Gallstones – More Than 20 Million Americans Have Them!

INTRODUCTION: Gallstones are pieces of hard solid matter in the gallbladder and may be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball, depending on how long they have been forming. They often have no symptoms and are usually discovered by a routine x-ray, surgery, or autopsy.

Gallstones also can move about within bile, for example, from the gallbladder into the cystic or common duct. They are a common health condition worldwide and occur more frequently in female than males becoming more common with age in both sexes. More than 20,000,000 Americans have them and approximately one million new cases are discovered every year.

SYMPTOMS: Gallstones may feel like chest pain caused by a heart attack and other serious problems. Symptoms usually start after a large stone blocks the cystic duct or the common bile duct and usually do not return after the gallbladder has been removed. About 80% of people do not have any symptoms for many years, if ever, particularly if the stones remain in the gallbladder.

If you have signs, you most likely will have mild pain in the pit of your stomach or in the upper right portion of your belly. About percent of people who have signs also have stones in the common bile duct.

Exactly how diet affects gallstone formation is not clear, but diets which are high in cholesterol and fat, and low in fiber may increase the risk of developing Them.

There are 2 basic kinds of gallstones. Pigmented (bilirubin) types are found most frequently in Patients with severe liver problems and patients with any blood disorders such as sickle cell anemia.

Cholesterol types are diagnosed most often in: Women over twenty years, especially pregnant women, and men over sixty years old, People on “crash diets” who drop a lot of weight quickly, Persons who take certain medications including birth control pills and cholesterol lowering agents, Native-Americans and Mexican-Americans.

TREATMENTS: Gallstones that do not create symptoms do not require treatment, However if they block a duct, they do. Surgery to remove the gallbladder (cholecystectomy) is the treatment of choice for stones that create moderate to severe pain or other signs. However, only 1 of 5 persons can have this treatment. Persons who have it often produce new stones after a few years. Half of these require treatment, with a cost to society of several billion dollars yearly.

Many new approaches to treatment have been tested over the past several years, however surgical removal of the gallbladder (cholecystectomy) is still the most widely used therapy. Non-surgical treatment includes pain medicines, antibiotics to fight infection, and a low-fat diet (when food can be tolerated).

A licensed doctor should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

CONCLUSION: Gallstones normally form in the gallbladder; however, they also can form anywhere there is bile: in the intrahepatic, hepatic, common bile, and cystic ducts. They form when cholesterol and other things found in bile make stones.

They can develop in many people without producing symptoms and do not create belching and bloating. Gallstones usually happen in adults between the ages of 20 and 50, and are more common in females in this age group.