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Gallstones are solid deposits of cholesterol or calcium salts that form in your gallbladder or nearby bile ducts. They often cause no symptoms and require no treatment. But some people with gallstones have a gallbladder attack that can cause symptoms, such as nausea and an intense, steady ache in their upper middle or upper right abdomen. In some cases, the pain can be severe and intermittent.
You're at greater risk of developing gallstones if you're older, female or overweight. Rapid weight loss or eating a very low calorie diet also can put you at risk of gallstones.
Complications from gallstones can be serious, and even fatal, if left untreated. Fortunately, treatment for gallstones is usually straightforward, and newer techniques often allow faster recovery time.
You may not know you have gallstones until they're discovered during tests done for other reasons. But sometimes gallstones may cause certain signs and symptoms. Gallstone symptoms include:
Chronic indigestion.
Upper abdominal pain.
Nausea and vomiting.
Fever.
Symptoms of bile duct obstruction
Yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes (jaundice)
Clay-colored stools
Fever
If you experience any of these signs and symptoms, seek medical treatment right away. Keep in mind that sometimes you may have jaundice and changes in the color of your urine or stools without also having much pain or indigestion.
Your liver produces bile - a greenish-brown fluid composed of bile salts, fatty compounds, cholesterol and other chemicals. This fluid is concentrated and stored in your gallbladder you need it to help digest fats in your small intestine.
When you eat, your gallbladder contracts and releases bile through the cystic duct and into the common bile duct. The common bile duct then carries bile to the upper part of your small intestine (duodenum), where it begins to help break down the fat in your food. But if bile within your gallbladder becomes chemically unbalanced, it can form into particles that eventually grow into stones.
Gallstones can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball and may be smooth and round or irregular with a number of edges. You can have just one stone or hundreds of them.
Call your doctor if you develop a sudden, intense pain in your abdomen, especially if you also have nausea, vomiting or fever. Seek emergency care if you develop one or more symptoms of bile duct obstruction, which include:
Abdominal pain
Yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes
Dark urine
High fever with chills
MEDICAL TREATMENT
Because the majority of gallstones produce no symptoms, they require no treatment. Doctors often discover these "silent stones" during routine medical checkups or exams for other illnesses and usually recommend taking a wait-and-see approach to treatment. If your gallstones cause symptoms, however, several possible treatments are available.
Surgery
Removing the gallbladder is the preferred treatment for the majority of people who have gallstones that cause symptoms. In fact, gallbladder surgery (cholecystectomy) is one of the most common surgeries performed in the United States. The surgery can be performed in two ways:
Laparoscopic surgery.
Open surgery.
After surgery
Nonsurgical options
Bile salt tablets.
Sound wave therapy
Percutaneous electrohydraulic lithotripsy.
Topical gallstone dissolution.
NATURAL HEALING WITHOUT SURGERY
First we will discover the cause for the stones to collect in the Gallbladder.
With our unique technique the stones will get smaller and cease to exist in the Gallbladder.
You may not know you have gallstones until they're discovered during tests done for other reasons. But sometimes gallstones may cause certain signs and symptoms. Gallstone symptoms include:
