Originally published May 2 2008
Bile Duct Congestion Can Lead to Intestinal Diseases and Liver Disorders
by Andreas Moritz
(NaturalNews) The small intestine is continuous with the stomach at the pyloric sphincter and has a length of 16–19 feet. It leads into the large intestine, which is about 3.5–5 feet long. The small intestine secretes intestinal juice to complete the digestion of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. It also absorbs nutrient materials necessary for nourishing and maintaining the body and protects it against infection by microbes that have survived the antimicrobial action of hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
Intestinal Diseases
When acid food (chyme) from the stomach enters the duodenum, it combines first with bile and pancreatic juice, and then with intestinal juice. Gallstones in the liver and gallbladder drastically reduce the secretion of bile, which weakens the ability of pancreatic enzymes to digest carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. This, in turn, prevents the small intestine from properly absorbing the nutrient components of these foods (such as monosaccharides from carbohydrates, amino acids from protein, and fatty acids and glycerol from fats). This incomplete absorption can lead to undernourishment and food cravings.
Since the presence of bile in the intestines is essential for the absorption of life-essential fats, calcium, and vitamin K, gallstones can lead to life-threatening diseases, such as heart disease, osteoporosis, and cancer. The liver uses the fat-soluble vitamin K to produce the compounds responsible for the clotting of blood. In case of poor vitamin K absorption, hemorrhagic disease may result. The body cannot fully absorb this vitamin when a problem with the digestion of fat exists. The main cause of inadequate vitamin K absorption is an insufficient supply of bile, pancreatic lipase, and pancreatic fat. It stands to reason that following a low-fat or no-fat diet can actually endanger your life.
Calcium is essential for the hardening of bone and teeth, the coagulation of blood, and the mechanism of muscle contraction. Poor bile secretion can, therefore, undermine the uptake of calcium, a mineral the body requires for some of its most vital activities.
What applies to vitamin K also applies to all other fat-soluble vitamins, including vitamins A, E, and D. The small intestine can only absorb vitamin A and carotene sufficiently if fat absorption is normal. If vitamin A absorption is insufficient, the epithelial cells become damaged. These cells form an essential part of all the organs, blood vessels, lymph vessels, and so on in the body. Vitamin A is also necessary to maintain healthy eyes and protect against or reduce microbial infection. Vitamin D is essential for calcification of bones and teeth. It is of great importance to realize that supplementing these vitamins does not resolve the problem of deficiency.
To sum it up, without normal bile secretions, the body cannot digest and absorb enough of these vitamins, which, in turn, can cause considerable damage to the circulatory, lymphatic, and urinary systems.
Inadequately digested foods tend to ferment and putrefy in the small and large intestines. They attract a vast number of bacteria to help speed up the process of decomposition. The breakdown products are often very toxic, and so are the excretions produced by the bacteria. All of this strongly irritates the mucus lining, which is one of the body's foremost defense lines against disease-causing agents. Regular exposure to these toxins impairs the body's immune system, 60 percent of which is located in the intestines. Overburdened by a constant invasion of toxins, the small and large intestines may be afflicted with a number of disorders, including diarrhea, constipation, abdominal gas, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticular disease, hernias, polyps, dysentery, appendicitis, volvulus, and intussusceptions, as well as both benign and malignant tumors.
Ample bile flow maintains good digestion and absorption of food and has a strong cleansing action throughout the intestinal tract. Every part of the body depends on the basic nutrients made available through the digestive system, as well as the efficient removal of waste products from that system. Gallstones in the liver and gallbladder considerably disrupt both these vital processes. Therefore, they can be held accountable for most, if not all, of the different kinds of ailments that can afflict the body. Removal of gallstones from these two organs helps to normalize the digestive and eliminative functions, improve cell metabolism, and maintain balance throughout the body.
Diseases of the Liver
The liver is the largest gland in the body. It weighs up to three pounds, is suspended behind the ribs on the upper right side of the abdomen, and spans almost the entire width of the body. Being responsible for hundreds of different functions, it is also the most complex and active organ in the body.
