September 21, 2023 • 29 mins
Are you feeling the gallbladder blues? Join us, Dr. Houston Anderson and Dr. Gabe, as we spotlight gallbladder health in a rare Q&A session. We delve into why your bile might be thickening, and it's not just cholesterol that's the culprit, but also toxins, insulin, and estrogen. Find out why a healthy gut is your gallbladder's best friend, and what the removal of your appendix might indicate about your overall gut health. We also share our top picks for gallbladder-friendly foods and discuss the role of a good anti-inflammatory paleo diet in maintaining gallbladder health.
Ever wondered about the role of biofilms in your gallbladder's function? We're here to enlighten you. We share our advice on the right products to use and explain the importance of using an antimicrobial alongside a biofilm disruptor. Feeling a random wave of nausea in the morning? Your blood sugar might be the root cause. We also discuss how to handle the tricky task of gaining fat without a gallbladder and the proper way of moving bile. Stress is not just bad for your mind, but also plays havoc with your digestion and gallbladder. Join us as we explore the relationship between cortisol levels, blood sugar levels, and how different symptoms can hint at gallbladder issues. This is a conversation you won't want to miss.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Functional Medicine and Natural
Healing Podcast, where we sharethe secrets to upgrade your
digestion, improve your hormones, restore your immune system and
detoxify your body.
I'm your host, dr HoustonAnderson.
Now let's get started.
The following discussion is foreducational purposes only.
It is not intended to diagnoseor treat any disease or disease
(00:24):
process.
Please discuss any medicaltreatments or medical
interventions for your personalphysician.
Hi guys, welcome back to thepodcast.
Now we're going to do some Q&Aon the gallbladder.
If you listened to our lastpodcast with Dr Gabe and I, we
covered a ton on gallbladder.
We're going to refer back tothat a ton and say go listen to
that again, go listen to what wealready said and welcome to the
(00:46):
podcast, dr Gabe.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hey hey, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I am doing good, excited to answer some of these
questions.
The gallbladder freaks peopleout all the time, right, because
it can be very urgent.
So let's go through some ofthese.
These are, once again, foreveryone that doesn't know,
these are questions submitted onInstagram.
That's where I'm throwing thequestions I'm asking people.
So if you listen to thispodcast and you're not following
both of us on Instagram, goahead and do that.
(01:11):
It's just simply Dr HoustonAnderson and what's your handle,
doc?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's Dr Retu, so I guess you got to spell my name.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
All right, so DR-A-R-I-C-I-U is it DOC-T-O-R
or DR DR?
So DR-A-R-I-C-I-U for Dr Retu,and you can find.
I call him Dr Gabe, but you canfind him online there or follow
me and I share his stuff, soyou'll see that there.
Yeah, okay, first question, docwhat causes sludge and can it
be eliminated?
(01:39):
If so, how?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So simple physiology.
Cholesterol is the thing thatthickens the bile, but there's a
lot of things that are going toassist in that whole thickening
that we talked about last time.
So different toxicities,insulin issues there's a lot of
different things that are goingto be affecting it.
Estrogen is a big one and so ifit's just simply cholesterol
(02:03):
that's you know, you got toomuch cholesterol it could be
that you don't have enough ofthe other side to help thin the
bile.
So like bile salts or less ofthin choline, that sort of thing
for gallbladder general support.
But the big thing is going tobe what's going on in the body,
what's affecting it?
Do we have some infections?
(02:23):
Do we have some toxins?
Do we have some insulin issues?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Right.
So then go back and listen tothe last podcast on how to do
all those things.
But big story short theresludge should not scare you.
Sludge is not a big deal.
Most of us have a certainamount of sludge.
If you get too much sludge in,that sludge is where the stones
are formed and that's when itbecomes an issue.
So sludge is like prettydangerous, right.
So it's like get your stuff ingear and start taking care of
your health so that you can getrid of that sludge.
(02:47):
All right.
Question number two if yourappendix was removed, does the
gallbladder need extra support?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I'm not going to say like I see a direct
connection there.
In essence, like your appendixthey say is vestigial, that it's
not needed, that's wrong.
We know that now.
It is a place where you keepcertain bacteria in your gut so
it's like important to themicrobiome, but having it
removed gives you a general ideaof the state of the gut.
(03:15):
The gut was not in a good state.
It got inflamed, infected andneeded to be removed.
So things are not really goingwell there.
So if you're having infections,maybe you have constipation,
maybe you got some other thingsgoing on we could be seeing a
direct or indirect relationshipwith the gallbladder.
Now, absolutely, if we're goingto be right back to where we
(03:39):
were check the toxins, help thegallbladder move correctly, that
sort of thing, look for it andthen fix the infections, that
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, I mean, if you're missing your appendix,
you're going to take a littlebit more care of your gut than
other people.
Yeah, that's the big thing.
As soon as you miss an organ Idon't care whether it's ovaries,
uterus, gallbladder, appendix,anything else a part of your
colon you got to be more carefulwith everything you do, and
that's the downside of having asurgery Is that gallbladder and
that appendix give you a littlebit more wiggle room with your
(04:08):
diet.
Once it's gone, life is goingto be a little bit tougher.
Okay, some of the best foodsthat you like for gallbladder.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, I mean, other than the supportive agents and
the herbs and that sort of thingit's going to be.
You better start eating healthyfats.
You better get rid of all theseed oils.
You better start eating goodthings like extra virgin olive
oil, avocado oil though there'sa caveat there.
It's going to be a little bitsavvy on which brands, because
that's been in the newsrelatively lately, which you
(04:37):
know that sort of thing, becausesome of it is not true avocado
oil.
Otherwise, we're looking atanimal fats.
That's going to be your big one.
So, like I'm a huge grass-fedbutter supporter, as long as you
can handle dairy, okay,grass-fed butter is excellent
sort of source of arachidonicacid and many other good
vitamins, minerals, that sort ofthing, vitamin A, k2 as well.
(05:01):
Otherwise, lard, tallow comingfrom a good source, healthy fats
for sure, as long as you'rebeing able to handle that.
And then we're looking at agood anti-inflammatory paleo
diet that we often are eatinglike meat, fruit, vegetables,
that sort of thing.
Depending on the person, whattheir overall diet's like, but
(05:22):
generally healthy food, wholefoods, not processed junk.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yep.
So yeah, you talked aboutinsulin there.
Now how do you reconcile?
So someone, they said you justsaid, eat lard tallow.
I love duck fat for patients,but how do you reconcile if they
can't tolerate fats right nowand do their gallbladder health
Like, what's kind of their,what's their step there?
Real quick.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's gonna be.
I need to investigate and seewhat's going on with their
gallbladder and I need to givesome support there.
Whether it is like we weretalking about in the last
episode beats betaine, that sortof thing artichoke, even Chonka
Piedra I don't see it super,super common, but I mean it's on
my list of things to check andso I want them to have some
support there and then I mightslowly increase the fats for
(06:06):
that patient as they'retolerating it.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Okay, I like that.
I like that.
