1. Food Processors
Bile is stored in the gallbladder to aid in digestions. The liver sends the bile to the gallbladder, which then releases the bile when you eat. After digestion is complete, the gallstones start storing up the bile again and wait for when they are needed again. While that bile is sitting there waiting to be called into use, it settles and sometimes forms hard little balls. It can be as grainy as sugar or as large as a golf ball. The stones gather and pile up. A gallbladder can store hundreds of these stones at a time and still continue to do their jobs.
2. The Body's Mysteries
One of the mysteries not yet uncovered about the human body is why some people develop large gallstones and other people never have more than a grainy sludge lying in the bottom of their gallbladders. Some research indicates that fatty diets that are also low in fiber contribute to larger stones, while others believe that weak gallstone muscles are the main cause of the collection.
3. Stomach Pain Signals
You get an idea that you are having a gallstone attack when you begin to get sharp abdominal pains, lasting from about 15 minutes to several hours. Vomiting and sweating may occur and you may feel a sharp pain in your shoulders. A liver test can usually help to detect the gallbladder disorder by measuring the bile content.
4. When in Doubt, Take it out
The quickest and surest way to end gallbladder malfunctioning is to take it out. It works nearly 100 percent of the time and the patient has no more of those debilitating attacks. Even though the gallbladder serves the stomach during digestion, people who have their gallbladders removed don't seem to have any digestion problems. Some people even wonder if the organ is just a leftover from primeval days when we ate so much raw food.
5. Take a Pill
For people averse to getting surgery, even though it can be done through a very small incision, they can swallow a chemical to try to dissolve the gallstones. The medicine thins the bile and hopefully dissolves the stones, allowing them to pass through the normal digestions process. This process is typically not very successful. For one thing, the chemical can only dissolve very small stones, which probably wouldn't even bother you in the first place. Even if your pain is gone and your gallstones are reduced to crystallized rubble, they live to grow again. In more than half the patients who receive this kind of treatment, the condition returns within a couple years and they have to face the same pain all over again.