Since the liver is in charge of processing, converting, distributing, and maintaining the body's vital "fuel" supply (for example, nutrients and energy), anything that interferes with these functions must have a serious, detrimental impact on the health of the liver and the body as a whole. The strongest interference stems from the presence of gallstones.
Besides manufacturing cholesterol -- an essential building material of organ cells, hormones, and bile -- the liver also produces hormones and proteins that affect the way the body functions, grows, and heals. Furthermore, it makes new amino acids and converts existing ones into proteins. These proteins are the main building blocks of the cells, hormones, neurotransmitters, genes, and so forth. Other essential functions of the liver include breaking down old, worn-out cells; recycling proteins and iron; and storing vitamins and nutrients. Gallstones are a hazard to all these vital tasks.
In addition to breaking down alcohol in the blood, the liver also detoxifies noxious substances, bacteria, parasites, and certain components of pharmaceutical drugs. It uses specific enzymes to convert waste or poisons into substances that can be safely removed from the body. In addition, the liver filters more than one quart of blood each minute. Most of the filtered waste products leave the liver via the bile stream.
Gallstones obstructing the bile ducts lead to high levels of toxicity in the liver and, ultimately, to liver diseases. This development is further exacerbated by one's intake of pharmaceutical drugs, normally broken down by the liver. The presence of gallstones prevents their detoxification, which can cause "overdosing" and devastating side effects, even at normal doses. It also means that the liver is at risk for damage from the breakdown products of the drugs on which it acts. Alcohol that is not detoxified properly by the liver can seriously injure or destroy liver cells.
All liver diseases are preceded by extensive bile duct obstruction through gallstones. The gallstones distort the structural framework of the liver lobules, which are the main units constituting the liver (which contains more than 50,000 such units). Subsequently, blood circulation to and from these lobules, and the cells of which they are composed, becomes increasingly difficult. In addition, the liver cells have to cut down bile production. Nerve fibers also become damaged. Prolonged suffocation due to the presence of stones eventually damages or destroys liver cells and their lobules. Fibrous tissue gradually replaces damaged cells, causing further obstruction and an increase in pressure on the liver's blood vessels. If the regeneration of liver cells does not keep pace with this damage, liver cirrhosis is imminent. Liver cirrhosis usually leads to death.
Liver failure occurs when cell suffocation destroys so many liver cells that the number of cells required to carry out the organ's most important and vital functions is insufficient. Consequences of liver failure include drowsiness, confusion, shaking of hands tremor, drop in blood sugar, infection, kidney failure and fluid retention, uncontrolled bleeding, coma, and death. The capability of the liver to recover from major damage, though, is truly remarkable. Once the liver flush has removed all gallstones, and the afflicted person discontinues using alcohol and medicinal drugs, there usually are no significant long-term consequences, even though many of the liver cells may have been destroyed during the illness. When the cells grow again, they will do so in an ordered fashion that permits normal liver functions. This is possible because in liver failure (as opposed to liver cirrhosis) the basic structure of the liver has not been substantially compromised.
Acute hepatitis results when whole groups of liver cells begin to die off. Gallstones harbor large quantities of viral material, which can invade and infect liver cells, causing cell-degenerative changes. As gallstones increase in number and size, and as more cells become infected and die, entire lobules begin to collapse, and blood vessels begin to develop kinks. This greatly affects blood circulation to the remaining liver cells. The extent of the damage that these changes have on the liver and its overall performance largely depends on the degree of obstruction caused by the gallstones in the liver bile ducts. Cancer of the liver only occurs after many years of progressive occlusion of the liver bile ducts. This applies also to tumors in the liver that emanate from primary tumors in the GI tract, lungs, or breast.