We talked about signs ofgallbladder issues last time, so
I'm just gonna refer back tothat for that question Can a
baby be born with gallbladderissues if the mom has them?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So I mean that kind of makes me think of oh you know
, I got a genetic issue.
My mom has it, my grandparentshave it.
I'm like no, the same diet runsin the family.
So that's gonna be where I'mheaded.
If the baby has a gallbladderissue, I'm gonna be pointing to
let's eat healthy, let's get thebreast milk up to where it
(06:45):
should be filled with nutrition.
If they're not using breastmilk and they're using formula,
we need to get a good formula ora good recipe of stuff going in
there, depending on the age ofthe baby.
But I can't say I've seen that.
I'm not gonna rule out as manythings as possible, but I've
(07:06):
seen more important thingscoming from, you know,
congenital type things inheritedfrom the mom, but definitely
the baby could have somemalnourishment.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, I would say no, that's an absolute no for me as
far as like a directcorrelation.
But yeah, you could have analtered gut microbiome.
Because why does mom have a gutissue?
Well, if she has diabetes andshe has a poor gut health and
she has all these chronic healthissues, then the microbiome can
be slightly disrupted when thebaby's born.
Maybe the baby got vaccines orgot antibiotics early on.
(07:38):
All of that could disrupt themicrobiome or the gut, which
then can indirectly, you know,then go and affect the
gallbladder.
But yeah, as far as like Idon't know that I've ever read a
case study of you know mom ismissing a gallbladder, baby born
no gallbladder working at all.
I don't think it's correlated.
So, the gold standard test tocheck your blood sugar I covered
(07:59):
this on Instagram, but what doyou like for blood sugar, doc?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So there's gonna be a few different markers.
Like you kind of, most patientscoming in will already have had
a fasting glucose ram, maybeeven A1C.
A lot of people coming in tosee me aren't necessarily type 2
diabetic, so they can havetotally normal numbers there.
So the one that I like and Ilove running this test, is
fasting insulin.
All right, so insulin is notthe same as glucose.
(08:27):
So a lot of people think it'sthe same thing.
It is not the same thing.
So the test itself not.
A lot of people run this and infact I think Ben Bickman is
probably the one that haspopularized this a little bit.
But when you run it, the labtest is going to be a broad
range and really you actuallyhave to narrow that range and it
has to be fasting.
So it needs to be between twoand five.
(08:49):
Otherwise if you're above five,you got insulin resistance.
If you're really far above it,we're looking at pre-diabetes
and that sort of thing.
But that's the one that I liketo run, just because no one's
running it and you can catchstuff pretty early if we're
running a blood test.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yep, I like that I like that.
I'm not going to say much moreon that.
Yeah, I think I've hearddifferent levels but you know,
anywhere below seven maybeacceptable.
But yeah, two to five seemspretty optimal to me.
When you get your young peoplethat are healthy and fit, it
definitely falls in that two tofive range.
All right, Can I get rid ofgallbladder polyps?
What do you think, Doc?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I mean, that's not something I've ever seen myself
like colon polyps are a lot morecommon.
That sort of thing I'm going toput it in the same category of
anything else related to thegallbladder.
These things are formingbecause of abnormal physiology
and we need to return to normalphysiology and stop it
functioning abnormally.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, that's all I would say.
There is that I would even putgallbladder polyps in this
category of fatty liver disease,where essentially, you're
getting some kind of formationbased upon some kind of irritant
.
Likely you need to discoverwhat that irritant is.
I mean, and especially ifyou're forming lots of polyps in
the gallbladder, which is notthat common.
But if you are looking forthings like mold or toxin
(10:07):
exposure maybe you're ahairdresser and you're just
breathing chemicals all day longand your bodies can't keep up
Something weird like that ifyou're forming a lot of polyps,
which is essentially the storyof the next question, which is
liver cysts.
But what is the cause of livercysts to you, Doc?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I mean again, you're going to write down the same
avenue.
Like you think of all thethings that you can detoxify in
your liver.
You think of all the thingsthat can directly or indirectly
affect your liver.
There's a lot of things goingon there.
So, whether it is like you havefatty liver from like insulin
resistance, that sort of thing,or you've got some hormone
(10:45):
imbalance, or your liver is justnot detoxifying any number of
things that it actuallydetoxifies Like we talked about
caffeine in the last episode, wetalked about phase two
detoxification.
Like the glucoronidation.
There's a lot of things goingthrough the liver.
It is your oil filter in asense, and so when we're looking
(11:06):
at that, there's a lot ofthings affecting it.
But that's why it's importantto go to a doctor who
understands the physiology ofthe biochemistry and ascertain
what phase.
Because I had this questionasked yesterday about liver
detox, Like should I do a liverdetox?
And I'm like you don't need todo a liver detox because we
already found the phase twoissue, and I think it was
(11:29):
glutathione or methionine Ican't remember which pathway it
was, but we already found theissue.
It wasn't the entire liver.
You don't need to just do ablanket shotgun approach.
We got the targeted one.
This is what you need.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, I love that.
I mean, that's the benefit ofworking with a practitioner.
Once again, I'll throw that outone more time.
I can't tell you how manyInstagram questions I get and
people are trying to diagnosethemselves and they're just
wasting time and I hate to saythat, but it's just a matter of
like.
I don't care if you try two orthree things, but at the end of
the day, you need to spend asmuch time as it takes to get a
good doctor on your side thatyou don't have to call them
(12:04):
every day.
I don't make my patients callme frequently.
I don't even have a follow-upplan for half of them.
I just say call me when youneed me, when there's a little
bit more something that Ihaven't talked to you, that you
haven't learned in the podcastyou can't answer on Instagram or
it's more urgent, and that'swhat I want people to do.
So those are the things whereit's like you're not going to
figure it out on your own if youdon't do something like that.
(12:24):
And literally, just once again,just to go crazy on that rant
about doctors, like, if you havea doctor, if you don't have a
doctor, it's like trying to fixyour house without, like, having
a construction you know,license or having any training.
It's like the odds of youbuilding a house tomorrow
without knowing how to do it arevery unlikely.
Could you build a house?
Yeah, it's not rocket science.
Honestly, medical science isn'tthat hard.
It just takes years and yearsand years of practice to do it.
(12:47):
So you know, if you've evertried to patch a hole in your
drywall or something like that,it can be a pain in the butt,
but yet the guys that are goodat it do it instantly and it
takes them like 10 minutes.
So what may be hard for you athome may not be hard for Dr Gabe
if you just call him on thephone and that's all I like to
say.
All right, how long does ittake to clear a biofilm and
what's the best product for that?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
All right.
So with biofilm it could be assimple as one or two herbs,
that's it.
It cannot be like it.
Just it's what that personneeds.
So, whether it's like Chinesecoptas that we both like a lot,
meme, malia, miranda, there's alot of different ones.
But sometimes you can get asticky issue and you might need
some specific like essentialoils, like BFB is one that we
(13:31):
probably used in the past andit's what it's known for biofilm
busters, what BFB stands for.
But I often don't have to gothat route.
Usually it's just the rightherb for that appropriate time.
That is it and it's, and Ialready threw out a few of them.
