Ending the Olive Oil Soap Stone Myth

1. When combined with citrus juice, olive oil cannot congeal into such relatively hard, dense, waxy stones, as are eliminated during liver flushes. You can easily determine this when you combine the two ingredients as part of the liver flush protocol. A saponification of olive inside the body is not possible, given the short time frame that the olive oil has to travel through the GI tract, and the absence of any saponifying chemicals or hardening agents. The small amount of hydrochloric acid found in an empty stomach has no influence on thickening oils or fats. Proteins are digested by gastric juice. Fats and oils are digested by bile and bile salts.To saponify fats or oils and turn them into solid soap, you need to use lye. Lye is a corrosive alkaline substance, commonly known as sodium hydroxide (NaOH, also known as caustic soda) or, historically, potassium hydroxide (KOH, from hydrated potash). Lye is a highly toxic chemical that can cause serious injury and death. Since you need lye to saponify fats, and lye is not ingested during a liver flush, the body has zero capacity to manufacture olive oil stones, and certainly not green, beige, yellow, brown, black, or red stones, all of which have been found to be released during the liver cleansing process.

In a Quackwatch.com publication^[2], author Peter Moran quoted from a letter of opinion published in the medical journal Lancet, after the Lancet published an article in favor of liver flushes (which infuriated liver flush opponents). The counter-article written by some group of obscure scientists attempted to make doctors and patients believe that the results of an alleged experimentation (no reference given, unheard of for bona fide scientists) were identical to the outcome of a liver flush.

[2 The Truth about Gallbladder and Liver “Flushes”, Quackwatch.com]

These pseudo-scientists claim: “Experiments revealed that mixing equal volumes of oleic acid (the major component of olive oil) and lemon juice produced several semisolid white balls after the addition of a small volume of a potassium hydroxide solution. On air drying at room temperature, these balls became quite solid and hard. We conclude, therefore,that these green ‘stones’ (passed during liver flushes) resulted from the action of gastric lipases on the simple and mixed triacylglycerols that make up olive oil, yielding long chain carboxylic acids (mainly oleic acid). This process was followed by saponification into large insoluble micelles of potassium carboxylates (lemon juice contains a high concentration of potassium) or ‘soap stones’.”

Of course, these so-called scientists failed to mention that potassium hydroxide readily turns into white balls or pellets^[3] as this picture in Wikipedia shows (see Figure 15). There is no need to add olive oil or lemon juice to create these pellets or lumps of corrosive powder. Regardless, potassium hydroxide, which is very corrosive, has a high reactivity toward acids like lemon’s citric acid and fatty acids. Surely, almost everyone has seen potassium hydroxide solution leaking from an alkaline battery, as shown in the picture next to it.

[3 Potassium Hydroxide Pellets, en.wikipedia.org]

Figure 15: Potassium hydroxide pellets and powder

To then go on and draw the conclusion that these same lab-produced, hard white pellets, somehow created inside the body, magically turn into soft, waxy, bright green colored cholesterol stones, is simply ridiculous. If this would not be such a serious issue with incredibly serious implications, I would think it was a fabulous joke.

According to standard product analysis^[4], virgin olive oil has a free acidity (expressed as oleic acid) of no more than 0.8 grams per 100 grams (0.8 percent). Higher concentrations make the olive oil inedible. Doing a laboratory experiment with 100 percent oleic acid does not even remotely resemble what is happening when one ingests the barely 1 percent of free oleic acid found in 1⁄2 cup of olive oil. Turning this tiny amount of oleic acid into hundreds of green olive oil soap stones requires a miracle. It is certainly anything but science.

[4 Olive Oil Standard Product Analysis, www.oliveoilsource.com]

As far as I know, nobody has ever done a liver flush using inedible olive oil composed of free acid of at least over 80 percent, necessary to make soap in a laboratory setting. What this means is that even if, in fact, the olive oil ingested during a regular liver flush could be made into soap stones, there is just not enough free acid available to form even pinhead size soap stones, not to mention the hundreds, and possibly thousands, of lentil-to-chickpea size stones passed during most liver flushes.

