Gallstones!

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MutterGans
MutterGans Posts: 44 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I was SO pleased with the 9kg I'd lost...then discovered rapid weight loss is not the gallbladders friend. I've postponed cholecystetomy so I can lose weight slowly (that's the plan). Has anyone suffered similar or have any advice re: diet and gallstones???

Replies

  • beautifulciera
    beautifulciera Posts: 202 Member
    edited December 2014
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    I have Gallstones as well, so I understand what you're going through. I would also appreciate any advice :)
  • droppinlbz2
    droppinlbz2 Posts: 1 Member
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    i developed gallstones when i was on a low carb diet. that's why i'm anti low carb!
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,732 Member
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    It's unfortunate, but you're correct. It's the #1 side effect of VLC diets and low fat diets, as well.

    I was fortunate in that I only had 2 gallstone attacks before I was scheduled to have my gallbladder removed. The surgery was laparascopic, with 3 tiny incisions along my ribs on the right, and an incision in my belly button (this is where most of the action is, and I ended up with a giant purple and black bruise), but recovery was lengthy for me (around 8 weeks). My surgeon claimed it was because I was thin and my abs were tight, but I think that was just flattery.

    Some people experience some digestive issues afterward, particularly when eating fatty meals. You might have a very urgent need to be near a restaurant. I experienced that a few times, but after 5 years even that has gone away and the only way I can tell it ever happened is the little white scars on my abdomen.
  • audrast
    audrast Posts: 74 Member
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    I was just in the ER for it. I had no idea I was a gallstone maker. I'd been fine my whole life. Vegetarian. Little to no cholesterol in the diet. Apparently I'm just THAT good at making gallstones and a cheat meal hospitalized me with a passing stone. It passed through without blocking up the liver or damaging the pancreas.

    I've lost 25 pounds since June so I wouldn't call my weight loss rapid. The cheat meal was fatty enough that when the organ excreted some bile, a stone went with it. And I will tell you... having had dysentery in the past as well as a baby, this pain ranks right up there.

    I'm going for the surgery. On the ultrasound, my gallbladder looked like a goldfish bowl with marbles at the bottom. I don't want another ER visit in the future so that sucker is coming out.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    I like just the right amount of good fatty fats. Like olive oil and nuts. I am hoping that contributes to a well-functioning gall bladder. Or else gallstone building doesn't run in our family.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
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    I had a couple of gall-bladder flare-ups before I started losing weight. What I found is that I didn't have gall stones, but just a lot of sludge. So my situation may or may not be helpful, and I'm not a medical professional, so please accept this as my story and not as medical advice.

    After a gall-bladder flare-up, where I was having the same symptoms of someone with gall stones, blood tests showed liver issues as a result, but an ultra-sound showed only that there was lots of sludge and thus nothing that could be done. I found a solution at home that was based on fasting for several hours (so my stomach was empty), then alternating drinking a glass of extra virgin olive oil and a glass of lemon juice every 15-30 minutes for 4 hours. The logic behind it was that the olive oil provides lubrication for stones (or sludge) to pass, while the acidic lemon juice helps to break down stones and smaller pieces to also make them easy to pass.

    It is not easy to drink straight olive oil, and it is quite disgusting. As a result, I only got through less than half-way before I just couldn't take it anymore. Nonetheless, I have never had a flare-up since.
  • audrast
    audrast Posts: 74 Member
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    The problem with gallstones is that when they are passing through the bile duct, they can get stuck and block up the flow from the liver or stop up near the head of the pancreas. If the stone passes all the way through the duct and out to the intestines, while horribly painful, it will pass through the intestines and out. The problem comes when the stone gets stuck somewhere along its way in the duct.

    I'm skeptical about drinking oil and lemon juice since the stone is passing through a duct on its WAY to the intestine. The ingested fluids won't come into contact with the stone until it's already into the intestine. The problems happen when the stone is passing through the bile duct.
  • SexyKatherine73
    SexyKatherine73 Posts: 221 Member
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    Best thing you can do to stay pain free, is no fats or oils. this will stop flare ups. I lost a lot of weight, when I had them due to fear of pain. I had cleaned up my eating. lean meats with fresh fruit and veg and some bread (not a lot as bread has fats added) you would be amazed where fat is hiding in processed foods and fresh.

