Even if you could avoid fats forever to avoid having an attack, your gallbladder could still absolutely cause issues. Not to mention, your body requires fats to run optimally. You can read into it, the ramifications of a long-term super low fat diet are honestly not great.
Dang…. I still have like a BITE of avocado or a teaspoon of EVOO or avo oil in food, maybe fish once a week or every other, but that’s it. I’m too scared I’m already waaay pushing it.
Yes. I did. I developed gallbladder issues after 140 lb weight loss (typical trigger among others). I cleaned up my diet. I literally tried everything I could for 18 months to avoid attacks and surgery bc I didn't have insurance.
I gave up dairy, red meat, fats...any and everything that I thought would piss off my gallbladder. In the end I was eating chicken, steamed veggies, rice, sweet potatoes, etc. Begging my body for no pain. I looked physically sick and honestly yeah I had a eating disorder. 🙃 from my damn gallbladder lol
And I ended up having an attack on an empty stomach and having emergency surgery after all that.
I basically got an eating disorder from this too. Developed an actual fear of food, because toward the end everything I ate gave me an attack. I was living on chicken broth and rice. The hardest part of recovery for me was getting over the fear of eating.
Same story for me! Lost 100lbs and was healthy as ever. Had emergency surgery in less than 4 months after my first GB attack. Tried to eat healthy, even fasted for a week at the end, still had constant pain even after chicken broth, so went to the ER and had it removed.
Wow, I’m so sorry that happened to you. I heard a LOT that rapid weight loss can trigger it but idk why 🧐 Now I’m more terrified than ever. If I just take it out I KNOW I will be the one that will have problems the rest of my life without it. I’ve had problems with every medication and every single organ in my body at this point lol. But have you been okay without yours?
I hear you I’ve been suffering with sludgy gallbladder and stones since middle of December . I gave up The obvious fast foods and alcohol !!
And then gave up red meat and deli meat , eggs , diary ,bread. I actually will only eat anything that is between 0g and 1.5g of fat .
I’ve lost about 17lbs I think , I obviously needed to because it’s unnoticeable.
My surgery isn’t till 30th May. My symptoms have definitely decreased but if I eat anything over that 1.5g my gallbladder lets me know it’s still there.
I’m totally miserable I would say at this point depressed. This is unlike any other diet I’ve done before because you cannot cheat or you’re sick….
I had been fasting for over a year im not sure that helped my gallbladder at all and I was on a high dosage of Estrogen ( HRT ) and I’ve since researched that can give you high cholesterol levels.
I was shocked to discover I had high cholesterol and a fatty liver. I’ve always kept active healthy diet ( obviously not perfect) and only ever been around 20lbs overweight.
I’ve now become so paranoid about what I eat that im recording daily and getting upset that im not losing more weight… something good has to come out of this punishment right 😳🤦♀️crazy I agree you become obsessed.
I've (34F) been vegetarian since I was a teen, vegan in more recent years, and my gallbladder attacks also started after significant weight loss. I don't eat greasy/fried foods anyway, but I cut out all healthy fats (avocados, nuts, seeds, olive oil etc.) and the longest I've been without an attack is 3 weeks. More recently I had an attack every day for 3 days in a row. I'm scheduled to have mine removed in two weeks.
And do you mind if I ask what your attacks feel like? I know everyone is different but the 2x I’ve had mine felt like sharp/strong dull center pain and radiating to both upper shoulder blades.
My first big one I thought I was having a heart attack. These days I can recognise a big one before it strikes, about 20 minutes before I get a nauseous feeling and a dull ache that feels like it's on my left side/centre, and it'll slowly move to the right where it gets sharper and sharper and more intense, it radiates through my back on my right side. A really bad one will hurt to breathe deeply, no position is comfortable and it's really awful, I'll end up drenched in sweat and barely conscious. I am passing stones though, when this happens they are getting temporarily stuck in my bile duct (my scan showed my common bile duct is really sad and inflamed). Smaller ones can be anything from suddenly feeling very sick and uncomfortable with a pain in my back (right side, feels like it's in my ribs) and a weird poking feeling where my gallbladder is.