These scientists, as well as Quackwatch.com, EsoWatch,com and Wikipedia, have also omitted to mention that the body does not produce the caustic, toxic chemical potassium hydroxide that they used in their experiment (if they ever did perform such an experiment, or just read up on it on Wikipedia). Therefore, comparing a chemical reaction using a highly reactive toxic chemical with what is naturally occurring in the human digestive system is not only indicative of pseudoscience, but also highly deceptive and downright irresponsible.

I can only assume that this comparison, using clever scientific jargon that most people cannot understand, or don’t know how to verify, was intentional. Real scientists would not be making up such fictitious stories and presenting them as scientific fact. To sum it up, the toxic lyepotassium hydroxide is not part of the liver and gallbladder flush and, therefore, saponification of olive oil cannot take place inside the human body.

The statement, “On air drying at room temperature, these balls became quite solid and hard,” made by these authors in the Lancet letter refers only to potassium hydroxide which, of course, plays no role in the liver flush. Besides, the gallstones passed during the liver flushes do not dry in the air – they enter the toilet water right away. Again, the comparison does not compute.

The most presumptuous statement made in the Lancet letter is the following: “This regime consisted of free intake of apple and vegetable juice until 1800 h, but no food, followed by the consumption of 600 ml of olive oil and 300 ml of lemon juice over several hours.” I have worked with the liver flush process for 15 years, but have never heard of any sane person drinking 600 ml of the mixture, which is over 20 ounces of olive oil, plus 10 ounces of lemon juice! Anyone who tries to do that will vomit like there is no tomorrow!

The correct liver flush regime uses 4 ounces (118 ml) of olive oil, which is merely 20 percent the amount the 40-year-old woman mentioned in the article allegedly ingested. I am extremely doubtful that there is anyone who could drink this much olive oil and not faint. I know that those who have tried drinking 4 ounces of olive oil twice within an hour or two became violently ill. I also doubt that there could be any herbalist that would prescribe this much olive oil and lemon juice to a patient without having homicidal intentions.

2. True medical science as taught, for instance, at Johns Hopkins University, of course, does not share the same views as the pseudo scientists or medical doctors who claim that liver stones don’t exist. Under the subject of ‘Cholangiocarcinoma’ in its online department of Gastroenterology & Hematology, Johns Hopkins describes the existence of intrahepatic biliary gallstones in the following way: “Gallstones vary in size, shape and number, and may be found throughout the biliary tract. The link between cholangiocarcinoma and gallstones is unclear. Intrahepatic gallstones may cause chronic obstruction to bile flow, promote micro injury of the bile ducts, and are associated with a 2–10% risk of the development of cholangiocarcinoma (see Figure 1a in Chapter 1).

Congenital cystic dilation of intrahepatic biliary ducts (Caroli’s disease), and choledochus cysts have also been closely associated with development of cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer)^[5].

[5 Intrahepatic Biliary Gallstones, Johns Hopkins University, Gastroenterology & Hematology, Cholangiocarcinoma: Causes; www. http://www.hopkins-gi.org]

Therefore, to ignore, deny, or ridicule the existence of intrahepatic biliary gallstones is a foolish and inexcusable mistake that can have serious consequences for millions of people. Although liver cancer has been an extremely rare disease just half a century ago, this is no longer the case today. An average man’s lifetime risk of getting liver or bile duct cancer is now about 1 in 94, while an average woman’s risk is about 1 in 212, according to 2012 statistics published by the American Cancer Society^[6].

[6 Liver cancer statistics, American Cancer Society http://www.cancer.org]

By comparison, according the recently released 2008 statistics on autism rates, 1 in 88 children will develop autism. Even if only 2-10 percent of all liver cancers are caused by liver bile duct congestion (due to biliary stones), the number of cancers is still extremely high. Regardless, liver cancer is only one of the many extremely serious consequences of liver bile duct obstruction, as you can derive from Chapter 1 of this book.