    It was after I had my gallbladder removed that I could eat anything with without fear of pain, that's when I gained all my weight.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,732 Member
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    midwesterner85 wrote: »
    I had a couple of gall-bladder flare-ups before I started losing weight. What I found is that I didn't have gall stones, but just a lot of sludge. So my situation may or may not be helpful, and I'm not a medical professional, so please accept this as my story and not as medical advice.

    After a gall-bladder flare-up, where I was having the same symptoms of someone with gall stones, blood tests showed liver issues as a result, but an ultra-sound showed only that there was lots of sludge and thus nothing that could be done. I found a solution at home that was based on fasting for several hours (so my stomach was empty), then alternating drinking a glass of extra virgin olive oil and a glass of lemon juice every 15-30 minutes for 4 hours. The logic behind it was that the olive oil provides lubrication for stones (or sludge) to pass, while the acidic lemon juice helps to break down stones and smaller pieces to also make them easy to pass.

    It is not easy to drink straight olive oil, and it is quite disgusting. As a result, I only got through less than half-way before I just couldn't take it anymore. Nonetheless, I have never had a flare-up since.

    I'm afraid that whoever told you to do that was a quack. If you look at a picture of the gallbladder, and the duct which connects it to the other organs, you will see that the olive oil and lemon juice you drank would not have gotten to the gallbladder. Bile goes out through the duct, things do not go in through the duct. It is a one-way passage.
  • epido
    epido Posts: 353 Member
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    I had my gall bladder removed when my son was 6 months old. According to the doc, it is fairly common for pregnancy to cause gall bladder issues, and actually had my first attack when I was about half-way through my pregnancy. I am convinced it is the absolute worst pain I have ever had!

    As long as I avoided fatty or greasy foods, I was ok, but if I ate very much of those types of foods, I was setting myself up for some serious pain.

    I had the surgery 11 years ago, and still have digestive issues if I eat too many fatty or greasy foods, but now it isn't pain, but rather a sudden need to make a mad dash for the restroom. Apparently, there is a dumping syndrome that is fairly rare, but can occur after having a cholecystectomy and they aren't sure why it happens to some people. I seem to have gotten the short straw, but just continue to watch what I eat and avoid having problems by doing so.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,732 Member
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    epido wrote: »
    I had my gall bladder removed when my son was 6 months old. According to the doc, it is fairly common for pregnancy to cause gall bladder issues, and actually had my first attack when I was about half-way through my pregnancy. I am convinced it is the absolute worst pain I have ever had!

    As long as I avoided fatty or greasy foods, I was ok, but if I ate very much of those types of foods, I was setting myself up for some serious pain.

    I had the surgery 11 years ago, and still have digestive issues if I eat too many fatty or greasy foods, but now it isn't pain, but rather a sudden need to make a mad dash for the restroom. Apparently, there is a dumping syndrome that is fairly rare, but can occur after having a cholecystectomy and they aren't sure why it happens to some people. I seem to have gotten the short straw, but just continue to watch what I eat and avoid having problems by doing so.


    Yes, I had that issue a few times, but mine went away. I'm sorry you're still having to deal with it. For me, I just avoided eating anything remotely greasy before going to the movies, or hiking, or anything where a restroom wouldn't be immediately convenient. And I only ate pizza at home :wink:
  • Mediocrates55
    Mediocrates55 Posts: 326 Member
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    I had mine removed in 2012 and still get the bile dump sometimes. :-( UGH. It isn't linked to fat or grease intake for me though. It's more of a "HEY! LET'S SEE HOW FAST YOU CAN RUN FOR NO REASON!" thing.
  • weatheredcheese
    weatheredcheese Posts: 112 Member
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    I lost 4 stone last year and the Doctor believes that this quick weight loss is what caused my gall stones.
    In December I then had it removed, this set me back as I got myself down as was unable to lift anything over the Christmas period, this included my 1 year old son (was heart breaking).
    In the last couple of months I have bounced back and back into a regime, I tend to dodge takeaways as these often cause a loose stool! But other than that haven't had any issues since the op.
  • skiextrm
    skiextrm Posts: 144 Member
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    I want to thank the OP for this thread. Last month I had a terrible attack of pain radiating to my back, nausea, vomiting water, and sweats/chills that lasted hours. The next day. (TMI Alert), my b.m. was pure white. After reading this thread, I called the doctor and they want to see me to check my gallbladder, etc. Thanks for getting me remembering that I meant to call doc a month ago!
  • jrose1982
    jrose1982 Posts: 366 Member
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    I had gallstones ten years ago (I wasn't dieting or anything). I was told to eat very low fat until the surgery, to avoid moving the stones out of my gall bladder and potentially getting them lodged somewhere painful. My doctor said it's not real common for someone so young (I was 21), but it may have been caused by my weight. I'm not sure the actual cause is known.

