Gallbladder Health

What do you know about gallbladder disease? Chances are, if you have never had it yourself, you may not know very much about gallbladder disease or what it can do to your body. To fully understand gallbladder disease, you have to understand how the gallbladder works.

The gallbladder’s main function is to store bile, a liquid that plays an important role in digesting the fat we eat from foods. Because bile is difficult to digest in the human body, bile in the gallbladder helps break it down and make it easier to process.

There are different things that cause gallbladder disease such as inflammation, infection, gallstones or obstruction of bile flow. Depending on the type of problem and how serious it is, surgery might be required to treat it.

How will you know if you have gallbladder disease? There are different symptoms of gallbladder disease but since the symptoms can also be attributed to other conditions, it is difficult to know for sure that it is the gallbladder. If you have these symptoms, it’s best to see your doctor to check it out. These include:
• bloating and stomach gas
• chills
• diarrhea and constipation
• dizziness
• fever
• headache above the right eye
• light or slate colored stools
• nausea
• vomiting
In some cases, the gallbladder will have to be removed to prevent serious illness or even death. Gallbladder disease is considered to be a serious health threat and should be treated as such. You do not need your gallbladder to live so it can be removed but keeping a diseased or infected one can be life-threatening.
If you have the symptoms of gallbladder disease, you should seek the advice of a medical professional immediately. Some problems are lesser if you catch them early. Also keep in mind that people will become more prone to gallbladder disease as they grow older.

There’s an interesting post on another blog I’d like to share with readers. It’s about a patient who underwent gallbladder surgery.

Seems this surgery has become routine…at least in the minds of many….because we probably all know someone who’s had it done.

This particular person listened to the opinions of some other folks–some of whom had never had gallbladder surgery–and found out it’s not as easy as so many people seem to think.

To read this post, click on gallbladder surgery reality.

Patients who have gallbladder removal surgery report that they often suffer from frequent diarrhea for months afterward. But for some, diarrhea lasts longer. One woman, quoted in a recent news article, reported that

“I am in constant pain and suffer from infections at least once every two months.

I cannot lie on my back at all, and, if I am on my right side for too long, my incision site starts to hurt and develops a heavy feeling. I feel as though something is going to burst in the right side of my lower chest.

I was given morphine for the pain but don’t like it. I have real pain and no one to turn to for help.”

According to doctors, these symptoms may be the result of

• a problem with the staples used in the surgery,
• painful “sludge” that became trapped in the area of surgery.

Recommendations include

• a colonoscopy to see if there’s a physical cause for the diarrhea, including polyps or cancer.
• additional testing to assess proper bowel functioning.
• trying antidiarrheal medications,
• adding more fiber to the diet, and
• a second opinion from another doctor.

Related article: gallbladder removal, types of gallbladder surgery, gallbladder surgery recovery

Some new research shows that patients who have acute gallbladder inflammation should probably have “keyhole” surgery to remove the gallbladder quickly rather than going through the usual course of anti-biotics. The research indicated that gallbladder removal should probably take place withing 24 hours after the patient has been admitted to the hospital.

Dr. Robert A. Casillas and colleagues, from Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, found that prompt gallbladder removal using laparoscopic surgery reduces the amount of time the patient spends in the hospital without without increasing the risk of complications.

Prompt gallbladder removal is not the most typical treatment for acute gallbladder inflammation, however, despite its apparent advantages. Casillas and colleagues urged doctors to adopt a consistent policy of early laparoscopic cholecystectomy unless there are other medical reasons for not doing so.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may boost may raise the risk of gallbladder disease in postmenopausal women, acciording to recent research. But the manner in which the woman receives the hormones may have something to do with the severity of the risk.