But a lot of times I don't geta lot of sticky biofilms that
(13:52):
are difficult to remove.
It's just looking for the rightthing.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah.
So I think I'll say aboutbiofilms yes, there can be some
nasty ones, but you should nevertreat a biofilm until you're
healthy.
That's kind of my stance, whichis a little bit different than
what a lot of people say.
So meaning you should take yourcop dish, your Miranda, malia,
whatever you're taking to clearthose basic biofilms, those
entry-level biofilms, and then,if you wanted to just make your
life tough and releaseeverything that your body stored
(14:16):
that cupby talks at the timeyou can stack something like a
natokine, a buloka seropeptase.
Any one of those are ones thatwill kind of degrade mucus or
films a little bit more in thebody.
But the one thing that youmentioned that's critical is
like every herb that'santimicrobial is anti-biofilm
and so everyone wants to go takea bunch of natokinase.
(14:38):
But I see people all the timeand they're on natokinase or
some other seropeptase and theyhave no antimicrobial.
So they're releasing infectionsto the environment and they're
not killing it.
So that's the next thing nevertake a biofilm disruptor without
a stacked herb to kind of killwhat comes out of that, because
that's going to be a problem andyou're just going to relocate
that infection.
(14:59):
So that's how I see it.
All right.
Random nausea in the morningcould be gallbladder right, no
specific time, but before food.
Not pregnant.
What do you think I'm?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
going to go with blood sugar.
I'm going to go with bloodsugar.
I'm going to go with,especially because they said
before food.
So my assumption is is afterthe eat it goes away, I'm going
to go with, for sure, bloodsugar issues.
Now, I couldn't still be agallbladder.
Like you said and actually Iforgot to mention this or last
episode is a great thing to helpwith gallbladder nausea and
(15:32):
nausea in general is ginger.
Ginger is pretty good at thatand you know I use a couple of
different forms of it, but theone that I've used for
specifically for that is weedbotanicals and that ginger is
excellent.
It's almost like ginger beer onsteroids, as if you can think
about getting ginger beer onsteroids.
But yeah, no, I'm going to goblood sugar all the time on this
(15:54):
one, unless I've provenotherwise.
And you know, high protein dietlower those carbs.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yep, he's something before bed, something like that.
You know, healthy car, healthyfat, healthy protein, something
like that.
But I agree that I'm going togo with low blood sugar on that
one, all right.
What areas are more likely togain fat with no gallbladder?
Can you counteract this orreverse it?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I think the areas of fat is probably more determined
by genetics than anything mostlikely, and it could be various.
It could be your hips, it couldbe your waist, it could be a
couple of different areas, andthen it depends on the person
how much fat that they're goingto kind of put on before things
get back.
So some people, more thanothers, tolerate fat before
(16:40):
things get bad.
So putting on some weight likeI think Western people,
especially Americans, handle alittle bit more weight before
things get bad, because we bothsee people who are like man for
sure this person's like diabeticand they're not.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And you're like what the?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
heck, whereas, like you know, I think it's popular,
like Asian populations that youknow they can't put on that much
weight before things go bad, sothat kind of depends.
But yeah, we're going rightback to okay, what?
What are we going to look at tohelp bile move correctly and
get the diet cleaned up?
Let the bile flow, because, ofcourse, without a gallbladder
(17:19):
sometimes your bilirary ductturns into a new gallbladder in
a sense, when you've had itremoved.
But really it's just makingsure bile is flowing properly
and it's being producedcorrectly.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, I love that, I love that, yeah.
So I mean, as far as gainingfat with no gallbladder, realize
that, yeah, in some way, shapeor form, you can't process as
many fats because you don't havea gallbladder.
It depends on how much thatbile duct expands, but it's
still your new gallbladder thatyou develop after they cut out.
Your old one still causesproblems.
You still have and I didn'tmention that in the last podcast
(17:51):
but you can still have theexact same gallbladder problems
after you have your gallbladderremoved.
And the research on that is atfive years you're about 50-50.
So I would say people like,should I have my gallbladder
removed?
I'm like cool, flip a coin andthat's about as accurate as
anyone can be in saying if itwill solve your problem.
So especially, I actually had anurse in the other day and he
(18:12):
told me he goes one time theycut open an abdomen to do a
gallbladder surgery and they'relike this gallbladder is
pristine, it was the mostbeautiful gallbladder they'd
ever seen in this person and helooked at the doctor.
The doctor looked back at himand the doctors they didn't say
anything but he said, well,based upon their age and their
GI issues, I think we better cutthis out.
(18:35):
So the determination was simplynot because they had a
gallbladder issue.
It was because of some otherissue that they were hoping.
But once again, no gallbladder,actual stones, no gallbladder
issues at all, no fatty liveraround it, and they still cut it
out.
Which odds of that personactually getting the result in
their GI tract very, very low,because they didn't actually
(18:57):
have a gallbladder problem inthe first place.
So fun to hear the stories Backto the fat gain If you can't
detoxify the toxins as well,which is what happens when you
don't have gallbladder, you'reprone to gain weight everywhere,
right?
So you're just going to startdepositing all your
environmental toxins Once again.
As every organ is removed,you're going to have to work a
little bit harder.
All right, slightly enlargedgallbladder, no stones.
(19:18):
What do you think is the besttreatment, doc?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I'm going to go back to that whole sludge story.
The first question it's goingto be similar kind of treatment.
We're going to be looking.
Why is it slightly enlarged?
What is going on?
What's affecting it?
The similar things that wetalked about last episode.
So do you need any support?
Do you need some herbs to helppush things through, like
artichoke?
And then what's the underlyingroot cause?
(19:43):
Do you have an aldehyde issue,ammonia issue?
Do you have an insulin issue?
It's aldehyde, ammonia.
We got some most likelyinfections that we need to go
with some herbs and if it'sinsulin, it's back to good old
protein and low carb.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
All right.
So that's like our answer foreverything, right, but yet no
one's still listening.
But I'm just joking.
But it's not high protein, lowcarb for a little bit.
It's prolonged over a period oftime.
Give me six months of thatright and you-.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
A lot of people are not just staying there too.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, no, I mean what you feel well once your blood
sugar stabilizes and you knowwhat it feels like to have
stable blood sugar, like youdon't really want to go back
because it sucks.
It sucks going back to tired inthe afternoon energy crashes,
caffeine to wake you up Likeit's just like not a cool place
to be.
So yeah, that's what I sayBasically.
(20:37):
You know, listen to the lastpodcast, the Enlarged
Gallbladder.
I doesn't scare me at all.
Once again, I'm not worriedabout a gallbladder slightly
enlarged.
If there's no stones.
You're not in that danger zoneyet.
Get to work treating yourgallbladder right.
Get ahold of a doc or, you know, somehow start treating on your
own.
All right, I'm gonna add thisone in.
It has nothing to do withgallbladder.
(20:57):
But our last question Willburning above the knee.
That's worse at night.
What do you think, doc?
