Glands and Organs: Knowing your body
Gall Bladder
Our gall bladder is essential to digestion, although the way people have them removed, it seems hard to believe. It begins the digestion and absorption for the rest of the body to be nourished. When the gall bladder is not working properly, there is usually a feeling of fullness after eating - that stuffed and stuck feeling. If it gets really bad, you may even feel gall bladder pain in the back of the body. When the digestion is extremely poor, you may begin to experience reflux. This is also a gall bladder symptom. Many times when people believe they have pulled out their back, it's really the gall bladder they abused. If they think about it, they'll find they have been eating a lot of foods lately that aggravate the poor gall bladder.
Other symptoms of gall bladder may be irritating gas symptoms. If very little bile is being produced the body may discharge the food through the system very quickly creating diarrhea instead of bloating. Food that is not digested properly can cause bowel movements with strong odors.
In America, this organ is definitely overworked. And when the gall bladder is not working correctly, the arteries suffer. The gall bladder will use the arteries to store the fats and cholesterol if is unable to digest. As the nurturing area cleans up, so do the arteries. It's amazing how this body works!
The foods to avoid to heal the Gall Bladder:
No fried food, no hydrogenated oils, no pork, no COW cheese. Substitute with good quality oils (read labels) including extra virgin olive oil (we prefer Greek or Italian for quality), canola, sunflower, sesame or safflower oils. Make sure the products you purchase contain good oils - read labels! Substitute your cheese with soy, rice, sheep or goat cheese. These do not seem to affect the gall bladder. Avoid walnuts & roasted cashews, as both are high in oils. If the gall bladder is very bad, all seeds & nuts may need to be avoided for a few weeks until such time as the gall bladder cleans itself out.
Herbs & supplements that are beneficial to the Gall Bladder: Again, my favorites for this area include dandelion, burdock root and yellow dock root. They do a wonderful job with the whole nurturing center. If you have doubts, always start with a tea first as it is less potent than the capsules, or try the tincture where you can start slowly with one drop and work you way upward to five drops per day. Drinking pure water with a little fresh lemon may also be helpful to detoxify this area.
Physical symptoms of the Gall Bladder: A gall bladder that is not functioning to its fullest potential can create many physical symptoms, including bloating, burping, gas, and reflux. The gall bladder can also create a pain in the lower back if it gets really out of control as well as diarrhea. Watching for physical symptoms especially after eating the foods that aggravate this area will give you a clear indication of what you are dealing with.
Negative emotions that aggravate the Gall Bladder:
The gall bladder is where we store our fear, our worries and our anxieties, especially fears of making mistakes, fear of the wrong decision, fear of rejection or fears of failure. It's no wonder so many are taken out. We have become professionals in surrounding ourselves in our fears. In order to overcome your fears, you have to jump right in and face them.
The flowers help us to learn how to do this. The two flower essences used for these types of fear are: Aspen for unknown fears and Mimulus for known fears. Larch is also often used for gall bladder issues especially if the person is afraid to fail in life or afraid of rejection. The gall bladder also holds the energy of self-esteem.
Larch can be a funny personality type. On the outside, they may seem confident and secure, but they may set such high standards that if they make a mistake, they beat themselves up for it. These personality types tend to have a very sensitive digestive system.