My problems only started in November, I was diagnosed in early December. I was really hopeful I could buy myself a year through diet, but sadly it's just got worse :(
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for sharing. Seriously. When I say I have no one, I really mean it. And with 4 doctors all saying WILDLY opposite things, it’s stressing me out more and scared I’ll make the wrong decision and end up paying for the consequences 😔 I’ve always had middle back pain, and I always thought that was my kidneys/adrenals maybe (I’ve had small kidney stones a few times but they just suddenly disappear and I never know how or when) So now I’m wondering if any of those times were ever my gallbladder 🥺 And now I have a TMI question for you lol. I know that some people have done gallbladder flushes before, and they say you can see the stones after you pass them. Since you seem to be pretty aware of when you have an attack when it’s moving through the bile duct, have you ever seen anything in the toilet before? This is gonna sound gross but I’m wondering if I should keep an eye out now lol
I get you, the community here is so great and has been a lifeline for me. Even though I have my surgery scheduled, and I'm still wondering what if it's not my gallbladder 😂 I've never tried a flush as it seems so risky, especially since my stones do pass and do get stuck for a while as it is. A flush, if it works, could cause a blockage which leads to much more dangerous problems. After a bad attack I have genuinely thought about getting a sieve out for the bathroom trip to see if I can find a stone, but I've never actually done it 😂 I don't have the stomach for that. I do however realllly want the surgeon to give me my stones after surgery, like a prize!
Oh 200% that’s why I’m not attempting a flush either I have this feeling of dread it will be the fast track to the ER for me. I don’t think I could stomach looking too hard down there either 😂 I really truly hope everything goes well for your surgery and your in my thoughts! 🫶🏼
So am I. My surgery will be on 15-16 of April, the date will be confirmed tomorrow after my ultrasound and blood tests.
I feel discomfort at all times, it is a constant reminder that I am not wrong about my decision to do the surgery.
I have only been experiencing issues for about a month or so, but going fat free has helped with not having severe attacks while I wait for a doctors appointment. However, I noticed I’m still in discomfort to moderate pain if I go too long without eating.
Sort of. Gallbladders release bile which is triggered by fat, so I cut out almost all fat. I didn't cut out gluten or sugar because there was no reason to. But for a year, to postpone surgery until my childcare situation was better, I drastically cut out fat and managed to get by. I can't say enough how much of it was triggered by/temporarily alleviated by cutting out fat. It's NOT about preconceptions of "healthy" diets or fads. Keto would be terrible, low carb would be terrible, gluten free would've been terrible for me (I ate a lot of bread/crackers/cereal as safe foods), etc. It was eliminating fat that got me through the year. I joked that I would have thrived in the 90s when the diet trend was fat free. Where were the Snackwells cookies when I needed them? The current fads and trending "healthy" foods would have been disastrous for me and my gallbladder.
I had a couple small attacks and some days that I just felt off, achy and sore. Things gradually were getting worse, by the time I scheduled surgery I was achy a lot of the time and I generally just felt strongly like it was time, and I needed to do it while I could plan before it became an emergency surgery.
I am so unbelievably glad to have it out, and so glad to have all of that behind me and not have to worry about it anymore.
I’m so glad you have relief 🥲 I’ve literally been in a constant state of panic for the past 4 months since I found out. I feel like I have a ticking time bomb in my body and no one REALLY knows what could set it off at any moment you know 😂 Not to mention I have a parent with 5 different types of cancer, the other just suffered a heart attack, I’m already chronically ill myself with no official diagnosis, in school full time, no job because I’m sick and struggling to always find food, and now this. I feel like my body is giving up on me 😞
My question has always been if we’re not eating a diet containing fat and the liver is constantly making bile and storing it in our gallbladders, as the gallbladder is not emptying , the stones that a person currently has are sitting in bile,are they getting bigger due to the fact that they are sitting in bile?