3. Many laboratories have confirmed that the stones passed during liver and gallbladder flushes consist of mostly cholesterol and bile salts (see example in Figure 1b of Chapter 1). This means, the released stones must have originated in the liver or gallbladder. This is a link to a “Thesis on the liver cleanse” by Cristina Carugati, School of Naturopathy, Bissone, Switzerland, which contains verifiable laboratory reports as well^[7].

[7 Thesis on the Liver Cleanse by Cristina Carugati, School of Naturopathy, Bissone, Switzerland, ener-chi.com (Resources > Links to Helpful websites)]

4. Millions of people all over the world have reported success with the liver flush. If it were useless, it would not have spread through word of mouth like it has. An ongoing liver flush survey on CureZone.com has shown that about 75 percent of the people who have done a liver flush have benefited from it^[8] (please note that for lasting improvements, one must ensure that all the stones are removed from the liver and gallbladder; doing just one liver flush is not sufficient).

[8 CureZone Liver Flush Survey, Curezone.com]

World renowned Dr. Thomas Rau, of the Biological Medicine Network and Medical Director of the 50-year-old Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland, who has used my liver flush protocol for over a decade now, confirms that it has greatly benefited thousands of his patients. He says it is very easy to prove the effects of the liver and gallbladder flushes through ultrasound. In every case where ultrasounds showed dilated bile ducts before doing liver flushes (because of their congestion with gallstones), they showed complete normalization after liver flushing.

Author and naturopathic physician Alan Baklayan has also been using the liver and gallbladder protocol to help his patients effectively normalize their cholesterol levels. And I have received letters from hundreds of physicians stating that they, too, found the liver and gallbladder flush to be their most effective method of helping their patients heal from a multiple range of disorders.

5. Olive oil does not assume the putrid smell that emanates from most intrahepatic and extrahepatic gallstones that are released. The smell is unlike that produced by any type of fecal matter. Laboratory-produced soap stones do not emit this putrid smell.

6. Analysis of released gallstones reveals that the majority of them contain all of the basic ingredients that make up bile fluid. Organic matter may also be present. Many of these stones consist of layers and layers of old, dark-green bile, something that does not happen overnight. The rest of the stones are the typical, rock-hard mineral stones found in the gallbladder. The red or black bilirubin stones some people pass during their flushes certainly cannot pass off as olive oil soap stones.

7. During the liver flush, the olive oil mixture does not pass into the liver, as it would if it were eaten with food. Its only action is to prompt a powerful discharge of bile from the liver and gallbladder, thereby removing stones via their respective pathways. Neither the liver nor the gallbladder can therefore act as a soap stone factory.

8. Once the liver and gallbladder are completely clean, no more gallstones are released after ingesting the oil/citrus juice mixture. If these stones were indeed made from olive oil, they would continue to be produced during liver flushes performed after the liver has been completely cleansed and all bile ducts clear and open. However, this is not the case. The liver flush produces no more stones once the liver is clean, regardless of how much olive oil one ingests.

Besides, the olive oil consumed during liver flushes does not always produce the same results. During one flush, only 50 stones may come out, whereas during the next one, as many as 1,000 may be expelled. Sometimes, no stones come out at all when a large clogged biliary duct in the liver just hasn’t opened up yet. During the following flush, however, there may be hundreds of stones coming out. If the olive oil mixture alone were to turn into olive oil stones, as claimed, the same number of stones and types of stones would have to be made each time.

9. Because of intolerance to olive oil, some people have used, for example, pure macadamia nut oil (which is colorless) during their flushes and produced precisely the same green-colored stones. Cholesterol stones that exactly match these green stones can be found in the bile ducts of dissected livers (see Figure 3b). Some people have used golden-colored olive oil for the liver flushes, but obtained the same results when they used a slightly green-colored olive oil.

10. If stones were just blobs of olive oil, why do so many people get cured from chronic illnesses, such as asthma, allergies, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and even paralysis, after passing numerous stones during their liver flushes?

11. Many people have released stones of different colors: black, red, green, white, yellow, and tan. Olive oil does not have coloring agents in it to produce stones of different hues, much less of such a colorful variety.

