close call...

Some weeks ago, I started experiencing a progressively worsening dull ache just below/underneath my right bottom front rib cage area. Lucky for me, I had recently ordered a book about liver and gallbladder cleansing, so started doing the simple seven-day cleansing program described in the book.

The program involves drinking apple juice every day for six days to soften the gallstones, and then following a timetable for taking two doses of epsom salts in water, followed by a mixture of virgin olive oil and grapefruit juice, followed by sleep, followed by two more doses of epsom salts. According to the book, one must repeat the cleansing program about every three weeks until no stones pass out in two successive treatments. As prevention, the book recommends performing the cleanse about every eight months.

I was amazed to see all the stones that passed out of me, but the pain continued for some days, perhaps because the gallbladder became inflamed from having been stretched by the stones to nearly its limit. The dull ache is slowly subsiding, I'm feeling better with each passing day, and I think I possibly avoided emergency surgery.

Since doing the cleanse, I have found various similar cleansing programs online, some using lemon juice instead of grapefruit juice, some with and some without epsom salts. While conducting this search, I remembered finding some years ago online a simple lemon juice and olive oil remedy for kidney stones that worked like charm for a friend of mine.

I just wonder how anyone discovered that using large amounts of olive oil and citrus juice could have the effect of shifting stones out of the body. It is mystifying how these remedies come into being.