Can Corn Cause a Gallbladder Attack?

Can Corn Cause a Gallbladder Attack?
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If you've been diagnosed with gallbladder disease, eating certain foods may cause a gallbladder attack. Any food that is high in fat content can trigger a gallbladder attack shortly after eating a meal. If you eat corn with butter or margarine, you may develop common gallbladder symptoms. Corn will not affect the gallbladder in a healthy individual. If you develop common gallbladder symptoms after ingesting corn, you may be confusing your symptoms with heartburn.

Gallbladder Disease

To have a gallbladder attack, something has to malfunction in your gallbladder. The gallbladder is a sac of bile located under the liver that is used to provide extra bile to your stomach when you eat fatty foods. Bile helps break down fat and store it in the body for energy. If you have gallbladder disease, your gallbladder either contains gallstones or is inflamed. Gallstones are cholesterol deposits that form from the bile that's stored. Gallstones can range in size from microscopic clusters to golf ball-sized stones. If you eat corn that is high in fat, the gallbladder will contract and could cause a gallstone to become lodged in the duct, leading to an attack.

Symptoms

A gallbladder attack causes pain to develop on the right side of your abdomen that may also be felt in your right shoulder or in-between the shoulder blades, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. The pain may come on suddenly and with intensity. If the pain is so severe that you cannot function normally, you need to call your doctor right away and go to the nearest emergency room. You also may experience nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite. If your gallbladder is infected, it may cause a fever and your skin to turn yellow.

Heartburn Consideration

It's possible that you may be confusing common gallbladder symptoms with heartburn symptoms. Heartburn also causes pain to develop in your chest bone that may cause sharp pain in your neck and shoulders. Heartburn is the result of stomach fluids entering the esophagus, causing damage to the soft tissue of the esophagus. Heartburn is not typically a serious medical concern, unless the symptoms do not go away or recur often.

Warning

If you develop pain after eating corn that's the result of gallbladder disease, you may need to have your gallbladder removed. Common complications of the presence of gallstones include inflammation, blockage of the gallbladder duct, blockage in the pancreatic duct and cancer.

References

Article reviewed by Kaydee Lowrey Last updated on: Aug 18, 2011

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