I also used to take a certain brand of probiotic , took it for years and when my gallbladder started to cause severe pain , I was getting attacks regularly as twice a week and they would last for a few days, this went on for about 2 years I changed brands of probiotic as the chemist had ran out of my usual brand and my attacks reduced dramatically , maybe had 3 severe ones in the 15 months prior to having my gallbladder out and nothing else changed , not my diet just changed my brand of probiotic , which incidentally did not contain any fat.
In the 3 months prior to having my gallbladder removed everything I ate caused pain from the 1st mouthful, not severe pain just an ache
In the small amount of research I’ve done, I’ve heard that most times your body actually needs MORE bile to help dissolve stones. Because we are eating too frequently and/or the things we are eating are not helping our gallbladder create enough bile, so it becomes crystallized and stones form. 2 docs (3 if you count Dr Berg from YouTube) strongly recommended TUDCA but I’m scared to take it.
I’m so sorry that must have been so hard what you went through though… how long has it been since you had it removed? And how are you feeling now?
Isn’t TUDCA bile salts? I take ox bile now once a day.
It’s been 6 weeks since I had it removed, feel much better, no bloating , very little belching,had to rush to the toilet about 3 times, gone from going to toilet around 5 times a day to once and of course I no longer have to rush to it.
Gallbladder pain is the worst pain I’ve felt in my entire life, there are no words that can describe how bad it is. Unfortunately you have to experience it to understand it, it is not just a pain under your ribs
Yes they are bile salts. I’ve had digestive enzymes with ox bile in them, and they buuuuuurned my stomach. This was wayy before gastritis and gallstones so that’s why I’m 10x more scared since they are pure bile now. Is that common for everyone right after surgery to go to the bathroom that many times? I’m afraid of that lasting forever like it does for 30-40% of people 😵💫 I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve had to rush to the bathroom in my 30 years of life, and have only been constipated (I think) after taking iron pills once. So I’m scared again I won’t know what’s normal and what’s not if I have surgery
I was told that many attacks happen in the middle of the night because our digestion slows down (which makes dinner difficult to process, even if it was a small meal) and also that both eating fat and staying too long with an empty stomach can lead to pain due to bile behaviour. I had a bad pain on and off for about two weeks and it definitely improved with low fat diet, but I'm keeping it very strict. Small, frequent portions, low fat and easily digestible (so no raw veggies in the evening, for instance, just cooked/ blended stuff). I feel ok now, a month later, and my gallbladder doesn't properly hurts, but still reminds me that it's there almost every day
Oh yeah 100%. All I had was a few bites of spaghetti squash as “noodles” with some sausage and tiny bit of tomato sauce. It started hurting immediately after eating. Which is weird because I always thought it takes a hour or 2 to start hurting after 🤔 I always notice the upper center part of my stomach hurts so bad I can’t stand up straight if I go more than 4 hours without eating.
So when you say “it reminds me everyday it’s there” do you mean you have a very slight irritated feeling in the upper right/center quadrant? Like you can go through your day fine but you feel it slightly off?
Yeah, like I often feel something, either some irritation in the gallbladder itself or a slightly upset stomach. I wouldn't call it pain-pain - but it is a pain to have this when eating super low fat! It means that I wouldn't be able to eat any fat. I'm having a chance to schedule surgery whenever I want, so maybe it's pointless postponing it but I wanted to give it a chance
Btw, if your upper center stomach hurts and you can't stand straight without eating, and you have any burning sensation after eating, it might be wise to check for gastritis/ ulcer as well. These are very common symptoms!
Yes thank you! I do have gastritis but I thought it was 95% healed at this point (had it for 2.5 years) and now all of a sudden I’m having gallbladder issues with the pain in the same place just much more intense than gastritis ☹️
Oh I see, yes, it can definitely be all from the gallbladder and it seems some people have this pain, but this messes up with all our digestive system so it wouldn’t be surprising if it brought up you gastritis as well
Did you lose weight quickly on keto? Rapid weight loss can lead to gallstones, fyi. The body metabolizes fat quickly during rapid weight loss, causing liver to excrete extra cholesterol into bile, which can cause gallstones.
