A new study, just presented at the Digestive Disease Week annual meeting, has found that moderate alcohol intake reduces the cholesterol in bile and may decrease the chances of developing gallstones by as much as one third.

Gallstones are small stones that develop in the gallbladder, which is a small pear-shaped organ in what is called your right upper abdomen. Bile, which is made in the liver, helps your body digest fats, but the liver makes too much to use all at once. Leftover bile is stored in your gallbladder. When your body needs more bile, the gallbladder releases it into the intestine where the bile can do its job.

The problem happens when the bile hardens into one of two types of stones: cholesterol or pigment. The most common type of gallstone, up to 80% of them, are cholesterol stones.

Gall stones can cause problems for both the gallbladder and the liver because of the shared role.

Who is at risk?

• More women than men develop gallstones
• Older people get more gallstones than younger ones
• People who have high fat diets are more prone to them
• High fat, high cholesterol diets contribute to gallstone formation
• Rapid weight loss can trigger gallstone formation

What is moderate alcohol intake?

When studies come out that say alcohol may help prevent certain types of health problems, it’s important to understand the difference between moderate alcohol intake and unhealthy intake.

According to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) :

There is no one definition of moderate drinking, but generally the term is used to describe a lower risk pattern of drinking. According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans , drinking in moderation is defined as having no more than 1 drink per day for women and no more than 2 drinks per day for men. This definition is referring to the amount consumed on any single day and is not intended as an average over several days.

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Post from: Blisstree

Alcohol May Reduce Gallstone Risk

According to the HealthDay article, Hormone Replacement May Raise Women’s Gallbladder Risk, hormone therapy taken by mouth, as opposed to patches or gels, increases a woman’s chance of gall bladder disease if she is post-menopausal. What makes this important is that the risk of gall bladder disease is already higher as a woman ages, so this would make that risk even higher.

Gels and patches don’t appear to have the same effect because they don’t need to be metabolized through the liver as the oral hormones do.

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Post from: Blisstree

Hormone therapy after menopause may increase risk of gall stones

My kids like to bug me, saying that I ignore them or don’t take them seriously when they complain of pain. What they don’t realize is that I take them very seriously and I watch them like a hawk when they complain – they just don’t see it. When my daughter showed me where the pain was, I suspected gallbladder right away, but it’s not something you usually associate with someone who is only 19, eats a better diet than anyone you know, isn’t overweight, hasn’t lost a lot of weight, doesn’t eat junk food, isn’t on oral hormones, and isn’t too skinny. So, I waited a bit and then, when it was obvious she was in too much pain and she insisted, off to the ER we went.

Luckily, for her, the stone passed and her pain level dropped. She was also told that if she feels the pain again, to go straight to the emergency. I’m glad they told her because it’s hard to tell what type of abdominal pain is serious enough to warrant a middle-of-the-night ER visit and what isn’t.

What are gallstones?

Gallstones are made of  cholesterol or calcium salts that have formed in your gallbladder or nearby bile ducts and have become solid. You can have silent gallstones, ones you have no idea are there and cause no symptoms.

What are the symptoms of gallstones?

• Chronic indigestion: Signs and symptoms of indigestion may include nausea, gas, bloating and sometimes abdominal pain.
• Upper abdominal pain: Intense pain in your upper middle or upper right abdomen. Gallbladder pain usually starts in your upper middle or upper right abdomen and may shift to your back or right shoulder blade.
• Nausea and vomiting
• Fever

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Post from: Blisstree

And her gallbladder decides it’s time to make its presence known