Sick Diaries 5 Alternative Remedies

My sister in law recommended an alternative remedy, which involves drinking a lot of apple juice "to soften" the gallstones.  Presumably this makes them less painful when they are bashing about, the "cure" continues with you taking a lot of epsom salts and so on and lying very still while you pass them, and eventually deposit them in the lavatory.   I query whether even these softened stones would pass painlessly.  Besides, after you have done this, they recommend you have a colonic irrigation, so I may have to give that one a miss.   Subsequently I have heard of one person who performed this operation successfully.     However, I began to drink apple juice and then I stopped.  By coincidence the period when I stopped drinking it was when I began to feel better, so I now wonder, having resumed the apple juice, whether it is actually churning them up somehow.     I don't even know how this would work.  Presumably it's malic acid that softens them, but how does the malic acid get into the gall bladder?  Is it filtered out through the liver.   Or what?   I may stop taking the apple juice and see if it feels any better.

My nephew Harry said "Milk Thistle" was the thing to help liver function, so we have bought a box at vast expense.  I don't even know how I'd notice a difference but perhaps if I have a less tender liver and fewer pains in the liver areas I might feel better about it.   The only negative side is that it promotes oestrogen production, so not very good for fibroids, and I've only just about got over the whole unexpected bleeding etc.

Another suggestion, fairly harmless I think, is that I could have Epsom Salts baths - and this apparently draws out impurities - which is one of those nicely imprecise alternative medical phrases that sounds reasonable and reassuring without being very specific.  Anyway, it can't do any harm I guess.

What else do they suggest?  I dunno, should do more research I suppose.