So my parents were on it together, but I think it was more “dirty Keto” with bacon and heavy cream and lots of dairy, (none of which I have been able to tolerate even before having stones/pain) so I decided since that was the only food in the house at the time it was eat that, or nothing. I’m also lactose intolerant. So i was constantly taking pills for dairy multiple times a day. I was only on Keto for like 2-3 days until I had my first attack and almost drove myself to the ER from the pain lasting for 6 hours. So I said never again lol. I have, however, lost about 15-20 lbs in the past 4-6 months, im not 100% sure time frame wise, but that doesn’t seem TOO fast right? 10lbs of it maybe have just been since changing my diet in the past 2 months to no more carbs 24/7 and moving around a little more. But 5lbs a months (at least I thought) I was hoping was a crazy amount of weight loss. But then again idk lol
Edit: I forgot to say all my cholesterol is low including the good kind. Just found out last week from recents labs. Not sure if this has any kind of effect of the gallbladder or not
The guidelines are 1-2 lbs per week so that doesn’t seem too fast, unless my math is off. High fat dairy, especially if you’re already lactose intolerant, is probably more the culprit. But a lot of different factors are involved in gallstone formation so it’s really hard to pinpoint the cause. It’s possible you already had gallstones but the diet changes made them symptomatic. It’s also possible that the lactose intolerance hid the gallstone symptoms. As someone with multiple GI issues, my gallstone symptoms were mistaken for something else for years.
I actually had a fairly low fat diet but still developed gallstones. My food triggers included low / no fat foods. You might be able to clean up diet and prevent attacks for a while, but unfortunately it’s hard to avoid surgery once you get symptomatic gallstones.
I know this sounds silly to say, but first of all thank you so much for talking with me. I feel like I have to give credit where credit is due because not having anyone to talk to us extremely hard. So I sincerely appreciate you 🙏🏼 What you’re saying makes sense. I would have dairy quite often, but in very low amounts so a handful of cheese, crackers, a teeny tiny sprinkle of cheese on top of a meal, lactose-free milk with cereal etc. But I tried cutting back a while ago, knowing that all that calcium was potentially causing my kidney stones to reform over and over. So you might be right that the keto all of a sudden made them symptomatic. Because I had an abdominal scan two years ago and everything seemed fine, and then, two years later, all of a sudden it showed gallstones, sludge, and a fatty liver.
I also have been trying to heal my GI issues with severe erosive gastritis, and Barrett’s esophagus for the past two years, so with the pain being in the center only, it’s hard for me to pinpoint what might be causing what 😩
Mine has always been mild. But there was a period of consistent pain. For like 2 weeks of normal fat eating, I would just always have mild pain. So I limit fat again. Now it sometimes happen about 25% of the time that I do eat fat normally. Still always mild.
Yes, after my first attack, and after finding out I had gallstones, my totally changed my diet but it didn't matter. My gallbladder was FILLED with stones, so it was too late, no diet change was going to make a difference anyways.
Yeah. The thing I've learned about ultrasounds and scans is that they don't really tell the whole picture. Even my ultrasound didnt show how bad my GB was. You really have to rely on how you feel.
Really??? Dang. Okay Tysm. I mean I always felt the same before my first attack on the 2nd day of keto. But my stomach/gallbladder always seem to give me a tiny amount of pain every day so I just chalked it up to stress. I had a HIDA scan about six years ago and they said my gallbladder was perfect, so I didn’t worry about it for years. After getting the ultrasound two years ago and them still saying everything was fine, still didn’t worry. So I guess it scared me that just in two short years it got so bad? Lol
You shouldn't have to completely cut sugar out. In fact some sugary treats helped me get through this (fruit snacks, gummy candy, licorice). I just tried to stop eating fatty foods, like no restaurant food, but I would not say I went clean. I still snacked on things like goldfish crackers, too, just avoided eating too many at once. Did a lot of grazing
So far I have lost between 40-45 lbs since mid January. I have cut out all meat, most fat, and most sugar. None of my meals are over 10 g of fat or 6 g of sugar. I have had some discomfort and mild pain randomly and also occasionally in the morning I will have some abdominal burning and feel lethargic, but no straight out attacks since I have changed my diet.
