Gall Stones and Liver DiseaseUrsodiol (ursodeoxycholic acid), a compound originally derived from bear bile (a substance secreted by the liver that helps break down fat), is already used in Western medicine to dissolve cholesterol-laden gall stones and to treat a form of liver disease called primary biliary cirrhosis. Despite the availability of a synthetic version of the compound, as many as 13,000 bears are still kept captive on farms in China, Vietnam and other parts of Asia, where they are milked for their bile. David Garshelis, co-chair of the Bear Specialist Group for the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was allowed to visit one of these bile farms, probably because its practices are among the most humane. While the bears he saw were in good conditions, he says the bear rescue organization Animals Asia routinely takes in bile bears that show evidence of torture. While these practices may seem jarring, keep in mind that in the U.S. and Canada, 50,000 black bears are killed annually for food and another 2,000 brown bears are killed for sport.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, the benefits of bile extend beyond those of ursodeoxycholic acid. Intriguingly, when Oeltgen injected rabbits with radioactively labeled opiate-like compounds similar to the ones thought to be found in hibernation induction trigger, he found that they were excreted through the bile.

These Asiatic black bears enter their stalls when called to be milked for bile.