That's just straight fromInstagram.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
That's a fun one, cause I mean we talked about
last episode that weird, weird,random thing that we will see as
correlated to gallbladder,where it's bilateral knee pain,
burning above the knee, thoughespecially if it's one sided,
I'm not gonna directlynecessarily go right to
gallbladder, like if it's say,painful behind the knee, like
(21:26):
where your bursa is, I mightconnect it, because that's like
classic bursa pain, bursitis,you know, spinal pain on like
palpation near fillet.
It's like classic need for acid, like maintain a HCl and that
sort of thing.
So you could have a gallbladdercorrelation there.
But this is above the knee.
So we're gonna start thinkingwhat muscles are involved there.
(21:49):
Probably go musculoskeletalfirst, unless it's on the right
side, then I might go.
Maybe there's an adrenal issue,maybe there's something there I
need to look at.
But I'm keeping my optionsquite open before diving in and
then maybe doing some otherchallenges.
Of course I'm gonna.
If this patient comes in andthis is the only thing they tell
(22:09):
me that's going on I'm gonnaask a whole lot of health issue
questions, health historyquestions, cause I need a lot
more information.
It's like sometimes on the thedoctor groups were a part of,
people will throw out.
I got a seven year old personwith this one symptom and then
they leave the rest of theirhealth history off and I'm like
what do you expect us to answerif you don't give us their
entire health history?
(22:29):
It's really difficult to go offof one thing.
There's a professor I reallyloved at school.
He says like you treat it withthe company it keeps, that's how
you evaluate it.
And so if it doesn't have anycompany it's keeping, you're
gonna have to do a lot of theevaluation, a lot of
(22:51):
investigation, to see what'sgoing on.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yeah, no, I don't have a direct correlation for
burning above the knee.
I do like the adrenal story,because that muscle that would
go weak with adrenals might belike that sartorius muscle.
That sartorius muscle Could bea small intestine issue, maybe
your VMOs flaring at night soyeah, I mean nighttime stuff, I
would say cortisol issues, whichwould be insulin issues, so you
(23:15):
have dysregulation of that, ormaybe like parasites popping up
at night.
But, yeah, definitely a superweird one.
I mean, I could even fall intothe category of restless leg
syndrome, which would be adrenal.
But yeah, no, I.
That's the funnest part aboutInstagram questions that people
give me one word and I get tocome up with a magical story
(23:36):
behind it.
So, yeah, if we ever answeryour questions or if I ever
answer your questions and it'snot right, I apologize.
But you know, obviously wespend hours taking histories
with people and do intensiveworkups on people in order to
find out these answers.
All right, last question, docOur gallbladder attacks related
to stress.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Ooh, there's another broad one.
So what do you mean by stress?
Are we talking about emotionalstress, work stress, that sort
of thing?
Because stress is actually avery broad category.
So everything we talk about isactually technically a stress to
the gallbladder, like insulinstress to the gallbladder.
But yes, most people are askingwe could probably assume that
they're asking about just youknow, life stress, work stress,
(24:17):
relationship stress.
For sure that's going to, youknow, increase your cortisol
levels.
By increasing your cortisollevels or increasing your
overall stress, you're going tostress, you're going to be in
that fight or flight mode.
If you're in fight or flight,digestion doesn't really matter
to your body.
You think of mama bear, like Ialways think of mama bear
because of mutual professor wehad Dr Hignetov.
(24:40):
You would talk about a mamabear coming after you, and if
mama bear is coming after you,you don't care about digestion,
you care, can you fight it, canyou run, can you flee, that sort
of thing.
And so if that's happening, forsure things are going to get
shut down and high stress levelsare not going to be good for
anything going on.
(25:00):
Now we you just mentioned areally important one like
insulin.
Insulin is going to often berelated to cortisol and so
cortisol at night so we can haveblood sugar issue because of
this.
But yeah, stress goes to a lotof different things and if we
and actually I'm thinking of aspecific patient, and this is
super common, especially inAmerica she I don't know if she
(25:24):
had a job, but she definitelywas running around with her kids
she was burning the big candleat both ends.
If you're burning the candle atboth ends, likely you're not
going to be able to eat.
Well, you're just stressed outto the wazoo and at some point
you will not be able to adaptanymore.
And whether it's yourgallbladder, whether it's your
gut, whatever it is, something'sgoing to fail on you.
(25:45):
Multiple things will fail onyou.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, I think when I go to that I went straight to
that caffeine story whereoftentimes, if with a caffeine
that's an adrenaline rush, right, you have a stimulation there
that you get, that stimulationdoes make a bowel movement
happen.
So let's say that you had likean acute stressor or a
significant enough traumaticstressor, like I've seen crazy
(26:11):
cases where someone likeabsolutely hates their dad but
has to meet with their dad aboutsomething and their condition
will completely flare.
Or maybe, yeah, and maybe youhate driving, or you were
recently in an accident and nowdriving stimulates an adrenaline
rush That'll create agallbladder flush.
I don't know about an attack.
And then the other thing that Iwould say is chronic stress,
(26:34):
which will reduce yourprogesterone.
Progesterone is the main hormoneresponsible for relaxing the
gallbladder, kind of letting itchill out a little bit.
So while I don't seeprogesterone deficiency causing
direct gallbladder attacks, yeah, I mean I would just say no, I
don't think that emotionalstress directly causes an attack
(26:56):
, as much as it causes problemsand those problems just mounts
up to where really any littlething could stimulate that
attack.
Does that make sense, doc?
So it's indirect.
In other words, yeah, yeah,something indirect there.
Directly correlated.
So thank you guys again forlistening to the podcast today.
I'm going to always askquestions.
See if you guys can submit anyon Instagram.
(27:17):
We answered 16 questions today.
I want more.
Let's answer more questions.
They can be on gallbladder oranything else, but you can hear
my opinion, which is oftenslightly different than Dr
Gaines.
But you realize that we can allcome at this problem from
different angles, different ways, and we can still get to the
same thing because themechanisms are the same.
(27:38):
And what a lot of people don'tunderstand is how the body truly
works, and not only how thebody works, but how it
integrates.
And so that's why in ourtraining or whatever we call it,
systems health care, it's notabout your gallbladder, it's how
does your insulin affect yourgallbladder.
It's not about your gallbladder, it's how does your hormones
affect your gallbladder and, asI mentioned in the last podcast,
(27:59):
it's how your steroid systemaffects your digestion, which
originally came from yourgallbladder, which came from the
liver right.
We're multiple systemsaddressing those, and that's
what we hope to share in thispodcast and that's what we think
actually makes this podcast alittle bit different than all
the other ones, where they mayjust educate you on how the
gallbladder works.
We want to integrate thosesystems for you.
Any final words, doc?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
No, I love it.
That's exactly my approach.
I want to show how all thesesystems interplay.
That's why I love systemshealth care Because, like we
said, with that weird thingbilateral knee pain your
gallbladder affects yourmusculoskeletal system.
So we want to show how thesethings interplay with each other
, how you can tell the signsearly on, so you don't wind up
(28:40):
with meeting with a surgeon inan urgent situation.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yeah, and just a reminder, Dr Gabe is still
accepting new patients.
What's the best way for them toget a hold of you right now?