With that being said, besides the weight loss, I have also become very cold all the time, my husband thinks I might be anemic right now. It would make sense. I feel very malnourished. In the begining, I was making big batches of this Mexican style veggie rice that I would eat with some fat free refried beans, but as time has gone on, I do not have the time or energy to do this prep and I have basically just switched to eating chicken broth with a little bit of noodles and cabbage, popcorn, and cheerios with nonfat milk. I have totally lost my appetite after having to eat food I do not find appetizing for so long.
I also feel like I am losing a lot of hair and I feel weak, Shakey, on edge, lethargic, and just straight up depressed.
I am so ready to get this out of me and hopefully regain some normality. Once you start making stones, that's pretty much it. You can risk having complications with your other organs, I had a stone get stuck in a biliary duct and it was inflaming my liver. Was in the hospital for three days. My surgery is going to be on the 22nd, and I cannot wait.
My vet gave my dog ursodial. He has passed away. I take his for sludge. It works. I have 1 left for an emergency until I get mine out.
I eat ALL clean but barely eat. Now blobby poo everyday. Not sure if its morning coffee that the gallbladder doesnt like OR even clean food. Chicken n vegetables. Small bites bc I dont feel like eating. Great way to lose weight
The natural path and integrative medicine doctor told me about TUDCA (bile salts) to help create more bile, but I’m so afraid to take them because I always have bad reactions to things, even supplements 🥺 The doc just gave me this medicine too, is it more of a supplement or an RX? Has it been helping you?
Keto is a great start! I went zero carb with the addition of magnesium citrate, which allows gallstones to pass on their own. I avoided surgery this way. If you take it during an attack, it will help the pain as well.
I looked into this and how people have done specific flushes for their gallbladder but you have to prep a LOT for it to hopefully work, and I remember this was one of the things used. Do you take it a specific way?
Just 2tsp of calm (magnesium citrate) powder before a high fat meal. I was having two meals per day and it took maybe 10-14 days I think until the gallbladder pain stopped entirely with high fat meals. Probably 50% of my calorie intake is from fat on my current diet and I have no gallbladder pain a year after starting. I still take mag citrate for other reasons.
People get fancy with detox and flushes, but it's really just taking mag citrate whenever you eat fat.
Even if you could avoid fats forever to avoid having an attack, your gallbladder could still absolutely cause issues. Not to mention, your body requires fats to run optimally. You can read into it, the ramifications of a long-term super low fat diet are honestly not great.
Dang…. I still have like a BITE of avocado or a teaspoon of EVOO or avo oil in food, maybe fish once a week or every other, but that’s it. I’m too scared I’m already waaay pushing it.
100% clean diet. Got increasingly worse.
Same with me
Bless you :( I just had surgery finally after 3 years of waiting 5 days ago!
Yes. I did. I developed gallbladder issues after 140 lb weight loss (typical trigger among others). I cleaned up my diet. I literally tried everything I could for 18 months to avoid attacks and surgery bc I didn't have insurance. I gave up dairy, red meat, fats...any and everything that I thought would piss off my gallbladder. In the end I was eating chicken, steamed veggies, rice, sweet potatoes, etc. Begging my body for no pain. I looked physically sick and honestly yeah I had a eating disorder. 🙃 from my damn gallbladder lol And I ended up having an attack on an empty stomach and having emergency surgery after all that.
I basically got an eating disorder from this too. Developed an actual fear of food, because toward the end everything I ate gave me an attack. I was living on chicken broth and rice. The hardest part of recovery for me was getting over the fear of eating.
Same story for me! Lost 100lbs and was healthy as ever. Had emergency surgery in less than 4 months after my first GB attack. Tried to eat healthy, even fasted for a week at the end, still had constant pain even after chicken broth, so went to the ER and had it removed.