Most liver infections (type A, type B, type non-A, and type non-B) occur when a certain number of liver lobules are congested with gallstones, which can even happen at a very early age. The now common practice of prematurely cutting or clamping the umbilical cord that connects a newborn baby with his mother, leaves the child with just two-thirds of its required blood volume, a lot of toxins normally filtered out by the placenta during the first hour after birth, and nearly no antibodies to protect it against disease. It usually takes at least 40 to 60 minutes before the umbilical cord stops throbbing completely. Cutting the cord too early constitutes an act of medical negligence that can affect the baby's liver right from the start and set it up for gallstone formation even during childhood. This can subsequently lead to liver infections. Hepatitis C infection alone affects 5 million Americans and kills 30,000 each year, more than die from AIDS.
A healthy liver and immune system are perfectly able to destroy viral material, regardless of whether the virus has been picked up from the external environment or has entered the bloodstream in some other way. The majority of all people exposed to these viruses never fall ill. In fact, we all have most viruses that exist outside the body in our body right now. However, when large amounts of gallstones are present, the liver becomes congested and toxic, which turns it into a conducive environment for viral activity. Viruses are intracellular parasites that enter a host cell and take over the host's cellular machinery to produce new viral particles (it also has been proved that viruses can be created from bacteria within the cells). But viruses don't develop and attack cells randomly. Contrary to common belief, viruses tend to "hijack" the nuclei of the weakest and most damaged cells to prevent them from mutating. Not all viruses succeed, though, and liver cancer may result. Their presence in cancer cells should not be misconstrued to have cancer-producing effects.
Gallstones can harbor plenty of live viruses. Some of these viruses break free and enter the blood. This is known as chronic hepatitis. Non-viral infections of the liver may be triggered (not caused) by bacteria that spread from any of the bile ducts obstructed with gallstones.
The presence of gallstones in the bile ducts also impairs the liver cells' ability to deal with toxic substances such as chloroform, cytotoxic drugs, anabolic steroids, alcohol, aspirin, fungi, food additives, and the like. When this occurs, the body develops hypersensitivity to these predictable toxic substances and to other unpredictable ones contained in numerous medicinal drugs. Many allergies stem from such conditions of hypersensitivity. For the same reason, there may also be a drastic increase in toxic side effects resulting from the intake of medicinal drugs, side effects that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or pharmaceutical companies may not even be aware of.
The most common form of jaundice results from gallstones being stuck in the bile duct leading to the duodenum, and/or from gallstones and fibrous tissue distorting the structural framework of the liver lobules. The movement of bile through the bile channels (canaliculi) is blocked, and the liver cells can no longer conjugate and excrete bile pigment, known as bilirubin. Consequently, there is a buildup in the bloodstream of both bile and the substances from which it is made. As bilirubin begins to build up in the blood, it stains the skin. Bilirubin concentration in the blood may be three times above normal before a yellow coloration of both the skin and the conjunctiva of the eyes becomes apparent. Unconjugated bilirubin has a toxic effect on brain cells. A tumor in the head of the pancreas caused by bile duct congestion may also cause jaundice.
Diseases of the Gallbladder and Bile Ducts
The liver secretes bile, which passes via the two hepatic ducts into the common hepatic duct. The common hepatic duct runs for 1.5 inches before joining the cystic duct that connects it with the gallbladder. Liver bile continues its journey through the common bile duct into the intestinal tract, but most of it must first pass into the gallbladder. The gallbladder is a pear-shaped pouch that protrudes from the bile duct. It is attached to the posterior side of the liver.
A normal gallbladder generally holds about 2 fluid ounces of bile. The bile stored in the gallbladder, however, has a different consistency than the bile found in the liver. In the gallbladder, most of the salt and water contained in the bile is reabsorbed, thus reducing its volume to a mere one-tenth of its original quantity. Bile salts (as opposed to regular salt) are not absorbed, though, which means their concentration is increased about tenfold. On the other hand, the gallbladder adds mucus to the bile, which turns it into a thick, mucus-like substance. Its high concentration makes bile the powerful digestive aid that it is.
