Our gallbladder is a small organ found underneath the liver. It collects the bile salt and cholesterol produced in the liver which aid the intestines in digesting fats. These bile salts are bubbly substances being produced by the liver in response to the amount of fats in a diet that require digestion. A healthy diet has a balance amount of bile and cholesterol.

If the concentration of cholesterol increases, gallbladder stones or commonly as gallstones appear. Sometimes, these salts turn into stones inside the gallbladder already. These gallstones have high cholesterol level, and causes local inflammation. If these gallstones are flushed out by the muscular gallbladder, it will block the cystic duct and will result to severe pain, inflammation or jaundice (yellowing).



Gallstone or cholelithiasis is a stone or calculi in the gallbladder. Many people with gallstones shows no symptoms at all. Almost 25% of patients with asymptomatic gallstones shows symptoms only after 5 years and already require a visit to a doctor.

What Are The Dangers?

There's a greater possibility that gallstones are present on people at the age of 40, overweight, with a family history of this ailment and those fond of western diet. There is a greater chance that women can have this, especially pregnant women or those taking estrogen or birth control pills. In the long run, gallstones may block the bile duct wherein the exit of bile is restrained which results to obstructive jaundice. This is a risky situation and may result to inflammation and infection of the bile ducts, and may further damage the liver. If this happens, a surgery is needed to remove these gallstones contained in the bile duct.

If there are gallstones, a person is prone to acute pancreatitis. This is due to the fact that the pancreatic duct is also connected to the bile duct. Having gallstones may also damage the pancreas.

What Are The Symptoms?

It is estimated that about 50% of the people with gallstones show no symptoms at all. Gallstones produces severe and sudden pain that lasts a few hours. The pain is felt after eating food high on fats. This pain is experienced in 30 minutes to an hour after eating. This starts at the upper right side of the abdomen and the pain may spread up to the back. A fever with nausea and pain or biliary colic is a result of the pain in the gallbladder and cystic duct muscles which prevent the gallstones from entering the intestines. In several hours, the pain is further increased.

What Should Be Done?

If there's pain on the upper right side of the abdominal area, a doctor must be consulted to do some tests. If the suspected cause of the pain are gallstones, a blood sample is needed for examination. An ultrasound scan is also applicable.

What Are The Medications?

Self Help

1. Avoid fatty foods that are rich in animal fats like meat, fried foods, spicy foods, margarine, soft drinks, coffee, chocolates, commercial oils, sugar and other products containing sugar.
2. Drink plenty of water.
3. Avoid over eating.
4. Maintain proper weight.

Professional Help

Surgical removal is recommended for gallstones. This is called cholecystectomy. The gallstones may be removed by using an instrument called laparoscope, a narrow tube that is inserted in the abdomen. A part of this is an optical system that reproduces images of the abdominal contents to a video monitor.

Small precision instruments are inserted in the tube in the laparoscope to make small abdominal incision to remove the gallstones. Procedures are discussed by the doctor for the best way to remove the gallstones in every situation.

There are cases that these gallstones may be broken to very tiny pieces or melted down without an operation by using some medications or sound waves. But if the gallstones show no symptoms, surgery is not needed.

There are bile acid preparations that are used to break down the gallstones. This procedure is used only on small gallstones.