Gallstones
Gallstones overview
What is gallstones?
Gallstones are the known and common problems of the gall bladder. Nearly 20% of all women and 10% of all men over middle age have gallstones. With age, the likelihood increases that they form gallstones. But only a quarter of patients with gallstones has complaints because of these stones. The most common symptoms caused by gallstones are colic pain and gall bladder inflammation.
Gallstones causes
The tendency to formation of gallstones is probably at least partly hereditary, because there are families in which the incidence rate of gallbladder problems with gallstones are so high.
Gallstones are favored by obesity and an elevated cholesterol level.
How high is your risk of developing gallstones? The following are the most common causes of gallstones:
- familial predisposition
- overweight
- pregnancy
- Medium or advanced age
- women
- High Cholesterol
- High-fat diet
- Very low-fat diet
- fasting
- Rapid weight loss (strict diet)
- lack of exercise
- constipation
- diabetes mellitus
- Crohn's disease
- ulcerative colitis
- liver cirrhosis
- Jaundice by blood breakdown (hemolytic jaundice)
- Overactivity of the parathyroid
- After small bowel surgery
- Some medications (for example, birth control pills)
- constipation
Gallstones symptoms
About 75% of gallstones cause no symptoms. These gallstones are "silent gallstones". At the other people there is more or less severe symptoms. Sometimes you only have nonspecific abdominal pain, bloating, and one suffers from a tendency to flatulence. Some foods, like fatty foods and coffee, you can not tolerate. Often, the persons affected suffer from constipation.
Very unpleasant symptoms are biliary colic, which is caused by gallstones blocking the bile duct and gall bladder. In this case you suffer from severe pain, especially under the right rib cage. The pain can also radiate to the shoulder.
In addition, it also comes with nonspecific abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence and belching.
Article From: Gallstonessymptoms.net
Created: 2011-12-02
Last update: 2012-02-09