Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

Hi all,
Wondering if there any starchivores out there that have decided to go against medical advice and fight to keep their gallbladder?

Here's a bit of context on my situation:
5 years ago (just around the time I was considering moving to the McDougal diet), I was diagnosed with gallstones. If ever I needed the push this was it. Since adopting the McDougall diet 5 years ago I have had no gallbladder issues at all - none!
After going on the diet my weight dropped form about 185 to 160 and I hover between 160 and 167 these days and have felt and been very healthy.

Then in January this year. I have had repeated gallbladder attacks ranging from severe to mild.
Currently mostly mild but with increasing frequency and length.
Turns out the number of stones has increased and I now have stones in my bile duct.

After consultations with my doctor and a surgeon the advice is to take it out.

I'm currently doing a very restricted diet, sweet potato, beets apple and lime (the last three I make into a salad) and I've decided to take some supplements to promote stone dissolving, from a web site called gallbladderattack.com .

I'm very interested in hearing how others who have had issues and decided not to have surgery have got on, especially anyone who had stones in the bile duct

thanks

Quick search and Dr Google said that about 85% of people w/ stones in bile duct can have the stones removed, leaving the gall bladder. I know there are risks no matter what you do and those must all be weighed, by you. There are herbs that may help dissolve gallstones though I do not know how often they are effective.

https://www.healthline.com/health/chole ... #treatment

Treating choledocholithiasis

Treating gallstones in the bile duct focuses on relieving the blockage. These treatments may include:

stone extraction
fragmenting stones (lithotripsy)
surgery to remove the gallbladder and stones (cholecystectomy)
surgery that makes a cut into the common bile duct to remove stones or help them pass (sphincterotomy)
biliary stenting

The most common treatment for gallstones in the bile duct is biliary endoscopic sphincterotomy (BES). During a BES procedure, a balloon- or basket-type device is inserted into the bile duct and used to extract the stone or stones. About 85 percent of bile duct stones can be removed with BES.

If a stone does not pass on its own or cannot be removed with BES, doctors may use lithotripsy. This procedure is designed to fragment stones so they can be captured or passed easily.

Dr. McDougall has written on gallstones...since this is his site, these are worth reading:

https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2002nl/may/diewithyourgallstones.htm

https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/health-science/common-health-problems/gallbladder-disease/

https://www.crsociety.org/topic/12272-a ... l+%2Bstone This will be of interest to you. Check out the entire thread as it eventually ended in surgery.

Thanks to all for your responses.
I've read everything that Dr. McDougall has to say about gallstones, I even wrote to him .

So far this week no attacks - so my simple diet seems to be keeping things stable. I plan to introduce some more veg and maybe quinoa this week and see how that goes.

There is a myriad of information out there and all of it is conflicting.

However, for now the battle goes on.

Cheers