Digestive Ailments 53
saturated quantities of cholesterol in the bladder.^10 Gallstones can also
form when the liver and kidneys are too congested to process the fatty
acids altered by excessive blood levels of estrogen.
Allergy-causing foods are also a factor in gallbladder attacks and the
formation of gallstones. A study carried out by Dr. James C. Breneman
back in the 1960s provides evidence for this claim. The 69 patients in
his study, all of whom suffered from recurrent gallbladder attacks, were
put on an elimination diet to determine their food allergies. Those of
the 69 patients who avoided the foods they were allergic to had no more
attacks. The primary offending foods were eggs (92.8 percent), pork
(63.8 percent), onions (52.2 percent), chicken and turkey (34.8 percent),
milk (24.6 percent), coffee (21.7 percent), and oranges (18.8 percent).JIM’S ALLERGY TO SHELLFISH PRECIPITATED A
GALLBLADDER ATTACK
Jim went on a cruise through the Inland Passage to Alaska. He
went less to see the fjords and glaciers than for the limitless
quantities of food on the buffet table. On the fourth night of the
cruise he ate between thirty and forty prawns for dinner. A half
hour later he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. The doctor on
board the ship diagnosed a gallbladder attack and blamed it on the
huge plate of prawns Jim had eaten. His second attack, which
occurred two weeks after the cruise, also occurred after he had
eaten prawns.
The pain was so unbearable that his wife rushed him to the
hospital where he was given intravenous fl uids and was put on a
complete fast until the pain went away. It occurred to his wife that
since he felt fi ne once his stomach was emptied of the prawns,
and his second attack also occurred after he had eaten prawns, he
might be having an allergic reaction to the prawns. Jim’s doctor
disagreed. He didn’t see how a food allergy could cause the
gallbladder to malfunction. Convinced that allergy tests would be a
waste of time, he told Jim that with his gallbladder removed he
could eat all the prawns he wanted.continued