Gallstones

Ok, wowzah! This blew me away.

As many of you know, I’m a fan of Tom Cowan primarily because he is an “out-of-the-box” thinker.

Today I was watching a video of him discussing gallstones. I’ve had three friends recently have their gallbladders removed, and it made me wonder whether there was something they could have done to prevent it.

Turns out, maybe there was.

Dr. Cowan was an ER doctor for many years, so he saw his share of patients with gallbladder attacks. He joked that many of them admitted to having eaten fried chicken before the attack. In the ER, most patients were given painkillers, which often relaxed the gallbladder enough to release the stone. Even so, many of these patients eventually ended up having surgery to remove the gallbladder.

He did know one doctor who would put patients on fluids only—no food—for 24 hours, and the attacks would resolve. However, that doctor said he never saw the stones actually dissolve.

This got Dr. Cowan thinking about why the body would form gallstones in the first place. What could be the reason behind it? Gallstones are largely made of cholesterol, and cholesterol is a type of fat. Could it be that the body forms gallstones as a way of storing the type of fat it needs?

So Dr. Cowan decided to test his theory with patients who had gallbladder attacks. First, he confirmed by ultrasound that they did indeed have gallstones. Then he put them on a special diet consisting of ONLY RAW ANIMAL FATS. Yes—the only fats they were allowed to consume was raw fats from animal sources. And you had to eat as much as you could tolerate! They could also eat vegetables, fruit, and honey, but they could not eat anything containing cooked fats. So no cooked meat'; raw meat like beef tartare, and sushi was allowed. Sources of raw fat included raw milk, raw cream, raw kefir, raw butter, and raw suet (yuck). I’m pretty sure raw cheese was allowed too (thank God!).

He had them eat this way for six months. God bless them—that’s a very difficult diet.

After six months he retested them with ultrasound, and in about 60–80% of his patients the gallstones were gone. They had dissolved.

Now this is in no way medical advice, but isn’t it fascinating to think that if you eat the right kinds of fats, your body may not feel the need to create gallstones in the first place?

Bring on the raw butter! 🧈
Love and hugs,
~Christine