They found gallstones in my gallbladder 3 yrs ago,and the doctor reccomended removal of my gallbladder.I had one mild gallbladder attack a few yrs ago,but no problems ever since.I currently do not have insurance,and I am looking to get on some,is it safe to loose weight with gallstones,cuz I heard that loosing weight can make them worse..I am really worried about this.

Eating a lot of fat can make it worse because it forces the gall bladder to work and that can move the stones around and/or get one caught in a duct. You might try whatever you want and get it taken out if it causes a problem.

I know one girl who went from low fat to low carb and the gallstones she had suddenly became apparent because her gall bladder was having to actually work for the first time in a long time.

...also keep in mind that if one gets stuck in the bile duct, it then becomes emergency surgery. If you notice the pain is back and your skin and eyes start to yellow, see a dr pronto.

will bring it up at next doc appointment thanks

When I switch my diet back from high carb to high fat, I'll get gallstone pain. Maybe my gall bladder needs an adjustment period. I guess I always pass them. I've heard that losing wt quickly increases the chances of it becoming a problem.

Don't we all get gallstones?

I had gallstones 25 years ago and if I ate fat or cream I was in a lot of pain. I lost weight at the time, actually lost 120 lbs. but did not eat fat or creams and walked a lot. Once I lost the weight, I had the surgery and after that a tummy tuck. I waited almost a year before I had the surgery, but the doctor was constantly on my back. Nothing happened to me, ever and I eat tons of fat and cream now, but remember that we are all different and what works for one may not work for another one.

Hi Tarrenae,
I was diagnosed with a gallstone several years ago. Had pretty bad gallstone attacks a few times a year but didn't know that's what they were. Lately they've been 2-3 times a week really bad. I'm scheduled to get my gallbladder removed the 20th of this month. Loosing weight won't make it worse. Eating any kind of fat will increase the chance of painful attacks. I've done low carb off and on for over 10 years but for the time being I'm doing more SB than Atkins. Also just had food intolerance tests done and find eggs and dairy and peanuts to be huge problems for me. Boy, I have some WOE changes to make after my surgery! You'll know when it's time to schedule gallbladder surgery because the pain will make you decide. Good Luck to you.

Bit of a rock and a hard spot here. You may have to be careful and pay attention to symptoms. OTOH, staying where you are is going to have consequences, too, and you may find yourself needing other surgeries, or suffering different health problems. Surgery is going to be easier if you are smaller.

Good luck.

I read somewhere that coffee prevents gallstones. I've got none after years of abusing my body. I always have my morning coffee and then some.
AL

I know someone that drinks 2 pots of coffee per day!!!!!!!!! not two cups 2 pots!!! and they have regular gallbladder attacks due to gallstones.They
have been drinking more then several cups of coffee per day for years!
I do not think there is much truth to that.

Found this on the net:

Coffee and Gallstones
Monday 21 June 1999

Summary: Recent research suggests that drinking coffee may decrease the risk of gallstone disease in men.


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Natasha Mitchell: Thanks and welcome to the program. I'll be sitting in the hot-seat while Norman Swan is on leave until October. And you'll hear from Rae Fry as well.

Today on The Health Report: having your ears pierced could be a problem if you're born with a heart defect. And, kicking the nicotine habit: don't be surprised if the cravings hit long after your last cigarette.

But if you're a coffee addict on the other hand, here's the news you've been waiting for. A report just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that drinking caffeine might just be good for you after all. Well, for your gallstones, at least.

Dr Michael Leitzmann headed up the Harvard University study which monitored the coffee drinking habits and incidence of gallstones in 46,000 healthy men, over a ten year period.

Michael Leitzmann: We found a decrease of gallstone disease among coffee drinkers; we found that those drinking one cup a day had a 13% risk reduction; those drinking two to three cups a day had a 21% risk reduction and those drinking four or more cups a day had a 33% risk reduction of gallstone disease. So the more you drank, the lower the risk.

Natasha Mitchell: Coffee drinkers aren't going to believe their ears. Does this suggest that in fact coffee and increasing amounts of coffee, might be good for your health, or at least your gallstones?

Michael Leitzmann: As far as we know, two to three cups of coffee drinking per day, that is a moderate intake of coffee, does not actually seem to have any major health drawbacks in terms of diseases such as cancer or cardiovascular disease. And our study actually showed that coffee drinking seems to be protective for gallstone disease. That doesn't mean that we would recommend that people take up coffee drinking only to reduce risk of gallstone disease, but we still feel that it's useful for people to know that there are potential benefits of coffee consumption.

Natasha Mitchell: Gallstone disease affects many Australians, mostly women and those over 40, and especially if you're obese.

The stones form in our gallbladder, that small sac that stores bile, a fluid produced by our liver which helps to break down fatty foods. Bile is made up of mostly water, salts and cholesterol. But when an excess of this cholesterol builds up in our gall bladders, it can crystallise to form sharp stones. The result can be a real pain in the abdomen.

According to Dr Leitzmann, coffee is thought to somehow inhibit the formation of these cholesterol gallstones.

Michael Leitzmann: There are two possible, however speculative, biological mechanisms by which coffee may be associated with a reduced risk of gallstone disease. The first possible mechanism is that coffee may stimulate gallbladder contractions, causing the gallbladder to flush more completely. The second possible mechanism is that caffeine or coffee may slow the gallbladder's ability to absorb fluids, and may thereby decrease the cholesterol content of the bile.

Natasha Mitchell: And the cholesterol content of the bile is what affects the formation of gallstones?

