As Chuck Basford lay sprawled on his couch watching a movie 20 years ago, a sharp, searing pain surged into his stomach. It felt as though knives were being wrenched into his upper abdomen, and the excruciating pain knocked him onto the floor, he said.

Basford was experiencing a gallstone attack. In order to subside his affliction, Basford, 25 at the time, administered his own at-home liver flush by drinking a half cup of extra virgin olive oil and ingesting a tablespoon of Epsom salt dissolved in water.

Recommended Liver Flush
1. For four to five days before a liver flush, eat plenty of apples, or drink apple juice. Lots of malic acid supplements can be taken in place of apples. In the last two days, drink 8 oz of apple juice every two to three hours. Doing this will help ensure the liver flush is successful.

2. On day six, eat a light breakfast with no fat. This enables the bile in the liver to accumulate, putting pressure on it. This pressure will eliminate more stones in your liver.

3. At 2 p.m., the same day, mix 4 tablespoons of Epsom salt in 3 cups of water. Do NOT drink or consume any foods after 2 p.m. This is extremely important. Put this jar in the cooler or refrigerator to make it cold.

4. At 6 p.m., drink 3/4 cup of this mixture. It will taste very bad.

5. At 8 p.m., drink another 3/4 cup of this mixture. Get errands done, and prepare for the liver flush. Don’t do anything after doing a liver flush, just lay down and sleep.

6. At 9:45 p.m., pour 1/2 cup of virgin olive oil into a jar. Squeeze the entire grapefruit into the mix, removing the pulp with a fork, or chopsticks. There should be 1/2 to 3/4 cups of grapefruit juice mixed with the virgin olive oil in the jar. Close the jar, and shake it very hard until it is all liquid.

7. At 10 p.m., drink this mixture. Drink it through a large straw if it makes it easier. Try to get it all down in 5 minutes or so.

8. Lay down in bed as soon as the mixture has been consumed. This is crucial, and most people do this wrong. Lay on your right side, with your right knee up towards your chin for 20 or so minutes. Stay still, and try not to move at all. Try to sleep.

9. The next morning, when you wake up, drink a third dose of your 3/4 cup Epsom salt. You can go back to sleep afterwards.

10. Two hours later, drink the last dose of Epsom salt.

11. Only after two more hours can anything be eaten, but do not eat solid fruits just yet. Start with liquids, and move slowly to fruit.

Information taken from colonzone.org/liver-flush.php

Basford, a sports nutrition supervisor at Raisin Rack Natural Food Market in Westerville, discovered the liver flush in an alternative medicine book he had lying around the house.

Liver flushes are used in alternative medicine to treat gallstone attacks by removing fat-soluble toxins such as pesticide residues from the body. The effectiveness and safety of conducting a liver flush is debated among medical professionals and can result in serious damage when administered without consulting a doctor before beginning a regimen.

“Every person is different,” said Mike Fritz, a naturopathic doctor at Alternative Health Oasis. “If done properly, liver flushes are very beneficial to the patient. When you pass the gallstones, you are passing cholesterol out of the gallstones and out of your system.”

According to Fritz, olive oil stimulates the gallbladder and enables the bile duct to contract and expel its contents. While Epsom salts relax and dilate the bile duct, allowing larger particles to pass through. It is recommended that the person completing the flush drink the olive oil right before going to bed. Two days before completing a liver flush, the person should drink two glasses of organic apple juice every two hours for two days, eating only fruits (apples in particular) and vegetables. Malic acid weakens adhesion between solid globules, and apples are high in malic acid. The person should also remain sedentary after completing the flush in order to lessen the effect of nausea experienced after consuming large amounts of olive oil.

“I went right to bed and laid there until the morning. I couldn’t move because I was in so much pain,” Basford said. “The olive oil was disgusting, and I had to choke it down.”

Gallstones are soft, gelatinous and green. Basford said he passed about 20 stones the size of grapes during his flush. The following day, his pain subsided and Basford has not experienced a gallstone attack since.

Doctors debate whether the green gelatinous balls passed during liver flushes are actually gallstones, or if they are simply complexes of mineral, olive oil and lemon juice produced within the digestive tract.

According to Fritz, there is no doubt in his mind that the green balls passed during the cleanse are gallstones.

“Laboratory tests have proven that there is cholesterol in the gallstones and that is what gallstones are,” Fritz said.

Fritz said he recommends people administer one liver flush a year in order to regulate the liver and prevent gallstone attacks.

He also recommends people, especially college students, regulate their livers by completing liver cleanses. Liver cleanses differ from liver flushes. A liver cleanse is meant to clear out toxins and does not facilitate the removal of gallstones.

A liver cleanse involves eating or drinking a combination of juices, fruits and green vegetables often with selected herbs, enzymes and other components. Liver cleanse formulas vary widely by practitioner and can also be bought in kits. Cleanses can last from a week to three months.

One way to do a short 7-day liver cleanse is to eat a vegan diet, free of alcohol and caffeine. Fifty percent of the vegan diet should consist of raw food including salads, sprouts, fresh fruit and vegetables and freshly made vegetable and fruit juices. Try to choose organic produce to avoid pesticides and added toxins. During the cleanse, make sure to drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day.

“The liver does an estimated 541 jobs, so it is essential to maintain it,” Fritz said. “After completing a cleanse you feel so much more energized, your skin and eyes have a healthier glow, and people often report they no longer have signs of depression.”

In addition to completing liver cleanses, Fritz recommends people drink more water, lower their consumption of carbohydrates, sugars and fats, and eat living foods such as fruits and vegetables, not foods that come packaged in boxes and cans. He also recommends people engage in more active lifestyles by exercising five days a week for 30 minutes, in addition to practicing yoga and deep breathing.

Dr. Glen Aukerman, the medical director for Integrative Family Medicine at Ohio State, does not advocate liver flushes or cleanses.

“We get about two or three people a year hospitalized because of colon and liver cleanses, and it is usually because they are not in very good shape and they take something that actually stresses their system severely,” Aukerman said.

Aukerman said patients who conduct liver cleanses after experiencing gallstone attacks negatively impact the gallstones, making their condition worse.

“The whole cleansing thing is built on the hypothesis that the body is like a test tube, but it is not that simple,” Aukerman said. “If it was a test tube, you could put a little draino in there and clean it out with a brush – now its clean. But the liver is more complex than that.”

Aukerman said detoxes only add further stresses to the liver. The liver is already responsible for ridding the body of toxins. By doing liver flushes, a person is only adding more toxins to the liver an
d thus placing more stress onto the liver.

Instead of completing liver flushes or cleanses, Aukerman agrees with Fritz’s suggestions that people should eat more organic foods. Fruits and vegetables are less taxing on the liver, and the liver isn’t overwhelmed by toxins if the food being consumed isn’t filled with preservatives and artificial sweeteners.

“The liver has enough to do without us putting artificial sweeteners, preservatives and MSG (monosodium glutamate) into it,” Aukerman said. “The liver has to detox these added toxins on top of what it is already detoxifying, so you are giving your liver a more taxing job.”

Alexia Cameron can be reached at [email protected].