Your gallbladder — a small, pear-shaped organ tucked behind your liver — is the key to your hormonal health.
This often overlooked, and under-rated organ both assimilates fat used as the raw material for hormones and helps to store and concentrate bile which helps carry toxins (including old hormones) out of the body.
Gallbladder Role Hormone Production
Your gallbladder concentrates and stores bile, a fluid that helps break down and emulsify the fats you eat for healthy digestion. These fats, in turn, serve as the building blocks of many of the hormones in your body.
Bile does to fats what dish detergent does to grease. Bile contains ‘biological-detergents’ (bile-salts that dissolve fats) and cholesterol and acts like an emulsifier. Bile breaks down fats into teeny tiny droplets, which gives fat-digesting enzymes more surface area upon which to do their work.
Fats need to be emulsified to support hormonal health and act as transportation vehicles for fat-soluble nutrients like vitamins A, D, E, and K. Undigested fats can rancidify creating an additional toxic burden for the body or contributing to digestive symptoms similar to IBS such as chronic diarrhea.
Gallbladder Role in Toxin Elimination
Healthy bile flow carries waste products, including old hormones out of the body. Your liver filters out fat-soluble toxins and converts them into a less reactive, water-soluble toxins are excreted through the urine while fat-soluble toxins are released into the bile and carried through the gall bladder to the gut where they are eliminated via bowel movements. Bile helps to stimulate healthy bowel movements and peristalsis, the wave-like muscular action that propels food matter and waste through the intestines.
Toxins, waste and old hormones are stored in the bile for elimination via the intestines. If toxins do not exit the body, they can be reabsorbed further adding to the body’s toxic burden, contributing to hormonal imbalances.
In other words, the good things can’t get into the body and the bad things are not removed from the body.
Compromised Gallbladder Function
A diet of fatty, hard-to-digest foods, a low fat diet, too much toxicity, estrogen dominance, or chronic stress can make the gallbladder sluggish or contribute to gallbladder sludge, a thick, gluey collection of cholesterol, calcium, bilirubin, and other compounds that build up in the gallbladder that can lead to thickened bile . It is sometimes called biliary sludge because it occurs when bile stays in the gallbladder for too long.
If the bile is sludge-like or there is congestion in the gall bladder or the ducts that connect the gallbladder to the liver (the hepatic duct) and gut (the common bile duct which enters the small intestine at the sphincter of Oddi, a ring-shaped muscle located a few inches below the stomach), then this critical detoxification pathway will not function as it should. Congested bile flow and stagnation can contribute to both malnutrition and the accumulation of toxins in the body.
When the bile thickens or too viscous, it disrupts the flow and toxins (especially estrogen) don’t move out of the system and often get reabsorbed, leading to hormonal imbalances like Estrogen Dominance.
Compromised gallbladder function can also compromise your ability to make and metabolize hormones will be impaired. If your ability to digest fat is compromised, it can also contribute to deficiencies of essential fatty acids, including omega 3 and omega 6 fats, and fat soluble vitamins, such as vitamins D, E, A and K. Many antioxidants are also fat soluble. For example, lycopene, lutein and carotenoids are all fat soluble.
Bile also helps regulate gut microbiome by killing off unwanted pathogens that can make their way into your body.
Symptoms of poor fat digestion can present as dry, brittle hair; dry skin and premature aging of the skin; weak nails and painful joints. Essential fatty acids are also important for healthy brain function and can influence mood, anxiety, depression and cognitive function.
The Relationship Between Estrogen Dominance And Gallbladder Issues
Estrogen dominance, a condition involving a hormone imbalance between estrogen and progesterone, causes bile to become thick and sluggish, which will cause problems with the emulsification of fats, and therefore can impair hormone metabolism as well. Gallbladder issues also correlate with Estrogen Dominance.
Progesterone has also been shown to reduce smooth muscle activity around the gallbladder. The bile and cholesterol salts that the liver pumps into the gallbladder are less likely to drain into the bowel and more likely to stay in place. When bile doesn’t move, in this condition called gallbladder stasis, the salts and cholesterol in the fluid are more likely to form crystals that become stones.
Gallbladder Essential Oil for Hormonal Support
Gall Bladder™ supports optimal gallbladder health, improving the viscosity of the bile, allowing better fat digestion and elimination of toxins and old hormones. Gall Bladder™ contains a proprietary formulation of the following organic and/or wild crafted therapeutic essential oils in a base of fractionated coconut oil that Support bile thinning , bile flow and hormonal balance.
Black Cumin essential oil is especially beneficial for the gallbladder and for restoring healthy bile flow, since the chemical constituent stearic acid in cumin seed is an ideal emulsifying agent that binds water and oil.
Cumin and Digestion Cumin essential oil is traditionally used for digestive health. Research on digestive diseases has found that abdominal pain, bloating, incomplete defecation, fecal urgency, and the presence of mucous discharge in stool were significantly decreased during and after treatment with cumin essential oil. The gallbladder plays a critical role in alleviating constipation. Supporting optimal bile flow with essential oils like cumin can help improve motility and eliminate constipation and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Palmarosa helps to support the digestive system at a cellular level, helping to boost your body’s production of bile. Stabilizes and balances the central nervous system, calming the mind and relieving stiff and sore muscles.
Roman Chamomile essential oil is one of the deepest detoxifiers. It not only supports the liver in proper function, but it actually stimulates the liver to release toxins held deep in the liver’s tissues. Roman Chamomile also aids in the release of toxicity held in the digestive tract, which can help recovery from a stomach virus or a weekend of poor dietary choices.
To support the optimal flow of bile and allow toxins to flow out of the body, apply 2-3 drops of Gall Bladder™ underneath the ribs at the gall bladder (right side, underneath the ribs. If you lean forward, it is easier to apply under the ribs).
If your gallbladder has been removed, you can still support your fat digestion and toxin removal.
Melatonin has many gallbladder supportive properties in research, such as converting cholesterol to bile and decreasing gall bladder sludge and increasing the mobility of gallstones from the gallbladder.
Melatonin is typically released by the pineal gland in response to darkness. Circadian Rhythm® blend can be applied around the base of the skull (apex of head, above ears and back of head) to help trigger the natural release of melatonin.
Further studies show that melatonin allows the gallbladder to contract more fully by strengthening the neuromuscular junction of the gallbladder walls. This effect is seen because in acute gallbladder attacks, inflammation is produced. This inflammation impairs proper contractility of the gallbladder suggesting that melatonin is a therapeutic intervention in the recovery of gallbladder neuromuscular function.
Like any detoxification effort, it is important to help facilitate exit route prior to mobilizing toxins. If you mobilize toxins without opening up channels for elimination, including taking binders like chlorella to help eliminate toxins, you risk making yourself feel worse.
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References:
- https://drjockers.com/10-ways-improve-gut-microbiome/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29191493/
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6223213_Effects_of_Melatonin_on_Gallbladder_Neuromuscular_Function_in_Acute_Cholecystitis
