Solution / Miracle Mineral Solution or Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide 3%. Or the patient could start by taking vitamin supplements like vitamin K2, vitamin B17, and trace minerals (such as a sea water supplement). If you don’t understand all the ins-and-outs of Chlorine Dioxide Solution / Miracle Mineral Solution or Orthomolecular Medicine, you might not see that vitamin B17 performs a similar function in the body to Chlorine Dioxide Solution / Miracle Mineral Solution. It releases a reactive oxygen species that kills opportunistic pathogens. Indeed, vitamin C, when administered via IV in very high doses releases powerful antibiotic hydroxyl ions that kill pathogens too.Chlorine Dioxide Kit - Hydrochloric Acid 4% and Sodium Solution (4 Oz)
Indeed, in Ayurvedic medicine, apricot kernel oil is famous for its ability to fight the aging process probably because it contains high levels of vitamin B17, also known as amygdalin. Ayurvedic medicine makes use of a lot of oils that can be absorbed through the skin including apricot kernel oil although grape seed oil also contains high levels of vitamin B17. Orthomolecular medicine notes that the U.S. has genetically modified grapes to make them seedless, which creates the opportunity for vitamin B17 deficiency diseases such as cancer. You can see, then, that this system of medicine and all systems of medicine have certain connections that establish the credibility of that way of thinking.Essential Oxygen Food Grade Hydrogen Peroxide, Natural Cleaner, 3% USP, White, 16 Ounce
But let’s go back to sclerosing cholangitis from the perspective of orthomolecular medicine. When an soft organ begins hardening, orthomolecular medicine practitioners are likely to think first of a vitamin K2 deficiency. Many people are familiar with vitamin K1, but vitamin K2 was only recently discovered. It works in tandem with vitamin D (including vitamin D2 and D3). Many people today take vitamin D supplements to promote calcium absorption without realizing that vitamin D helps only with the bioavailability of calcium. Once the calcium is absorbed (with the help of vitamin D), it is haphazardly placed into soft tissues like the liver or the gallbladder. Vitamin D without vitamin K2 is very lazy in terms of how it decides to distribute calcium once its absorbed. Vitamin K2 is the vitamin that makes sure that calcium is distributed mostly in the teeth and in the bones. As such, vitamin K2 can help that person with periodontitis rebuild and remineralize their teeth, but it can also help someone with osteoporosis develop strong bones again. Perhaps more importantly though, for the person with sclerosing cholangitis is the fact that vitamin K2 will also remove calcium that has been placed by vitamin D into soft tissue organs like the liver or gallbladder. With regular supplementation of vitamin K2, it takes about 6 weeks to remove half of the calcium deposits in soft tissues to rebuild and remineralize bones and teeth.If your sclerosing cholangitis is caused by a vitamin K2 deficiency which is extremely likely since there are only a few rare cultures in the world today who consume this vitamin in their diets, then you may experience some relief a reversal of sclerosing cholangitis symptoms within a few months after you start taking vitamin K2. This is not to say that vitamin K2 is the magic bullet because if you’re deficient in vitamin K2, then you’re likely deficient in all of the fat-soluble vitamins, so it’s important to realize that there may be several different issues that need to be resolved in order for you to cure sclerosing cholangitis, but let’s talk a little bit more about how nutrients like vitamins and minerals can change the course of a disease like this. Let’s say that you’re deficient in all of the fat soluble vitamins. Maybe you have skin problems (vitamin A deficiency) and dental problems (vitamin K2 and vitamin C deficiencies). You have digestive upsets too and it’s likely that there are many things going wrong with your body all at once. A problem like vitamin K2 deficiency really spirals out of control because if the bile ducts start to harden or “sclerose”, and you no longer are releasing sufficient amounts of bile at every meal, you probably experience a lot of digestive upsets, but you also are not digesting fats. And if you aren’t digesting the fats that you eat, then you aren’t going to be able to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins that the fats contain.
Fat soluble vitamins include:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K1
- Vitamin K2
- Omega Fatty Acids
If you wish to cure sclerosing cholangitis, the best way to support your liver and your gallbladder would be to take ox bile supplements. Take either 125 mg up to 500 mg at every meal. If you have not been producing natural bile in sufficient quantities, you will probably go through a detoxification of the colon. Bile, after all, functions like a soap in the intestines. It cleans out the fats and oils so you may experience bouts of diarrhea when you start taking ox bile as your body starts to re-absorb more of its own natural bile from the enterohepatic circulation.
It’s vital that you take the fat soluble vitamins listed above with a bile supplement if you have insufficient bile levels to make sure that your body breaks down the supplements and then absorbs them.
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Finally, depending on the Orthomolecular Medicine specialist that you talk to, they may recommend one or more supplements that contain trace minerals. I usually recommend that people with gallbladder issues like sclerosing cholangitis put a sea water supplement in every glass of their drinking water. Sea water supplements contain electrolytes, which is another name for trace minerals. These electrolytes are literally essential for liver and gallbladder health because without the proper type and number of electrolytes, the body can’t produce bile. Electrolytes are used to produce electricity (thus the name “electro”-lyte) that the cells use to transport substance across their membrane in order to produce bile. If bile production slows due to a lack of electrolytes or other nutrients, the liver and the gallbladder become weak and extremely vulnerable to colonization by bacteria. Once bacteria invade, they may inhibit bile production even further. Antibiotics that you get from your doctor’s office won’t be able to reach the liver or the gallbladder, but once again, you can use a reactive oxygen species medicine like Chlorine Dioxide Solution / Miracle Mineral Solution to quickly get rid of the infection while supplementing with other appropriate vitamins and minerals.Click here to subscribe to the Living Database!