We'll keep asking that everyweek in case it changes.
So what's the best way to get ahold of you so?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
easy to get on, whether it's through Google,
facebook, even on my Instagram.
They'll be in the show notesfor sure.
Otherwise, you can get it onthe website too.
You just Google my name.
I'm the only person in Americathat has that name, so it's most
likely going to come up.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
That's Dr D R A RI C I U, dr Arichu, and thanks again
for listening to you guys, andwe will see you on the next
episode.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
All right, take care.
Welcome to the Functional Medicine and Natural
Healing Podcast, where we sharethe secrets to upgrade your
digestion, improve your hormones, restore your immune system and
detoxify your body.
I'm your host, dr HoustonAnderson.
Now let's get started.
The following discussion is foreducational purposes only.
It is not intended to diagnoseor treat any disease or disease
(00:24):
process.
Please discuss any medicaltreatments or medical
interventions for your personalphysician.
Hi guys, welcome back to thepodcast.
Now we're going to do some Q&Aon the gallbladder.
If you listened to our lastpodcast with Dr Gabe and I, we
covered a ton on gallbladder.
We're going to refer back tothat a ton and say go listen to
that again, go listen to what wealready said and welcome to the
(00:46):
podcast, dr Gabe.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hey hey, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
I am doing good, excited to answer some of these
questions.
The gallbladder freaks peopleout all the time, right, because
it can be very urgent.
So let's go through some ofthese.
These are, once again, foreveryone that doesn't know,
these are questions submitted onInstagram.
That's where I'm throwing thequestions I'm asking people.
So if you listen to thispodcast and you're not following
both of us on Instagram, goahead and do that.
(01:11):
It's just simply Dr HoustonAnderson and what's your handle,
doc?
Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's Dr Retu, so I guess you got to spell my name.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
All right, so DR-A-R-I-C-I-U is it DOC-T-O-R
or DR DR?
So DR-A-R-I-C-I-U for Dr Retu,and you can find.
I call him Dr Gabe, but you canfind him online there or follow
me and I share his stuff, soyou'll see that there.
Yeah, okay, first question, docwhat causes sludge and can it
be eliminated?
(01:39):
If so, how?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So simple physiology.
Cholesterol is the thing thatthickens the bile, but there's a
lot of things that are going toassist in that whole thickening
that we talked about last time.
So different toxicities,insulin issues there's a lot of
different things that are goingto be affecting it.
Estrogen is a big one and so ifit's just simply cholesterol
(02:03):
that's you know, you got toomuch cholesterol it could be
that you don't have enough ofthe other side to help thin the
bile.
So like bile salts or less ofthin choline, that sort of thing
for gallbladder general support.
But the big thing is going tobe what's going on in the body,
what's affecting it?
Do we have some infections?
(02:23):
Do we have some toxins?
Do we have some insulin issues?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Right.
So then go back and listen tothe last podcast on how to do
all those things.
But big story short theresludge should not scare you.
Sludge is not a big deal.
Most of us have a certainamount of sludge.
If you get too much sludge in,that sludge is where the stones
are formed and that's when itbecomes an issue.
So sludge is like prettydangerous, right.
So it's like get your stuff ingear and start taking care of
your health so that you can getrid of that sludge.
(02:47):
All right.
Question number two if yourappendix was removed, does the
gallbladder need extra support?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So I'm not going to say like I see a direct
connection there.
In essence, like your appendixthey say is vestigial, that it's
not needed, that's wrong.
We know that now.
It is a place where you keepcertain bacteria in your gut so
it's like important to themicrobiome, but having it
removed gives you a general ideaof the state of the gut.
(03:15):
The gut was not in a good state.
It got inflamed, infected andneeded to be removed.
So things are not really goingwell there.
So if you're having infections,maybe you have constipation,
maybe you got some other thingsgoing on we could be seeing a
direct or indirect relationshipwith the gallbladder.
Now, absolutely, if we're goingto be right back to where we
(03:39):
were check the toxins, help thegallbladder move correctly, that
sort of thing, look for it andthen fix the infections, that
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, I mean, if you're missing your appendix,
you're going to take a littlebit more care of your gut than
other people.
Yeah, that's the big thing.
As soon as you miss an organ Idon't care whether it's ovaries,
uterus, gallbladder, appendix,anything else a part of your
colon you got to be more carefulwith everything you do, and
that's the downside of having asurgery Is that gallbladder and
that appendix give you a littlebit more wiggle room with your
(04:08):
diet.
Once it's gone, life is goingto be a little bit tougher.
Okay, some of the best foodsthat you like for gallbladder.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, I mean, other than the supportive agents and
the herbs and that sort of thingit's going to be.
You better start eating healthyfats.
You better get rid of all theseed oils.
You better start eating goodthings like extra virgin olive
oil, avocado oil though there'sa caveat there.
It's going to be a little bitsavvy on which brands, because
that's been in the newsrelatively lately, which you
(04:37):
know that sort of thing, becausesome of it is not true avocado
oil.
Otherwise, we're looking atanimal fats.
That's going to be your big one.
So, like I'm a huge grass-fedbutter supporter, as long as you
can handle dairy, okay,grass-fed butter is excellent
sort of source of arachidonicacid and many other good
vitamins, minerals, that sort ofthing, vitamin A, k2 as well.
(05:01):
Otherwise, lard, tallow comingfrom a good source, healthy fats
for sure, as long as you'rebeing able to handle that.
And then we're looking at agood anti-inflammatory paleo
diet that we often are eatinglike meat, fruit, vegetables,
that sort of thing.
Depending on the person, whattheir overall diet's like, but
(05:22):
generally healthy food, wholefoods, not processed junk.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Yep.
So yeah, you talked aboutinsulin there.
Now how do you reconcile?
So someone, they said you justsaid, eat lard tallow.
I love duck fat for patients,but how do you reconcile if they
can't tolerate fats right nowand do their gallbladder health
Like, what's kind of their,what's their step there?
Real quick.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
That's gonna be.
I need to investigate and seewhat's going on with their
gallbladder and I need to givesome support there.
Whether it is like we weretalking about in the last
episode beats betaine, that sortof thing artichoke, even Chonka
Piedra I don't see it super,super common, but I mean it's on
my list of things to check andso I want them to have some
support there and then I mightslowly increase the fats for
(06:06):
that patient as they'retolerating it.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Okay, I like that.
I like that.
We talked about signs ofgallbladder issues last time, so
I'm just gonna refer back tothat for that question Can a
baby be born with gallbladderissues if the mom has them?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So I mean that kind of makes me think of oh you know
, I got a genetic issue.
My mom has it, my grandparentshave it.
I'm like no, the same diet runsin the family.
So that's gonna be where I'mheaded.
If the baby has a gallbladderissue, I'm gonna be pointing to
let's eat healthy, let's get thebreast milk up to where it
(06:45):
should be filled with nutrition.
If they're not using breastmilk and they're using formula,
we need to get a good formula ora good recipe of stuff going in
there, depending on the age ofthe baby.
But I can't say I've seen that.
