About Me

My name is Buddy Black, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, affectionately known as “The Gallbladder Guru."

I help those that are dealing with gallstones, gallbladder and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease navigate the many options they have to help them find their new norm.

After many years of dealing with pains and issues of various kinds, I was finally diagnosed, in 2015, with 24 gallstones (4 the size of marbles).

I had a terrible attack, so bad that the pains went from my right side and shoulder and moved into the left side of my body leaving me and my emergency room doctor thinking it was a stroke! All the while on vacation several states from home and dare I say, it terrified me and my family! After the diagnosis and visiting a naturopath I was asked if I would like to try and flush the stones out. I had no idea of the physiology of the liver and biliary system (bile ducts, gallbladder and such). So I said sure lets do this! Sadly a few days after drinking a week's worth of apple juice and herbs, I drank the flush recipe of Epsom salts, and finally the olive oil and grapefruit juice combination. YUCK!!!

I passed what I thought were stones (lots of various size globules of green) and the following day felt great. However the next day, and days thereafter, I became increasingly ill and began hurting nonstop. After three weeks of this I had to have emergency surgery and found I had a stone in the bile duct that literally plugged up my biliary system causing pancreatitis, gangrene gallbladder, swollen spleen and other issues. I was also diagnosed with fatty liver at the same time. So I learned a very valuable lesson that when the gallbladder is causing issues, just getting it removed and beginning to live again was a real, viable option.

After emergency surgery in April of 2015 and taking some time to heal, I found I had digestive issues that included diarrhea and other unpleasant experiences. In my mind, there had to be a better way to heal. Other than using Imodium AD or other meds to try and control my digestive tract I kept pursuing the knowledge and education of how my body worked, how my digestion worked and what I could DO to make an impact for the better.

At my lowest I found my body was very low in fat soluble vitamins, fatty acids, and minerals that needed to be finely processed to be utilized. That’s when I found Tauroursodeoxycholic Acid (TUDCA). I had a remarkable turn around in my digestion and life! I could actually LIVE again!