Perhaps one of the least sexy parts of digestion (are any parts sexy?), but I truly get a thrill talking and educating about the glory of bile.
Bile plays a role in SO many systems.
Digestion + Absorption
Bile is produced by the liver and it’s stored in the gallbladder. When we eat something that contains fat, our gallbladder releases bile into the digestive tract. It then emulsifies, or breaks apart, the fat so it can be absorbed by our small intestine and transport the fat soluble vitamins and fatty acids across the gut barrier into our bloodstream.
We touched on this briefly last week, but bile has important laxative properties in our gut as well (PMID: 18788050). When bile flows into the small intestine, it encourages movement of the intestinal muscle tissue, aka peristalsis. If bile isn’t flowing, due to liver or gallbladder congestion, constipation and/or not digesting fatty foods well is very likely connected.
Antimicrobial + gut microbiome balance
Bile is a natural antimicrobial.
Healthy bile flow ensures that overgrowths and pathogens are regularly swept up and removed from the small and large intestine (PMID: 28878747). When we’re dealing with gut imbalances and overgrowths in particular, like in the case of SIBO, or imbalances identified on the GI MAP, ensuring proper bile flow from the liver and gallbladder are absolutely essential.
Drainage + Detoxification
Perhaps one of the buzziest wellness terms, detox, is usually referring to the concept of “drainage”. Drainage is the physical removal of toxins from the body, via the colon, kidneys and skin. Bile plays a huge role in that, because it’s carrying all the toxins packaged up the liver and moves them into the small intestine and eventually out of the body in the stool.
So, if that’s “drainage”, what’s detox? I wrote a longer post on it here, but I’ll give you the sparknotes:
Detox is the chemical process of toxin clean up that happens at the cellular level. But until we’re physically able to move the backlog of toxins out of the body, with regular BMs (thanks to bile), sweating, and proper hydration, our body will not want to mobilize more toxins out of the cells with chemical detoxification. So, bile flow is really step 1 to detoxification. Once things are flowing smoothly, detox can kick in more easily.
Hormonal balance
The liver packages up toxins and excess hormones, like estrogen. In a perfect world, bile carries excess estrogen out of the body, but in many cases, estrogen isn’t eliminated as efficiently as it should be. Due to constipation, biliary congestion or liver stagnation, this process can get thrown off, allowing hormones to re-circulate and contribute to hormonal imbalances like estrogen dominance in cycling women (PCOS, PMS and heavy, painful periods), and a range of perimenopause symptoms associated with estrogen imbalances.
Blood sugar
Bile acids, one of the components in bile, play a role in insulin signaling and nutrient metabolism (PMID: 24819989). One key element in bile, called TUDCA, has been shown to improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity (PMID: 35651081), and research suggests that bile acid function and production is altered in the case of diabetes and severe metabolic dysfunction.
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So, as you can see I’m pretty keen on supporting liver and gallbladder function to improve bile flow. Here are a few things you can do at home to work on this too:
Add more beets to your diet - anyway you like em!
Add bitter greens and bitter foods whenever you can (endive, radicchio, arugula, broccoli rabe, etc)
Don’t skimp on healthy fats! Olive oil, avocados, grass fed butter or ghee, pastured animal meat and it’s fat, egg yolks
Eating liver itself is good for your liver - make liver and onions, liverwurst, pate, etc.
Sulfur rich foods like radish, cruciferous veggies, garlic + onion
Other considerations that can impact liver and gallbladder function and reduce bile flow are:
Hypothyroidism, which can impact how efficiently bile moves out of the gallbladder
Hormonal birth control
Certain medications, both short and long term use
Low fat or nutrient depleted diets
Unresolved gut imbalances and infections
Chronic constipation
Blood sugar imbalances
Alcohol consumption
OK are you nerding out on bile as much as I am? It’s a pretty incredible part of the human body!
If you’re dealing with digestive symptoms like constipation, hormonal imbalances, or insulin resistance and want to look deeper at what might be going on - let’s hop on a call. I’d love to chat about what might be at play for you!