12. People who have sent their stones in for chemical analysis have received reports that almost all the stones were made from cholesterol and salts. These constituents are identical to those in the cholesterol stones found in gallbladders that have been removed. A very small number of stones contained organic matter of unknown origin. Organic matter can easily become trapped in bile sludge that turns into stones inside the liver’s bile ducts.

13. Quite a few individuals, including myself, have sometimes passed green cholesterol stones on the evening of the flush, even before taking the olive oil mixture. Others, who had already done several liver flushes, have reported stones coming out during the apple juice phase, all without the help of any olive oil. The stones that come out on their own display no different shape, color, or smell than the ones released during the actual flushes.

14. It is conventional medicine that has actually proved the existence of gallstones in the bile ducts of the liver (see Diseases of the Gallbladder and Bile Ducts, in Chapter 1). The medical term for these stones is ‘intrahepatic stones’, or ‘biliary stones’. These green stones, made of cholesterol and some bile constituents, are, in fact, oily and, therefore, melt and decompose when exposed to warmer air temperatures, oxygen and airborne bacteria. Cholesterol itself consists of about 96 percent water. While these cholesterol stones are easily broken down when released into the environment, this does not occur when they remain trapped in the bile ducts of the liver. Cholesterol stones in the gallbladder tend to become hardened and calcified over several months and years.

Plenty of photographs have been taken of dissected livers and are in the medical archives of university clinics that show the presence of these stones in the bile ducts of the liver (see Figure 3b, as well as Figure 1a from Johns Hopkins University). The research cited and referenced in this book is further proof of their existence.

15. It is a medically proven fact that millions of people regularly pass green sludge, sometimes consisting of dozens of green cholesterol stones, in response to eating a very fatty meal. These stones are not composed of the oils or fats that were ingested. They are forced out of the liver and gallbladder along with the expelled bile. Unfortunately, unlike during liver flushing, some of the stones get caught in the common bile duct or even in the pancreatic duct. There is no difference between such stones that are released involuntarily and those passed voluntarily (and intentionally) during a liver flush.

Anyone who drinks half a cup of olive oil on an empty stomach (without taking citrus juice and Epsom salt) will also release the same types of stones as passed during the liver flushes. This will make it very clear to them that these stones are not a product of citrus juice and Epsom salt acting on the olive oil and making soap stones. However, unlike during a proper liver flush, they may also suffer a gallstone attack or pancreatitis as a result of some of the released stones getting stuck in the common bile or pancreatic duct because they did not use the bile duct-relaxing Epsom salt.

16. Someone recently asked me the following question: “I found a rather credible argument against the stones hypothesis, basically claiming that at least some of the stones we see after the flush are amalgamations of bile formed in the intestines. He describes an experimental sequence with dyes^[9]. I’d love to know what you think of it.”

[9 The Liver flush dye experiment: http://www.curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=67726#i]

The experiment itself actually explains what happens when we ingest such toxic substances as dye, especially on an empty stomach. The person who wrote this post, first tried natural dyes, such as beetroot juice and activated charcoal, neither of which are treated as toxins by the body. If stones passed during a liver flush were indeed formed as a result of olive oil, juice and bile and combined to form stones, these natural dyes would have had to have red or black dye in them, just like they would color stools red or black.

The synthetic dyes used in the experiment, E124 (Ponceau 4R) and E102 (Tartrazine), on the other hand, are highly toxic for the body. Their toxicity is multiplied manifold when ingested without solid food. When ingested in liquids, these dyes are immediately carried to the liver for detoxification, where they enter bile ducts and combine with bile. Bile can coagulate and clump together, forming bile stones just as quickly as an egg that is being boiled can become hard within minutes. When discharged during the liver flush these stones may have dye in them.

However, this may not be the main reason for the coloration of stones, as observed by this person. The first batch of stones discharged from the liver or gallbladder can easily absorb synthetic dye color which has a particularly small molecular structure. Synthetic dyes can even stain the hardest quartz crystals.

