I had not been taking the vinegar and the result was that from the night of February 10, 2010 until the morning of February 11, 2010, I had a severe attack. The pain was bad, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I threw up twice, both times heaving on an empty stomach. It started about 9pm on the 10th and lasted fourteen hours to 11am on the 11th when the pain and nausea finally went away. The next day I was completely wiped out. I hadn't had any sleep, it hurt to breathe, I was dehydrated, and I had no energy. I had drank half a can of ginger ale the night before, but I simply threw that up the second time. Now, I was extremely thirsty and so I drank the other half of the room temperature ginger ale. Two hours later I managed to get out of bed and make some hot chocolate. I got back in bed and it took me four hours to drink all of it.
I assume my experience was not unusual for other people who have gall stone attacks. The pain makes it impossible to sleep, the vommiting causes dehydration, and you throw up so strenuously that you pull muscles in your stomach and it hurts to breathe. I had also apparently scraped my throat either the first or second time and so there was a small amount of blood clearly visible in the ginger ale when I threw up the second time. It was only a small amount so I knew it wasn't serious. And, I knew that since it was bright red it had to come from the stomach or throat. If for example, my gall bladder were bleeding the blood would turn dark and would show up looking like coffee grounds due to the action of the pancreatic enzymes. So, I was not concerned, however someone not as familiar might have been much more panicked at seeing traces of blood.
This was in every respect a severe attack. I didn't eat anything on the 11th and only ate a can of soup on the 12th. On the 13th I started taking the vinegar again. Last night, February 27, I ate half a package of Nestle Toll House cookies which is 54 grams of fat. That would be enough for two gall bladder attacks, but I was fine. So, now I have a second measurement of how long it takes to get from severe attack to back to normal. That was two weeks exactly. During that two weeks I drank 1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons of vinegar with orange juice three times a day. And, I drank coffee every morning.
Let me be more specific about this. There are only two things that I know of which will inhibit the liver from producing colesterol: citric acid and vinegar. I know that each of these work separately because I was able to reduce my gallstones using vinegar alone and my mother was able to reduce hers using citric acid alone. I assume that drinking the vinegar with twice as much orange juice would give me some citric acid as well and I'm assuming that that would have worked more quickly. Basically, the vinegar and citric acid inhibit the liver from making colesterol. However, the liver still recycles the bile acids so these circulate through the gall bladder and slowly disolve the colesterol crystals which are what the gallstones are. The problem is that if you limit your diet to little fat as I did because I was afraid of having another attack this also reduces the circulation of the bile acids. Yes, this is a viscious cycle. The colesterol crystals won't dissolve unless you inhibit colesterol production and maintain bile acid circulation but the bile acids normally only circulate when you eat fat. And, you have to limit fat to avoid attacks. During the more than one year when I first had attacks I knew that 20 grams of fat was enough to cause an attack.
So, taking vinegar and/or citric acid does the first requirement of inhibiting colesterol production but you still need some way to maintain circulation. I drink coffee in the morning and I know that the caffeine in coffee stimulates the gall bladder. So, I was pretty certain that I was maintaining circulation of the bile acids. For those who don't drink coffee I would reccomend peppermint. I know for a fact that peppermint stimulates the gall bladder because one day I ate seven starlight mint candies and had a severe attack after consuming no fat at all. That was my personal experience but I've done research and confirmed this from other sources as well.
I don't how the evidence could be any clearer than this. I had gallstones and attacks for a year and a half, they were getting worse, not better. I tried other claimed cures like eating apples and drinking unpasteurized apple juice, taking the anti-oxident vitamins, taking taurine, and taking omega 3. The result was nothing, no improvement whatsoever. These quack diet cures simply do not work. However, I started taking vinegar and I was free from attacks one month later. Since that time I have twice stopping taking vinegar and the gallstones returned. You know the gallstones have returned when you have an another attack. After the second time I took vinegar and got better. This third time I again stopped taking the vinegar and had the severe attack I detailed above. But, today I am again free from attacks.
Vinegar and citric are the only two non-prescription substances I know of which reduce gallstones. And, from my experience, it can apparently work in as little as two weeks.