Gallstones
Gallstones, also known as gallbladder stones or gall bladder stones, are substances that develop in the
gallbladder. They're called gallstones because they look and feel like small stones or
pebbles.
Gallstones can be as large as a golf ball, or as tiny as a grain of sand. The gallbladder can produce one large
stone, or hundreds of very small ones.
Gallstones can be a serious danger to health, and it's believed they're responsible for about three thousand
deaths annually in the United States alone. Approximately ten percent of Americans have or have had gallstones, and
they account for as many as 800,000 hospitalizations every year. Approximately half a million people have
gallbladder surgery or gallbladder removal because of
them.
Types of gallstones
There are two types of gallstones.
Cholesterol stones are formed when there's too much cholesterol present in the gallbladder. The
cholesterol hardens into greenish-yellow pebbles. They may also sometimes be white. About 80 percent of people who
have gallstones have cholesterol gallstones.
Pigment stones are small, dark stones made of bilirubin. Bilirubin is part of the bile that's stored in
the gallbladder, and its formed when red blood cells are broken down.
You can have a stone made of either cholesterol or pigment, or you can have both kinds of stones at the same
time, or a combination of the two.
What causes a gallstone?
Gallstones appear when bile stored by the gallbladder hardens. If the liquid bile contains an excessive amount
of cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin, it can result in stone formation.
A combination of certain risk factors may cause gallstones, including family history, body chemistry, excess
weight or obesity, and perhaps diet. People who are obese run a high risk of getting gallstones.
Gallstone symptoms
Very often, someone with a gallstone does not have symptoms. These are called silent stones and do not require
treatment.
These so called silent stones are usually detected only when your doctor is trying to diagnose other health
problems, or possibly during a routine physical or check up.
However, gallstones can also cause steady, severe pain in the upper abdomen just below the ribcage. Pain can
also occur in the back between the shoulder blades or around the right shoulder. These attacks may last for hours,
or just a few minutes.
Besides the pain, other symptoms might include nausea, vomiting, chills, yellowish color of the skin or whites
of the eyes and stools that have an unusual clay color.
Gallstone symptoms are often triggered after you eat a fatty meal and there's excessive cholesterol buildup in
the gallbladder.
Gallstone treatment
As mentioned above, "silent stones" usually don't require treatment. But if symptoms are showing up often, or
pain is severe and recurring, your doctor will probably recommend surgery and gall bladder
removal (cholecystectomy). Gallbladder surgery is one of the most common operations performed in the
United States.
The gallbladder is not an essential organ, and a successful cholecystectomy has little impact on your overall
health. The human liver produces enough bile to digest all your food--assuming you eat normally, of course.
Gallstone prevention
Although you can inherit the type of body chemistry that makes gallstone formation more likely, gallstone
prevention is probably a matter of smart eating. If you consume a lot of both soluble and insoluble fiber (like you
find in fruits and vegetables), you'll probably never have gallstones. That's why gallstones are practically
nonexistent among vegetarians.
There's been some recent research indicating that coffee drinkers have fewer gallstones, as do people who
exercise regularly. Exercise helps to normalize blood sugar and insulin levels which may contribute to gallstones
when they're present in the body in abnormal levels.
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