I'm not gonna rule out as manythings as possible, but I've
(07:06):
seen more important thingscoming from, you know,
congenital type things inheritedfrom the mom, but definitely
the baby could have somemalnourishment.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, I would say no, that's an absolute no for me as
far as like a directcorrelation.
But yeah, you could have analtered gut microbiome.
Because why does mom have a gutissue?
Well, if she has diabetes andshe has a poor gut health and
she has all these chronic healthissues, then the microbiome can
be slightly disrupted when thebaby's born.
Maybe the baby got vaccines orgot antibiotics early on.
(07:38):
All of that could disrupt themicrobiome or the gut, which
then can indirectly, you know,then go and affect the
gallbladder.
But yeah, as far as like Idon't know that I've ever read a
case study of you know mom ismissing a gallbladder, baby born
no gallbladder working at all.
I don't think it's correlated.
So, the gold standard test tocheck your blood sugar I covered
(07:59):
this on Instagram, but what doyou like for blood sugar, doc?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So there's gonna be a few different markers.
Like you kind of, most patientscoming in will already have had
a fasting glucose ram, maybeeven A1C.
A lot of people coming in tosee me aren't necessarily type 2
diabetic, so they can havetotally normal numbers there.
So the one that I like and Ilove running this test, is
fasting insulin.
All right, so insulin is notthe same as glucose.
(08:27):
So a lot of people think it'sthe same thing.
It is not the same thing.
So the test itself not.
A lot of people run this and infact I think Ben Bickman is
probably the one that haspopularized this a little bit.
But when you run it, the labtest is going to be a broad
range and really you actuallyhave to narrow that range and it
has to be fasting.
So it needs to be between twoand five.
(08:49):
Otherwise if you're above five,you got insulin resistance.
If you're really far above it,we're looking at pre-diabetes
and that sort of thing.
But that's the one that I liketo run, just because no one's
running it and you can catchstuff pretty early if we're
running a blood test.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yep, I like that I like that.
I'm not going to say much moreon that.
Yeah, I think I've hearddifferent levels but you know,
anywhere below seven maybeacceptable.
But yeah, two to five seemspretty optimal to me.
When you get your young peoplethat are healthy and fit, it
definitely falls in that two tofive range.
All right, Can I get rid ofgallbladder polyps?
What do you think, Doc?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
I mean, that's not something I've ever seen myself
like colon polyps are a lot morecommon.
That sort of thing I'm going toput it in the same category of
anything else related to thegallbladder.
These things are formingbecause of abnormal physiology
and we need to return to normalphysiology and stop it
functioning abnormally.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, that's all I would say.
There is that I would even putgallbladder polyps in this
category of fatty liver disease,where essentially, you're
getting some kind of formationbased upon some kind of irritant
.
Likely you need to discoverwhat that irritant is.
I mean, and especially ifyou're forming lots of polyps in
the gallbladder, which is notthat common.
But if you are looking forthings like mold or toxin
(10:07):
exposure maybe you're ahairdresser and you're just
breathing chemicals all day longand your bodies can't keep up
Something weird like that ifyou're forming a lot of polyps,
which is essentially the storyof the next question, which is
liver cysts.
But what is the cause of livercysts to you, Doc?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I mean again, you're going to write down the same
avenue.
Like you think of all thethings that you can detoxify in
your liver.
You think of all the thingsthat can directly or indirectly
affect your liver.
There's a lot of things goingon there.
So, whether it is like you havefatty liver from like insulin
resistance, that sort of thing,or you've got some hormone
(10:45):
imbalance, or your liver is justnot detoxifying any number of
things that it actuallydetoxifies Like we talked about
caffeine in the last episode, wetalked about phase two
detoxification.
Like the glucoronidation.
There's a lot of things goingthrough the liver.
It is your oil filter in asense, and so when we're looking
(11:06):
at that, there's a lot ofthings affecting it.
But that's why it's importantto go to a doctor who
understands the physiology ofthe biochemistry and ascertain
what phase.
Because I had this questionasked yesterday about liver
detox, Like should I do a liverdetox?
And I'm like you don't need todo a liver detox because we
already found the phase twoissue, and I think it was
(11:29):
glutathione or methionine Ican't remember which pathway it
was, but we already found theissue.
It wasn't the entire liver.
You don't need to just do ablanket shotgun approach.
We got the targeted one.
This is what you need.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah, I love that.
I mean, that's the benefit ofworking with a practitioner.
Once again, I'll throw that outone more time.
I can't tell you how manyInstagram questions I get and
people are trying to diagnosethemselves and they're just
wasting time and I hate to saythat, but it's just a matter of
like.
I don't care if you try two orthree things, but at the end of
the day, you need to spend asmuch time as it takes to get a
good doctor on your side thatyou don't have to call them
(12:04):
every day.
I don't make my patients callme frequently.
I don't even have a follow-upplan for half of them.
I just say call me when youneed me, when there's a little
bit more something that Ihaven't talked to you, that you
haven't learned in the podcastyou can't answer on Instagram or
it's more urgent, and that'swhat I want people to do.
So those are the things whereit's like you're not going to
figure it out on your own if youdon't do something like that.
(12:24):
And literally, just once again,just to go crazy on that rant
about doctors, like, if you havea doctor, if you don't have a
doctor, it's like trying to fixyour house without, like, having
a construction you know,license or having any training.
It's like the odds of youbuilding a house tomorrow
without knowing how to do it arevery unlikely.
Could you build a house?
Yeah, it's not rocket science.
Honestly, medical science isn'tthat hard.
It just takes years and yearsand years of practice to do it.
(12:47):
So you know, if you've evertried to patch a hole in your
drywall or something like that,it can be a pain in the butt,
but yet the guys that are goodat it do it instantly and it
takes them like 10 minutes.
So what may be hard for you athome may not be hard for Dr Gabe
if you just call him on thephone and that's all I like to
say.
All right, how long does ittake to clear a biofilm and
what's the best product for that?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
All right.
So with biofilm it could be assimple as one or two herbs,
that's it.
It cannot be like it.
Just it's what that personneeds.
So, whether it's like Chinesecoptas that we both like a lot,
meme, malia, miranda, there's alot of different ones.
But sometimes you can get asticky issue and you might need
some specific like essentialoils, like BFB is one that we
(13:31):
probably used in the past andit's what it's known for biofilm
busters, what BFB stands for.
But I often don't have to gothat route.
Usually it's just the rightherb for that appropriate time.
That is it and it's, and Ialready threw out a few of them.
But a lot of times I don't geta lot of sticky biofilms that
(13:52):
are difficult to remove.
It's just looking for the rightthing.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah.
So I think I'll say aboutbiofilms yes, there can be some
nasty ones, but you should nevertreat a biofilm until you're
healthy.
That's kind of my stance, whichis a little bit different than
what a lot of people say.
So meaning you should take yourcop dish, your Miranda, malia,
whatever you're taking to clearthose basic biofilms, those
entry-level biofilms, and then,if you wanted to just make your
life tough and releaseeverything that your body stored
(14:16):
that cupby talks at the timeyou can stack something like a
natokine, a buloka seropeptase.