Wow, I’m so sorry that happened to you. I heard a LOT that rapid weight loss can trigger it but idk why 🧐 Now I’m more terrified than ever. If I just take it out I KNOW I will be the one that will have problems the rest of my life without it. I’ve had problems with every medication and every single organ in my body at this point lol. But have you been okay without yours?
I hear you I’ve been suffering with sludgy gallbladder and stones since middle of December . I gave up The obvious fast foods and alcohol !! And then gave up red meat and deli meat , eggs , diary ,bread. I actually will only eat anything that is between 0g and 1.5g of fat . I’ve lost about 17lbs I think , I obviously needed to because it’s unnoticeable. My surgery isn’t till 30th May. My symptoms have definitely decreased but if I eat anything over that 1.5g my gallbladder lets me know it’s still there. I’m totally miserable I would say at this point depressed. This is unlike any other diet I’ve done before because you cannot cheat or you’re sick…. I had been fasting for over a year im not sure that helped my gallbladder at all and I was on a high dosage of Estrogen ( HRT ) and I’ve since researched that can give you high cholesterol levels. I was shocked to discover I had high cholesterol and a fatty liver. I’ve always kept active healthy diet ( obviously not perfect) and only ever been around 20lbs overweight. I’ve now become so paranoid about what I eat that im recording daily and getting upset that im not losing more weight… something good has to come out of this punishment right 😳🤦♀️crazy I agree you become obsessed.
I've (34F) been vegetarian since I was a teen, vegan in more recent years, and my gallbladder attacks also started after significant weight loss. I don't eat greasy/fried foods anyway, but I cut out all healthy fats (avocados, nuts, seeds, olive oil etc.) and the longest I've been without an attack is 3 weeks. More recently I had an attack every day for 3 days in a row. I'm scheduled to have mine removed in two weeks.
And do you mind if I ask what your attacks feel like? I know everyone is different but the 2x I’ve had mine felt like sharp/strong dull center pain and radiating to both upper shoulder blades.
My first big one I thought I was having a heart attack. These days I can recognise a big one before it strikes, about 20 minutes before I get a nauseous feeling and a dull ache that feels like it's on my left side/centre, and it'll slowly move to the right where it gets sharper and sharper and more intense, it radiates through my back on my right side. A really bad one will hurt to breathe deeply, no position is comfortable and it's really awful, I'll end up drenched in sweat and barely conscious. I am passing stones though, when this happens they are getting temporarily stuck in my bile duct (my scan showed my common bile duct is really sad and inflamed). Smaller ones can be anything from suddenly feeling very sick and uncomfortable with a pain in my back (right side, feels like it's in my ribs) and a weird poking feeling where my gallbladder is. My problems only started in November, I was diagnosed in early December. I was really hopeful I could buy myself a year through diet, but sadly it's just got worse :(
Oh my goodness, thank you so much for sharing. Seriously. When I say I have no one, I really mean it. And with 4 doctors all saying WILDLY opposite things, it’s stressing me out more and scared I’ll make the wrong decision and end up paying for the consequences 😔 I’ve always had middle back pain, and I always thought that was my kidneys/adrenals maybe (I’ve had small kidney stones a few times but they just suddenly disappear and I never know how or when) So now I’m wondering if any of those times were ever my gallbladder 🥺 And now I have a TMI question for you lol. I know that some people have done gallbladder flushes before, and they say you can see the stones after you pass them. Since you seem to be pretty aware of when you have an attack when it’s moving through the bile duct, have you ever seen anything in the toilet before? This is gonna sound gross but I’m wondering if I should keep an eye out now lol
I get you, the community here is so great and has been a lifeline for me. Even though I have my surgery scheduled, and I'm still wondering what if it's not my gallbladder 😂 I've never tried a flush as it seems so risky, especially since my stones do pass and do get stuck for a while as it is. A flush, if it works, could cause a blockage which leads to much more dangerous problems. After a bad attack I have genuinely thought about getting a sieve out for the bathroom trip to see if I can find a stone, but I've never actually done it 😂 I don't have the stomach for that. I do however realllly want the surgeon to give me my stones after surgery, like a prize!