Michael Leitzmann: Exactly. It is the cholesterol saturation or the cholesterol content of the bile that is the major determinant of cholesterol gallstone formation. So the higher the cholesterol content of the bile, the more at risk you are for developing gallstones, given additional conditions, such as an impaired gallbladder contractility.

Natasha Mitchell: Coffee can also be brewed in different ways, say, instant or unfiltered. Did you look at whether the way in which coffee was brewed affected the formation of gallstones?

Michael Leitzmann: Yes, we looked at different brewing methods. We looked at instant coffee, we looked at filtered coffee, and espresso-type coffee and found that all brewing methods had a protective effect. In other words, the method of coffee brewing made no difference. However, decaffeinated coffee showed no association with risk, so that people that were drinking decaffeinated coffee were not at a decreased risk.

Natasha Mitchell: Does that mean that it is indeed caffeine that would be perhaps the active ingredient?

Michael Leitzmann: We believe that caffeine is probably the protective agent because caffeine is the main constituent in coffee. But we cannot rule out that other components in coffee may have also contributed to the benefit.

Natasha Mitchell: Many people prefer a cup of tea. What about other drinks such as tea, or the popular caffeinated soft drinks? Did they reduce the incidence of gallstones?

Michael Leitzmann: We looked at the consumption of tea and we also looked at the consumption of other caffeinated beverages, soft drinks, and found that they were not protective, which means either that they do not have enough caffeine, or they lack the other components that appear to be present in coffee.

Natasha Mitchell: While drinking coffee might reduce your risk of getting gallstones, other factors also influence whether you get them or not.

Michael Leitzmann: We took into account other variables such as age, obesity, intake of dietary fat and physical activity.

Natasha Mitchell: Because all those things, like food intake, like body weight, have an influence on your tendency to get gallstones?

Michael Leitzmann: Yes. So we needed to adjust for the variables I just mentioned, in order to make sure that we were looking at the relationship between coffee and gallstone disease and we were not looking at the relationship that would be confounded by other variables that are also related to both coffee drinking and gallstone disease.

Natasha Mitchell: Most gallstones produce no symptoms at all, and you may never even notice they're there. So is it possible to tell whether or not coffee affects the formation of these asymptomatic gallstones as well?

Michael Leitzmann: It is only about 20% to 25% of all gallstones that cause symptoms. In our study we looked at only symptomatic gallstones, those gallstones that were creating symptoms, and so we did not address the association between coffee consumption and non-symptomatic gallstone disease. However we feel that we addressed the clinically relevant expression of gallstone disease.

Natasha Mitchell: How do you think these results might differ for women? This study involved a large cohort of men,

Michael Leitzmann: Our data applies strictly speaking only to men. However based on the mechanisms by which we speculate and hypothesise that coffee may protect against gallbladder disease, there's really no reason to believe why the associations we observed would not operate similarly in women.

Natasha Mitchell: I'm interested to know does caffeine have any impact on alleviating existing gallstones? That is, once you've got gallstones, could coffee help?

Michael Leitzmann: The data that we have is based on healthy men, so we only analysed men that did at baseline not have gallstone disease, and so we are talking about the protective effect of coffee. We cannot make any inferences with regard to the effect of coffee on gallstones that are already present or have occurred already. So we believe that the association that we saw is strictly for protection of gallstone disease, rather than for therapy of gallstones.

Natasha Mitchell: So what should the average person who sits down every morning for their cup of coffee, take from your results?

Michael Leitzmann: We do not recommend that people take up coffee for the only reason to reduce risk of gallstone disease. But if people are already consuming coffee and feel fine drinking coffee, then we feel that they should continue to drink coffee and not worry about any adverse health effects.

Natasha Mitchell: Coffee might be good for your gallstones, but its addictive influences are hardly worth promoting. Should we be recommending it just because it reduces the risk of gallstones, or even encouraging people to continue drinking it?

Michael Leitzmann: That is difficult to say. The overall effect of coffee intake on health may actually vary considerably according to whether a person drinks acutely or chronically, whether he drinks a little bit of coffee or a lot of coffee; it depends on the source and the type of coffee, the methods of roasting, the preparation of the brew and also the development of tolerance. So we feel that if people are unsure which way they should go, clinical recommendations or individual recommendations on coffee consumption should really be based on people's individual health risks and benefits. And so one solution would be for people to get in touch with their physician to make sure that they are on the right track.

Natasha Mitchell: Dr Michael Leitzmann, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

So before you start drinking coffee with a gusto, think again. Dr Leitzmann recommends that other influences on gallstone disease, especially what you eat and how much you exercise, should be looked at first.

Reference: Leitzmann M.F. et al. A Prospective Study of Coffee Consumption and the Risk of Symptomatic Gallstone Disease in Men. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 1999. vol 286, No.22

hmmm thats interesting that they say "in men" the person I was speaking about is a woman.Anyway I need more evidence to convince me,I think coffee is terrible for you if in excess moderation is okay.

Women are prone to gallstones more than men, because of female hormones. Multiple pregnancies can cause gallstones, due to a very high level of E/P during pregnancy, weight gain and loss, etc.
Coffee is used by many alternative physicians during liver cleansing protocol but in enema, and not taken orally. may be caffeine works better when taken this way!
Anyway, I don't think coffee is harmfull too, but drinking a pot a day will make me bounce around for hours.

I liked Dr. Mary Eades article on gallstones: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmd/ar...gall_of_it.html

If you already have gallstones than anything is a chance. It may hurt every time it's stimulated.

The gallbladder will be stimulated and do what it is supposed to do if you eat a good meal, or you eat high fat. Fat seems to stimulate it more, but both will make it do it's thing.

One of the very reasons to eat high fat when you low carb is to keep your gallbladder functioning well.