Any one of those are ones thatwill kind of degrade mucus or
films a little bit more in thebody.
But the one thing that youmentioned that's critical is
like every herb that'santimicrobial is anti-biofilm
and so everyone wants to go takea bunch of natokinase.
(14:38):
But I see people all the timeand they're on natokinase or
some other seropeptase and theyhave no antimicrobial.
So they're releasing infectionsto the environment and they're
not killing it.
So that's the next thing nevertake a biofilm disruptor without
a stacked herb to kind of killwhat comes out of that, because
that's going to be a problem andyou're just going to relocate
that infection.
(14:59):
So that's how I see it.
All right.
Random nausea in the morningcould be gallbladder right, no
specific time, but before food.
Not pregnant.
What do you think I'm?
Speaker 2 (15:09):
going to go with blood sugar.
I'm going to go with bloodsugar.
I'm going to go with,especially because they said
before food.
So my assumption is is afterthe eat it goes away, I'm going
to go with, for sure, bloodsugar issues.
Now, I couldn't still be agallbladder.
Like you said and actually Iforgot to mention this or last
episode is a great thing to helpwith gallbladder nausea and
(15:32):
nausea in general is ginger.
Ginger is pretty good at thatand you know I use a couple of
different forms of it, but theone that I've used for
specifically for that is weedbotanicals and that ginger is
excellent.
It's almost like ginger beer onsteroids, as if you can think
about getting ginger beer onsteroids.
But yeah, no, I'm going to goblood sugar all the time on this
(15:54):
one, unless I've provenotherwise.
And you know, high protein dietlower those carbs.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Yep, he's something before bed, something like that.
You know, healthy car, healthyfat, healthy protein, something
like that.
But I agree that I'm going togo with low blood sugar on that
one, all right.
What areas are more likely togain fat with no gallbladder?
Can you counteract this orreverse it?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
I think the areas of fat is probably more determined
by genetics than anything mostlikely, and it could be various.
It could be your hips, it couldbe your waist, it could be a
couple of different areas, andthen it depends on the person
how much fat that they're goingto kind of put on before things
get back.
So some people, more thanothers, tolerate fat before
(16:40):
things get bad.
So putting on some weight likeI think Western people,
especially Americans, handle alittle bit more weight before
things get bad, because we bothsee people who are like man for
sure this person's like diabeticand they're not.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
And you're like what the?
Speaker 2 (16:54):
heck, whereas, like you know, I think it's popular,
like Asian populations that youknow they can't put on that much
weight before things go bad, sothat kind of depends.
But yeah, we're going rightback to okay, what?
What are we going to look at tohelp bile move correctly and
get the diet cleaned up?
Let the bile flow, because, ofcourse, without a gallbladder
(17:19):
sometimes your bilirary ductturns into a new gallbladder in
a sense, when you've had itremoved.
But really it's just makingsure bile is flowing properly
and it's being producedcorrectly.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Yeah, I love that, I love that, yeah.
So I mean, as far as gainingfat with no gallbladder, realize
that, yeah, in some way, shapeor form, you can't process as
many fats because you don't havea gallbladder.
It depends on how much thatbile duct expands, but it's
still your new gallbladder thatyou develop after they cut out.
Your old one still causesproblems.
You still have and I didn'tmention that in the last podcast
(17:51):
but you can still have theexact same gallbladder problems
after you have your gallbladderremoved.
And the research on that is atfive years you're about 50-50.
So I would say people like,should I have my gallbladder
removed?
I'm like cool, flip a coin andthat's about as accurate as
anyone can be in saying if itwill solve your problem.
So especially, I actually had anurse in the other day and he
(18:12):
told me he goes one time theycut open an abdomen to do a
gallbladder surgery and they'relike this gallbladder is
pristine, it was the mostbeautiful gallbladder they'd
ever seen in this person and helooked at the doctor.
The doctor looked back at himand the doctors they didn't say
anything but he said, well,based upon their age and their
GI issues, I think we better cutthis out.
(18:35):
So the determination was simplynot because they had a
gallbladder issue.
It was because of some otherissue that they were hoping.
But once again, no gallbladder,actual stones, no gallbladder
issues at all, no fatty liveraround it, and they still cut it
out.
Which odds of that personactually getting the result in
their GI tract very, very low,because they didn't actually
(18:57):
have a gallbladder problem inthe first place.
So fun to hear the stories Backto the fat gain If you can't
detoxify the toxins as well,which is what happens when you
don't have gallbladder, you'reprone to gain weight everywhere,
right?
So you're just going to startdepositing all your
environmental toxins Once again.
As every organ is removed,you're going to have to work a
little bit harder.
All right, slightly enlargedgallbladder, no stones.
(19:18):
What do you think is the besttreatment, doc?
Speaker 2 (19:21):
I'm going to go back to that whole sludge story.
The first question it's goingto be similar kind of treatment.
We're going to be looking.
Why is it slightly enlarged?
What is going on?
What's affecting it?
The similar things that wetalked about last episode.
So do you need any support?
Do you need some herbs to helppush things through, like
artichoke?
And then what's the underlyingroot cause?
(19:43):
Do you have an aldehyde issue,ammonia issue?
Do you have an insulin issue?
It's aldehyde, ammonia.
We got some most likelyinfections that we need to go
with some herbs and if it'sinsulin, it's back to good old
protein and low carb.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
All right.
So that's like our answer foreverything, right, but yet no
one's still listening.
But I'm just joking.
But it's not high protein, lowcarb for a little bit.
It's prolonged over a period oftime.
Give me six months of thatright and you-.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
A lot of people are not just staying there too.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Yeah, no, I mean what you feel well once your blood
sugar stabilizes and you knowwhat it feels like to have
stable blood sugar, like youdon't really want to go back
because it sucks.
It sucks going back to tired inthe afternoon energy crashes,
caffeine to wake you up Likeit's just like not a cool place
to be.
So yeah, that's what I sayBasically.
(20:37):
You know, listen to the lastpodcast, the Enlarged
Gallbladder.
I doesn't scare me at all.
Once again, I'm not worriedabout a gallbladder slightly
enlarged.
If there's no stones.
You're not in that danger zoneyet.
Get to work treating yourgallbladder right.
Get ahold of a doc or, you know, somehow start treating on your
own.
All right, I'm gonna add thisone in.
It has nothing to do withgallbladder.
(20:57):
But our last question Willburning above the knee.
That's worse at night.
What do you think, doc?
That's just straight fromInstagram.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
That's a fun one, cause I mean we talked about
last episode that weird, weird,random thing that we will see as
correlated to gallbladder,where it's bilateral knee pain,
burning above the knee, thoughespecially if it's one sided,
I'm not gonna directlynecessarily go right to
gallbladder, like if it's say,painful behind the knee, like
(21:26):
where your bursa is, I mightconnect it, because that's like
classic bursa pain, bursitis,you know, spinal pain on like
palpation near fillet.
It's like classic need for acid, like maintain a HCl and that
sort of thing.
So you could have a gallbladdercorrelation there.
But this is above the knee.
