Gallstones are small, rock-hard deposits that form in your gallbladder, which is a storage sac for the bile made in your liver to help you digest your food. Gallstones occur when bile hardens. Gallstones can be minor but they can also cause painful and potentially fatal complications if they move and block the tubes that carry bile through the digestive system. Gallstones are typically treated with surgery to remove the gallbladder, which you can live without.
Origins
Bile is made of a balance of water, fat, cholesterol, bile salts, protein and a waste product called bilirubin. If the balance is off, the bile can solidify into a gallstone. About 80 percent of gallstones are made primarily of cholesterol and are caused by an excess of cholesterol in the bile, according to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse. The rest are called pigment stones and are made mostly from bilirubin. Gallstones can be as small as a single grain of sand or grow as large as a golf ball. You can have just one large stone or hundreds of smaller ones or both.
Cholesterol Stone Causes
Cholesterol stones are caused by an excess of cholesterol in the bile that crystallizes, which can be caused by many factors. Women who have high levels of estrogen in their system from pregnancy, hormone replacement therapy or birth control pills can develop cholesterol stones. Both obesity and rapid weight loss can cause cholesterol stones, as can a diet high in fat and cholesterol and low in fiber. Other factors include diabetes; aging, which seems to increase the amount of cholesterol secreted into the bile; and cholesterol-lowering drugs, which remove cholesterol from the blood, causing it to be secreted into the bile.
Pigment Stone Causes
The causes of pigment stones are not fully understood. They seem to occur most often in those who have conditions that cause the liver to produce too much bilirubin, which is formed from the breakdown of red blood cells. These conditions include liver cirrhosis, infections of the ducts that carry bile through the digestive system, and certain hereditary blood disorders, like sickle cell anemia.
Risk Factors
Some people appear to be predisposed to gallstones. Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from gallstones, according to the NDDIC. Other people at higher than normal risk of developing gallstones include people over age 60, people with a family history of gallstones, Native Americans and people of Mexican descent. Also, once you have a gallstone it can cause additional gallstones to develop.
