Tag Archives: Gallstones

Gallstones—the post-pregnancy affliction

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Treatment for gallstones may come in the form of antibiotics or surgery. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Samantha Kauffman, Spectrum Health Beat


I recently heard about two patients who ended up in the hospital with gallstones just a short while after they gave birth to their babies.


They both ended up having their gallbladders removed.


Women who experience gallstones after their child is born will typically experience this within two to four months after delivery.


More than 25 million people suffer from gallstones, but women encounter this at a much greater rate than men—and that’s before pregnancy is factored in.


You are indeed more prone to gallstones when you’re pregnant.


Why? The extra estrogen in your body. Among its various effects, estrogen increases cholesterol.


Progesterone can also lead to gallstones. This hormone relaxes tissue, including within the gallbladder.

Battling blockages

About the size of a pear, the gallbladder is located below the liver.


Though you can live without it, the gallbladder does have its use.


The liver makes bile, which is stored in the gallbladder. When we eat food—especially high-fat food—bile is released from the gallbladder and sent to the intestines to aid in digestion.


In some cases, the bile crystalizes and forms gallstones. These can be as small as sand or as large as a golf ball.


Gallstones are usually composed of calcium bilirubinate, cholesterol and calcium carbonate.


It’s critical to understand that gallstones can cause a problem when they block ducts. They won’t allow the bile to leave, which can cause inflammation, or cholecystitis.


People may have gallstones and not even know it. Symptoms only tend to arise when the stones block or obstruct the body’s natural processes.


Symptoms include:

  • Upper abdomen pain, which can radiate to right shoulder and back
  • Steady pain after eating fatty meals
  • Abdominal pain lasting longer than five hours after eating
  • Fever or chills
  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Yellowing of the eyes
  • Dark urine
  • Clay-colored bowel movements

In the past we’ve looked at a condition called cholestasis of pregnancy, which entails symptoms similar to those experienced by gallstones.


Testing for gallstones can involve an ultrasound, which helps doctors visualize what is happening. A blood test can also reveal signs of infection.


Doctors can use CT and MRI imaging to further uncover problems.


Antibiotics may be used if there are signs of infection, but doctors may turn to surgery to remove the gallstones or the gallbladder.

Promoting prevention

There are some steps you can take to help reduce the chances of developing gallstones.


First and foremost: Eat healthy and keep your weight under control. Yes, if you’re pregnant you will be gaining weight—you are growing a human being inside you. But excess weight isn’t helpful.


Other useful tips:

  • Limit bad fats and make sure you’re getting healthy fats, which are monounsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids.
  • Eat a high-fiber diet and whole foods.
  • Eat healthy nuts.
  • Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.
  • Keep hydrated.
  • Keep fit with exercise.
  • If you have diabetes, keep watch on your numbers. Having diabetes puts you at a greater risk.

Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.




Coffee—a gallstone buster?

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There’s no definitive proof coffee drinking lowers the risk of gallstones, but there is an association that merits further study. (Courtesy Spectrum Health Beat)

By Alan Mozes, HealthDay


To the many ways in which coffee seems to confer unexpected health benefits, add a lowered risk of painful gallstones.


After tracking nearly 105,000 Danes for an average of eight years, researchers found that those who downed more than six cups per day of the world’s most popular beverage saw their gallstone risk drop by 23%.


“High coffee intake is associated with a lower risk of gallstone disease,” said study author Dr. A. Tybjaerg-Hansen. She’s chief physician of Rigshospitalet’s department of clinical biochemistry at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.


That’s good news for Danes, 6% of whom drink six or more cups of coffee every day, she said.


But what about the average Dane, who knocks back just two cups a day? Or the average American or Brit who consumes between one to two cups daily? The study has good news for them, too. It turns out that even small amounts of coffee appeared to lower gallstone risk.


Compared to those who abstained from coffee, participants who drank just one cup of Joe a day saw the risk of gallstones dip by about 3%. Meanwhile, those who consumed three to six cups per day saw their risk lide by 17%.


The findings were published recently in the Journal of Internal Medicine.


Gallstones are hard pebble-like pieces that can accumulate in the gallbladder, where they can sometimes block bile ducts. When that extremely painful condition develops, surgery to remove them is often the treatment of choice.


So what is it about coffee that seems to diminish risk? Tybjaerg-Hansen said that, for now, “we can only speculate on that.”


But she noted that because caffeine is excreted via the bile, it’s possible that it reduces the amount of cholesterol found in the bile. That could reduce gallstone risk, given that “the development of gallstones depends on a balance largely between cholesterol and bile acids,” Tybjaerg-Hansen explained.


Coffee also stimulates the muscle contractions that move contents though the gastrointestinal tract.


As to whether it’s the caffeine content that serves as coffee’s silver bullet, Tybjaerg-Hansen said, “yes, that is a possibility.” That raises the prospect that tea or chocolate might also lower gallstone risk.


But whatever’s behind coffee’s power, she believes that the team’s subsequent genetic analyses indicate that it’s coffee itself—rather than lifestyle factors common to coffee drinkers—that is at play.


Another expert is not so sure.


Dr. Anthony Bleyer is a professor of nephrology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was not involved in the Danish study and was not previously aware of any link between coffee and gallstone risk.


“(But) it seems every week there is a new story about how coffee may or may not be associated with some benefit,” he cautioned. “Information on coffee is collected in many big databases. It is easy to do a comparison with just about any factor: osteoporosis, weight gain, weight loss, sleep, ulcers, cancer, mortality. You get the picture.”


And Bleyer acknowledged that many people will find studies like this interesting, given that coffee drinking is such a common habit.


“But from a scientific standpoint, I am not a big fan,” he added.


“For one thing, consuming six cups of coffee is quite a lot,” he said, “and the (high level of) caffeine could have big effects on sleep, gastric reflux and on arrhythmias.”


But most importantly, said Bleyer, the things that drive people to drink a lot of coffee in the first place “may also cause other changes in diet.” And it could very well be those dietary changes, rather than coffee itself, that end up affecting gallstone risk.


His bottom line: don’t place too much stock in the power of coffee to reduce gallstone risk.


For now, he said, “these studies show only an association, that is not causative.”


Reprinted with permission from Spectrum Health Beat.