In the above experiment, the dye entered the stones via lesser dense structures/pathways where the stones were more porous. That’s why the stones are not uniformly red, but contain just streaks of red color. Again, most bile stones are not solid at all and absorb dye quite readily, almost like a sponge. After all, most cholesterol is water-soluble; only parts of the stones contain densely packed cholesterol crystals that reject water, and dye.

The vast majority of stones released during liver and gallbladder flushes are greasy, fatty, waxy stones that consist of mostly cholesterol fats (as well as other bile constituents and organic materials), which makes them lighter than water (hence they float in water). They may contain a large amount of bacteria which produce toxic, smelly gases. When placed outdoors, especially in the sun, airborne bacteria will quickly decompose them, and the cholesterol fats will melt like butter. If kept in the refrigerator, this will not happen. When saturated with synthetic dyes, the dyes will remain behind. Bacteria simply cannot decompose synthetic chemicals.

I receive thousands of emails each year from people who have regained their health doing liver flushes. Some of them report they already release stones during the preparation phase, before ingesting any oil or Epsom salt. Malic acid and apple juice have been shown to release stones in some individuals, and so has Epsom salt. If synthetic dye were to be added to Epsom salt or apple juice, these same individuals would also pass stones that are stained red. In truth, though, the stones are the same green cholesterol stones that show up in dissected livers.

Ultimately, if olive oil were turned into stones, a person would produce the same amount of stones each time, given the same method of cleansing is used. However, this is clearly not the case. Different people pass different amounts and types of stones each time they perform a liver flush.

I have not passed any stones in many years although I still do one liver flush each year, using the exact same formula. I am not the only one. Over the years, I have received reports from thousands of people from around the world who have cleaned out their livers and no longer pass any stones, or just very few, during their maintenance cleanses. If the oil mixture were in fact responsible for causing these stones, the oil would produce about the same amount of stones each time.

My bile secretion and digestion are excellent. I used to suffer one gallstone attack once every 2 months, for many years (over 40 attacks). Not passing any stones anymore is therefore not due to a dysfunctional liver and gallbladder.

17. Some critics (M.D.s) claim that the results from the liver flush are just due to the placebo effect, and nothing else. I am not sure how the liver flush could possibly be the result of a placebo effect. The calcified stones released by the gallbladder, usually after 5 to 8 liver flushes, but as early as the first liver flush, are identical to those found in dissected gallbladders. They do not disintegrate and remain stone hard. Only semi-calcified stones may shrink in time; yet the calcified shell remains intact.

I am also not sure how wishful thinking and positive expectation can cause the liver and gallbladder to release hundreds and thousands of stones over a series of liver flushes, and then no longer have the same result (once the liver is clean). Since the person does not really know if and when his or her liver is actually clean, shouldn’t the placebo bear the same results every time a person does a liver flush? I wish it were this easy.

I personally suffered over 40 gallbladder attacks during a period of more than 10 years, and my gallbladder was packed with stones, causing a painful, short spinal scoliosis. Since my first liver flush, I never suffered another attack. The scoliosis, among other health problems, vanished after my 12th flush. After that, none of my annual flushes has produced any stones, although I used exactly the same procedure. My gallbladder is completely clean and efficient now.

If the placebo effect can accomplish all that, then by all means, why not promote it as an effective treatment? However, I have never heard of anyone who passed gallstones and became healthier afterwards just by having hopeful expectations. Every person who does a liver flush expects to pass stones but, sometimes, no stones come out at all. Others who suspect that they do not have any stones at all, or not anymore, may still pass many of them. The placebo has, therefore, very little, if any, influence on the outcome or liver flushes.

Thousands of people from all over the world have saved their gallbladders through liver flushing. Others have fully regained their health and even saved their own lives by doing this flush. Those who intentionally promote or spread the strange and unsubstantiated claim that gallstone-flushing is a placebo and somehow produces olive oil soap stones, rob their compatriots and themselves of the opportunity to benefit their own health. This is something they will have to live with.

Ignorance cannot be cured. It needs to be replaced with knowledge.