So we're gonna start thinkingwhat muscles are involved there.
(21:49):
Probably go musculoskeletalfirst, unless it's on the right
side, then I might go.
Maybe there's an adrenal issue,maybe there's something there I
need to look at.
But I'm keeping my optionsquite open before diving in and
then maybe doing some otherchallenges.
Of course I'm gonna.
If this patient comes in andthis is the only thing they tell
(22:09):
me that's going on I'm gonnaask a whole lot of health issue
questions, health historyquestions, cause I need a lot
more information.
It's like sometimes on the thedoctor groups were a part of,
people will throw out.
I got a seven year old personwith this one symptom and then
they leave the rest of theirhealth history off and I'm like
what do you expect us to answerif you don't give us their
entire health history?
(22:29):
It's really difficult to go offof one thing.
There's a professor I reallyloved at school.
He says like you treat it withthe company it keeps, that's how
you evaluate it.
And so if it doesn't have anycompany it's keeping, you're
gonna have to do a lot of theevaluation, a lot of
(22:51):
investigation, to see what'sgoing on.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Yeah, no, I don't have a direct correlation for
burning above the knee.
I do like the adrenal story,because that muscle that would
go weak with adrenals might belike that sartorius muscle.
That sartorius muscle Could bea small intestine issue, maybe
your VMOs flaring at night soyeah, I mean nighttime stuff, I
would say cortisol issues, whichwould be insulin issues, so you
(23:15):
have dysregulation of that, ormaybe like parasites popping up
at night.
But, yeah, definitely a superweird one.
I mean, I could even fall intothe category of restless leg
syndrome, which would be adrenal.
But yeah, no, I.
That's the funnest part aboutInstagram questions that people
give me one word and I get tocome up with a magical story
(23:36):
behind it.
So, yeah, if we ever answeryour questions or if I ever
answer your questions and it'snot right, I apologize.
But you know, obviously wespend hours taking histories
with people and do intensiveworkups on people in order to
find out these answers.
All right, last question, docOur gallbladder attacks related
to stress.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Ooh, there's another broad one.
So what do you mean by stress?
Are we talking about emotionalstress, work stress, that sort
of thing?
Because stress is actually avery broad category.
So everything we talk about isactually technically a stress to
the gallbladder, like insulinstress to the gallbladder.
But yes, most people are askingwe could probably assume that
they're asking about just youknow, life stress, work stress,
(24:17):
relationship stress.
For sure that's going to, youknow, increase your cortisol
levels.
By increasing your cortisollevels or increasing your
overall stress, you're going tostress, you're going to be in
that fight or flight mode.
If you're in fight or flight,digestion doesn't really matter
to your body.
You think of mama bear, like Ialways think of mama bear
because of mutual professor wehad Dr Hignetov.
(24:40):
You would talk about a mamabear coming after you, and if
mama bear is coming after you,you don't care about digestion,
you care, can you fight it, canyou run, can you flee, that sort
of thing.
And so if that's happening, forsure things are going to get
shut down and high stress levelsare not going to be good for
anything going on.
(25:00):
Now we you just mentioned areally important one like
insulin.
Insulin is going to often berelated to cortisol and so
cortisol at night so we can haveblood sugar issue because of
this.
But yeah, stress goes to a lotof different things and if we
and actually I'm thinking of aspecific patient, and this is
super common, especially inAmerica she I don't know if she
(25:24):
had a job, but she definitelywas running around with her kids
she was burning the big candleat both ends.
If you're burning the candle atboth ends, likely you're not
going to be able to eat.
Well, you're just stressed outto the wazoo and at some point
you will not be able to adaptanymore.
And whether it's yourgallbladder, whether it's your
gut, whatever it is, something'sgoing to fail on you.
(25:45):
Multiple things will fail onyou.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, I think when I go to that I went straight to
that caffeine story whereoftentimes, if with a caffeine
that's an adrenaline rush, right, you have a stimulation there
that you get, that stimulationdoes make a bowel movement
happen.
So let's say that you had likean acute stressor or a
significant enough traumaticstressor, like I've seen crazy
(26:11):
cases where someone likeabsolutely hates their dad but
has to meet with their dad aboutsomething and their condition
will completely flare.
Or maybe, yeah, and maybe youhate driving, or you were
recently in an accident and nowdriving stimulates an adrenaline
rush That'll create agallbladder flush.
I don't know about an attack.
And then the other thing that Iwould say is chronic stress,
(26:34):
which will reduce yourprogesterone.
Progesterone is the main hormoneresponsible for relaxing the
gallbladder, kind of letting itchill out a little bit.
So while I don't seeprogesterone deficiency causing
direct gallbladder attacks, yeah, I mean I would just say no, I
don't think that emotionalstress directly causes an attack
(26:56):
, as much as it causes problemsand those problems just mounts
up to where really any littlething could stimulate that
attack.
Does that make sense, doc?
So it's indirect.
In other words, yeah, yeah,something indirect there.
Directly correlated.
So thank you guys again forlistening to the podcast today.
I'm going to always askquestions.
See if you guys can submit anyon Instagram.
(27:17):
We answered 16 questions today.
I want more.
Let's answer more questions.
They can be on gallbladder oranything else, but you can hear
my opinion, which is oftenslightly different than Dr
Gaines.
But you realize that we can allcome at this problem from
different angles, different ways, and we can still get to the
same thing because themechanisms are the same.
(27:38):
And what a lot of people don'tunderstand is how the body truly
works, and not only how thebody works, but how it
integrates.
And so that's why in ourtraining or whatever we call it,
systems health care, it's notabout your gallbladder, it's how
does your insulin affect yourgallbladder.
It's not about your gallbladder, it's how does your hormones
affect your gallbladder and, asI mentioned in the last podcast,
(27:59):
it's how your steroid systemaffects your digestion, which
originally came from yourgallbladder, which came from the
liver right.
We're multiple systemsaddressing those, and that's
what we hope to share in thispodcast and that's what we think
actually makes this podcast alittle bit different than all
the other ones, where they mayjust educate you on how the
gallbladder works.
We want to integrate thosesystems for you.
Any final words, doc?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
No, I love it.
That's exactly my approach.
I want to show how all thesesystems interplay.
That's why I love systemshealth care Because, like we
said, with that weird thingbilateral knee pain your
gallbladder affects yourmusculoskeletal system.
So we want to show how thesethings interplay with each other
, how you can tell the signsearly on, so you don't wind up
(28:40):
with meeting with a surgeon inan urgent situation.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yeah, and just a reminder, Dr Gabe is still
accepting new patients.
What's the best way for them toget a hold of you right now?
We'll keep asking that everyweek in case it changes.
So what's the best way to get ahold of you so?
Speaker 2 (28:55):
easy to get on, whether it's through Google,
facebook, even on my Instagram.
They'll be in the show notesfor sure.
Otherwise, you can get it onthe website too.
You just Google my name.
I'm the only person in Americathat has that name, so it's most
likely going to come up.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
That's Dr D R A RI C I U, dr Arichu, and thanks again
for listening to you guys, andwe will see you on the next
episode.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
All right, take care.
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