    Anyway, after surgery eating anything with fat made me nauseous for a couple months. I lost about 20 lbs while I slowly increased my fat intake to what it was before (like I said, I wasn't trying to diet at the time).

    Just doing a quick Google search, it looks like low fat diets are a suspect in creating the gallstones. But then, when you have a stone, you eat fat and it can be pushed out of the gall bladder with bile to digest the fat. This is the part that is painful.

    I also found an (untested) theory that low-carb, high-fat diet might reduce gallstones in the long term, at the cost of insane pain in the short term.

    Don't know if any of this is helpful, but there you have it. Wish I had more solutions. I'm one of the lucky ones that hasn't had any long-term problems since my gall bladder was removed.
  • jrose1982
    jrose1982 Posts: 366 Member
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    Ok, I don't know that this guy knows what he's talking about (and he's obviously biased to low-carb diets), but this still might be worth reading if you're facing gall bladder removal. I mean, if somebody had suggested slowly increasing my fat intake (and reducing my carb intake) instead of having my gall bladder removed I probably would have tried it - even if it is just a theory.

    http://www.dietdoctor.com/gallstones-and-low-carb/
  • melbot2point0
    melbot2point0 Posts: 9 Member
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    I started passing gallstones probably at 21. Not entirely sure what caused it all. I've always been a weight fluctuator as I'm emetophobic, so that's the likely culprit. I was unfortunate enough to suffer for three years before a doctor in another province told me to get my doc to ultrasound my gallbladder. Until then, I always went into emerg with "chest pain" (as someone said above, the worst pain I have ever, ever felt. Worse than labour.) Obviously, they never found anything wrong in my chest and the stone would pass, pain went away, sent home with percocet or t3s and a requisition for more bloodwork.

    Anyway, once the problem was found (hallelujah) I found that as long as I stayed away from anything fried or fatty, I was generally ok. Even cream in my coffee could set off an attack that would last three hours.

    I had the thing out when I was 25. Everything has been sunshine and rainbows since then (which is probably why I've gained so much weight) except for one time two years ago (about a year after surgery) I had what felt like a gallstone "attack" even though the thing was gone. Only happened once.

    Good luck to you, and I hope your suffering is minimal!
  • Rockerbabe131
    Rockerbabe131 Posts: 67 Member
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    I think sometimes it is hereditary, as well. I've always been overweight - and was fortunate enough to have around three to four gallbladder attacks, only two rather severe, before I got health insurance and had my gallbladder removed. I was so heavy at the time, that my doctor couldn't actually see stones on the ultrasound, but with my family history and symptoms and "shadowing" on the ultrasound he did it - and I had stones. The reason I say it is hereditary in some cases, is because my mom had to have her gallbladder out. However, she had never had an "attack". She suddenly started feeling ill, had a fever, and it actually had become septic inside. She has quite the sexy scar running across her ribs. An aunt also had hers taken out, although we don't know if she had suffered attacks or not.

    I didn't have attacks until I was around 20, and it was triggered by Doritoes the first (and worst) time. After that, it was a burger from Burger King (Charbroiled will trigger an attack sometimes), along with a few other random, small attacks. When I had mine taken out I weighed in at 350 (or there abouts), had it done laprascopically (so I have three small scars as well), and my healing time was rather quick. I went back to work a week after my surgery, but was told I couldn't lift anything over 20 pounds the first couple weeks. Everything healed fine for me...and I was so happy I had it done!
  • obscuremusicreference
    obscuremusicreference Posts: 1,320 Member
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    Bump, because this thread was informative. I've only had my first attack a few days ago and turned down the "opportunity" for cholecystectomy (sp?) in hopes that it is my last.

    It turns out that multiple relatives with pancreas/gallbladder issues, dropping 30 pounds in less than four months on 1200, and fatty Christmas dinners do not mix.

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