TCM Treatment for Gallbladder Disease:
Milk thistle (Silybum marianum)
for liver and gallbladder detoxification support. Patients with allergies to ragweed or a history of hormone-sensitive cancers should take milk thistle with caution.

Globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus)
for support of gallbladder and liver function. Due to its ability to increase bile production, globe artichoke could trigger a gallbladder attack if there is bile duct obstruction. Talk to your doctor.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa)
standardized extract, 300 mg, 3 times daily for support of liver function. High doses of turmeric can have blood thinning effects. Care should be taken if you are on other blood-thinning medications.

Green tea (Camelia sinensis)
for antioxidant effects. You may also prepare teas from the leaf of this herb. Note: green tea extracts may contain caffeine. Look for decaffeinated products.


Treatment in Western Medicine:
Treatment and Prevention
Gallstones almost never spontaneously disappear, except sometimes when they are formed under special circumstances, such as pregnancy or sudden weight loss.  Many natural doctors claim that some stones can be encouraged to pass, and that there are treatments to reduce or eliminate symptoms.  Apart from natural or other preventive treatments, the probability of eventually needing an operation for a 30-year-old is about 30%; for 50-year-olds it is 20%; and for 70-year-olds it is 15%.

Although removal of the gallbladder has not been known to cause any long-term effects aside from occasional diarrhea, some researchers have been concerned about its effects on the body's cholesterol levels.  One study found that within three days of the operation, levels of total cholesterol and LDL returned to their preoperative levels.  After three years, however, some types of cholesterol not ordinarily associated with coronary artery disease had risen significantly.  These results did not necessarily indicate any increased risk for coronary artery disease, but they did show that the metabolism of cholesterol by the liver had been altered.  People who have had their gallbladders removed should have their cholesterol levels checked periodically, as should every adult.

Bile Acid Treatment
In the normal gallbladder, bile acids keep the cholesterol in solution, preventing stone formation.  Two bile acids, chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), when given as medications have been found to dissolve gallstones.  CDCA has significant side-effects, auch as diarrhea and abnormal liver tests.  UDCA has few side-effects.  Successful treatment is most commonly seen with noncalcified stones of less than 5mm.  The rate of dissolving is about 1mm per month.  A combination of CDCA with UDCA has about a 50% rate of complete dissolving of noncalcified stones with 6 months of therapy.

The addition of cholesterol-lowering medications, known as "statins", like lovastatin (Mevacor) and simvastatin (Zocor), improve the effectiveness of UDCA therapy.  These cholesterol-lowering agents reduce both serum and bile cholesterol in humans, and also inhibit cholesterol gallstone formation in animals.  With the same cholesterol-lowering benefits, a healthy diet helps dissolve gallstones when used in combination with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which is sold as Actigall.  A doctor's prescription is needed.

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL)
ESWL has been used for over 15 years to break up kidney stones.  During this treatment, shock waves generated outside the body are focused on gallstones in order to fracture them into smaller particles, the size of sand granules.  The success rate with small stones (under 20mm) is 77%, larger stones is 60%, and multiple stones is 41% – success means complete disappearance in 6 months.  The addition of bile acids to dissolve the small fragments may improve upon the success rate.  This approach is of particular value for those patients who are poor surgical candidates and for those wanting to keep their gallbladders.