Your gallbladder is no more necessary to your overall health then your appendix is, but it still manages to cause trouble when things within it go wrong. Preventive maintenance is a beloved concept among alternative medicine aficionados, but there is scant evidence that doing gallbladder cleanses has any actual effect on gallstones. Gallbladder cleanses with lemon are among the most common methods used, along with olive oil and Epsom salts. A lemon juice cleanse will not magically prevent or remove gallstones, but adding fresh lemon juice to your diet does have some benefits.
Gallbladder Facts
Your gallbladder is a small pear-shaped organ attached to your liver. Its job is to make bile, which helps move what's in your digestive tract out of your body. Some of the bile moves through your small intestine, and some is stored in your gallbladder. About 90 percent of the water in the bile that is stored in your gallbladder is absorbed by your body, leaving fats and salts behind. Sometimes these fats and salts form deposits, which are called gallstones.
Gallstone Facts
Gallstones are formed from the fats, salts and bile in your gallbladder. They can be any size, ranging from a grain of sand to a golf ball, though the latter is unusual. When gathered in the gallbladder, tiny gallstones are generally unfelt and cause no problems. Occasionally, especially in people over 65, women and the overweight, gallstones can block the bile duct or get caught in your intestine, blocking it. This causes pain, usually high up on your right side, and can lead to jaundice, fever and severe pain. Generally, your doctor will recommend that your gallbladder be removed, or that the gallstones be broken up with drugs, or with intracorporeal electrohydraulic lithotripsy (EHL). Lemon juice has no effect on gallstones whatsoever.
Lemon Juice Cleanse Facts
A traditional lemon juice cleanse involves mixing lemon juice, olive oil and Epsom salts and drinking this concoction between one and three times per day. The amount of olive oil ingested can be as much as three cups in one day. Lemon juice is used more to cut the oily texture of the olive oil and to help disguise the taste of it and the Epsom salts. Lemon juice does contain high amounts of vitamin C, which fights the free radicals that are associated with some cancers and with certain side effects of aging. But lemon juice cannot forcibly cleanse your gallbladder and it will not dissolve gallstones.
Warnings
Cleansing regimens have been in existence for centuries and they do have their place in a modern lifestyle. Drinking diluted lemon juice will provide you with extra vitamin C and help keep you hydrated. Lemon juice is also a diuretic, which can help counter the effects of taking in a little too much salt. But there is no value in relying on cleanses to keep you healthy rather than eating a diet of fresh vegetables, whole grains, essential fatty acids, raw fruits and lean proteins.
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