Top 9 Ways to Manage Gallstones

The gallstones starts with bile, which is a fluid made in the liver that helps to digest the fat. It travels from your liver into the gallbladder where it stays until it is required to help digest the meal. The trouble begins when too much cholesterol, bile salts or bilirubin starts to build up in the bile and stagnates in your gallbladder resulting into slow formation of the particles. Thess stones can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball. You can have single gallstone or hundreds of them. Once they travel into the ducts they cause blockages which can become infected or inflamed and make you feel pain.

Usually, the people above 50 years are at higher risks for gallstones, unless they aren’t physically active and maintain a healthy weight. Additionally, young women are more likely to develop the gallstones than men. Not everyone with gallstones have symptoms. The usual symptoms include pain attack in the upper abdomen, gas, bloating, nausea and indigestion.

Here are the 9 ways recommended by the experts to manage the gallstones:

1. Favor Fiber

Too much cholesterol in your blood increases your risk of gallstones, but a high-fiber diet will help to lower it. Since we don’t get a lot of fibers, our bodies start reabsorbing too much cholesterol, which also increases our chances of heart diseases and gallstones. The soluble fiber in your intestines helps absorbing the bile containing the cholesterol salts thereby flushes them out of the body. Insoluble fibers also helps by moving the digestive products along.

2. Forsake Fat

Too much saturated fat slows down the digestion and makes your gallbladder work overtime. This elevates the cholesterol which is a chief ingredient in most gallstones.

3. Control Your Weight

Overweight and obese people who carry extra weight around their middle, people with high cholesterol and women are significantly at higher risks of gallstones. Remember that if you want to lose weight, do it gradually since there’s an astonishing percentage of painful gallstones in women that is caused by rapid weight loss. Crash diets do not cause gallstones, but the stones which are already formed tend to move in the bile duct, thereby cause painful spasms during the ultra-low calorie diets.

4. Keep Drinking Coffee

Caffeine may help to relieve the symptoms of gallstones in women. People who drink 2-3 cups of coffee a say were less likely to develop painful stones.

5. Say No To Sweets and Sugar

Sugar increases the production of insulin and raises the cholesterol levels.

6. Snack On Nuts

People eating peanuts and other nuts are at 25% lower risk to get their gallbladder removed surgically. The fatty acids present in the nuts and other components such as phytosterols, fiber and magnesium contribute to the reduced risk of developing gallstones.

7. Change Cholestrol With Vitamin C

Women with high levels of vitamin C are less prone to get gallstone disease since it protects by helping to convert the cholesterol into bile acids.

8. Talk With Your Doctor About Estrogen Risk

Estrogen may contribute to gallstones since it increases the amount of cholesterol in the bile. You should talk with your doctor about this risk and the factors like hormone replacement therapy and the birth control pills.

9. Surgery

Surgery is the first option if you experience significant symptoms. Gallstone removal surgery or cholecystectomy is a safe procedure which removes the entire gallbladder with all its stones. Often, your doctor will perform the laparoscopic gallstone removal surgery under anaesthesia. During this surgery, the surgeon will make 3-4 incisions in your abdomen and insert a small, lighted device into one of the incisions and carefully remove the gallbladder. You can go home on the day of the procedure, if you have no complications.