The muscular walls of the gallbladder contract and eject bile when acidic foods and most protein foods enter the duodenum from the stomach. A more marked gallbladder activity is noted if food entering the duodenum contains a high proportion of fat. The body uses the bile salts contained in bile to emulsify the fat and facilitate its digestion. Once the bile salts have done their job and left the emulsified fat for intestinal absorption, they travel on down the intestine. Most of them are reabsorbed in the final section of the small intestine (ileum) and carried back to the liver. Once in the liver, the bile salts are collected again in the bile and secreted into the duodenum. Intestinal congestion sharply reduces the amount of bile salts needed for proper bile production and fat digestion. Diminished bile salt concentration in the bile causes gallstones, and leaves large amounts of fats undigested; this is hazardous to the intestinal environment.
Gallstones in the gallbladder may be made primarily of cholesterol, calcium, or pigments such as bilirubin. Cholesterol is the commonest component, but many of the stones are of mixed composition. Besides the above ingredients, gallstones may contain bile salts, water, and mucus, as well as toxins, bacteria, and, sometimes, dead parasites.
Typically, stones in the gallbladder keep growing in size for about eight years before noticeable symptoms begin to appear. Larger stones are generally calcified and can be detected easily through radiological means or by using ultrasound. Some 85 percent of the gallstones found in the gallbladder measure about ¾ inches across, although some can become as large as 2 to 3 inches across. Such stones form when, for reasons explained in Chapter 3 of The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush (www.ener-chi.com) , bile in the gallbladder becomes too saturated and its unabsorbed constituents begin to harden.
If a gallstone slips out of the gallbladder and becomes impacted in the cystic bile duct or common bile duct, there is very strong spasmodic contraction of the wall of the duct. The contraction helps to move the stone onward. This causes severe pain, known as biliary colic, and is accompanied by considerable distension of the gallbladder. If the gallbladder is packed with gallstones, it can suffer extremely painful spasmodic muscle contractions. (I suffered over 40 such attacks before my first liver and gallbladder flush, during which I passed over 600 stones. After my first flush, I never suffered another attack again.)
Gallstones can cause irritation and inflammation of the lining of the gallbladder, as well as of the cystic and common bile ducts. This is a condition known as cholecystitis. There may also be superimposed microbial infection. It is quite common to encounter ulceration of the tissues between the gallbladder and the duodenum or colon, with fistula formation and fibrous adhesions.
Gallbladder disease generally originates in the liver. When the occurrence of gallstones in the bile ducts of the liver, and, eventually the development of fibrous tissue, distort the structure of liver lobules, venous blood pressure starts to rise in the portal vein. This, in turn, increases the blood pressure in the cystic vein, which drains venous blood from the gallbladder into the portal vein. The incomplete elimination of waste products through the cystic duct causes a backup of acidic waste in the tissues composing the gallbladder. This gradually reduces the stamina and performance of the gallbladder. Subsequently, the formation of mineralized gallstones is just a matter of time.
Simple directions for removing gallstones safely in the comfort of one's own home are provided in the bestselling book "The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush" by Andreas Moritz (www.ener-chi.com) or (www.amazon.com) . Also see the article "Does Your Liver Need an Overhaul?" by Andreas Moritz (NaturalNews).
Excerpted from "The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush"
About the author
Andreas Moritz is a medical intuitive; a practitioner of Ayurveda, iridology, shiatsu, and vibrational medicine; a writer; and an artist. He is the author of the international bestseller, The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush; Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, Lifting the Veil of Duality, Cancer Is Not a Disease, It's Time to Come Alive, Heart Disease No More, Diabetes No More, Simple Steps to Total Health, Diabetes—No More, Ending the AIDS Myth. Feel Great - Lose Weight, Heal Yourself with Sunlight, and Vaccine-nation: Poisoning the Population, One Shot at a Time. For more information, visit the author's website: www.ener-chi.com
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