Symptoms Of Gallstones

What Are The Signs And Symptoms Of Gallstones?

Before listing and describing gallstone symptoms, it's probably a good idea to understand what gallstones are, what causes them, and how they form.

The pain that is among the most prominent symptoms of gallstones is caused by inflammation that occurs as the stones move through the biliary tract toward the small intestine. Gallstones form when bile stored by the gallbladder hardens. If there is an excessive amount of cholesterol in the gallbladder, stones are more likely to form.

Gallstone symptoms often occur after you eat a fatty meal. Your gallbladder can literally be overwhelmed with more cholesterol than your digestive system can process properly. In the short term, this situation often leads to a gallbladder attack. But in the long term, cholesterol accumulation in the gallbladder leads to stones.

Could be gallstones also cause permanent, severe pain in the upper abdomen just below the ribs. Pain can also occur in the back between the shoulder blades or around the right shoulder. These attacks can last for hours or just minutes.

Someone with gallstones symptoms may also have

• feverish chills,
• vomiting and nausea
• irregular bowel habits and clay-colored stools,
• heartburn,
• shaking and tremors
• yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes (a characteristic of a liver problem called jaundice).

In many cases, there are no symptoms of gallstones at all. gallstone no symptoms. These are called silent stones and do not require treatment. These so-called silent stones are usually found accidentally, or during a routine physical exam.

Gallstones resemble small stones or pebbles. They can be as large as a golf ball or as small as a grain of sand. Gallstones are believed to be responsible for about three thousand deaths per year in the United States alone. Around ten percent of Americans have or have had gallstones, and they may account for as many as 800,000 hospitalizations per year. Around half a million people have their gallbladder removed because of gallstones.

There are two basic types of gallstones.

Cholesterol gallstones result from too much cholesterol in the gallbladder. The cholesterol hardens into a yellow-green or white stones. Four out of five people who have gallstones have the cholesterol type.

Pigment gallstones are slightly different. Typically, they're small, dark stones made of bilirubin. Bilirubin is part of the bile which is stored in the gall bladder, and is formed when red blood cells break down.

You may have one kind of stone or the other, or you may have both types of stones at the same time.

A combination of some risk factors can cause gallstones, including family history, body chemistry, overweight or obese, and perhaps a high-fat, cholesterol rich diet. People who are obese are at a higher risk for gallstones than those who are not.