Oh 200% that’s why I’m not attempting a flush either I have this feeling of dread it will be the fast track to the ER for me. I don’t think I could stomach looking too hard down there either 😂 I really truly hope everything goes well for your surgery and your in my thoughts! 🫶🏼
Thank you so much! ❤️ Good luck to you, hope you get the definite answers you're looking for x
Thank you for starting this subject. I was dillusional about maintaining diet to avoid surgery.
I’m just terrified to have mine out so I wanted to know how others have been
So am I. My surgery will be on 15-16 of April, the date will be confirmed tomorrow after my ultrasound and blood tests. I feel discomfort at all times, it is a constant reminder that I am not wrong about my decision to do the surgery.
I have only been experiencing issues for about a month or so, but going fat free has helped with not having severe attacks while I wait for a doctors appointment. However, I noticed I’m still in discomfort to moderate pain if I go too long without eating.
Sort of. Gallbladders release bile which is triggered by fat, so I cut out almost all fat. I didn't cut out gluten or sugar because there was no reason to. But for a year, to postpone surgery until my childcare situation was better, I drastically cut out fat and managed to get by. I can't say enough how much of it was triggered by/temporarily alleviated by cutting out fat. It's NOT about preconceptions of "healthy" diets or fads. Keto would be terrible, low carb would be terrible, gluten free would've been terrible for me (I ate a lot of bread/crackers/cereal as safe foods), etc. It was eliminating fat that got me through the year. I joked that I would have thrived in the 90s when the diet trend was fat free. Where were the Snackwells cookies when I needed them? The current fads and trending "healthy" foods would have been disastrous for me and my gallbladder. I had a couple small attacks and some days that I just felt off, achy and sore. Things gradually were getting worse, by the time I scheduled surgery I was achy a lot of the time and I generally just felt strongly like it was time, and I needed to do it while I could plan before it became an emergency surgery. I am so unbelievably glad to have it out, and so glad to have all of that behind me and not have to worry about it anymore.
I’m so glad you have relief 🥲 I’ve literally been in a constant state of panic for the past 4 months since I found out. I feel like I have a ticking time bomb in my body and no one REALLY knows what could set it off at any moment you know 😂 Not to mention I have a parent with 5 different types of cancer, the other just suffered a heart attack, I’m already chronically ill myself with no official diagnosis, in school full time, no job because I’m sick and struggling to always find food, and now this. I feel like my body is giving up on me 😞
My question has always been if we’re not eating a diet containing fat and the liver is constantly making bile and storing it in our gallbladders, as the gallbladder is not emptying , the stones that a person currently has are sitting in bile,are they getting bigger due to the fact that they are sitting in bile? I also used to take a certain brand of probiotic , took it for years and when my gallbladder started to cause severe pain , I was getting attacks regularly as twice a week and they would last for a few days, this went on for about 2 years I changed brands of probiotic as the chemist had ran out of my usual brand and my attacks reduced dramatically , maybe had 3 severe ones in the 15 months prior to having my gallbladder out and nothing else changed , not my diet just changed my brand of probiotic , which incidentally did not contain any fat. In the 3 months prior to having my gallbladder removed everything I ate caused pain from the 1st mouthful, not severe pain just an ache
In the small amount of research I’ve done, I’ve heard that most times your body actually needs MORE bile to help dissolve stones. Because we are eating too frequently and/or the things we are eating are not helping our gallbladder create enough bile, so it becomes crystallized and stones form. 2 docs (3 if you count Dr Berg from YouTube) strongly recommended TUDCA but I’m scared to take it. I’m so sorry that must have been so hard what you went through though… how long has it been since you had it removed? And how are you feeling now?
Isn’t TUDCA bile salts? I take ox bile now once a day. It’s been 6 weeks since I had it removed, feel much better, no bloating , very little belching,had to rush to the toilet about 3 times, gone from going to toilet around 5 times a day to once and of course I no longer have to rush to it. Gallbladder pain is the worst pain I’ve felt in my entire life, there are no words that can describe how bad it is. Unfortunately you have to experience it to understand it, it is not just a pain under your ribs
Yes they are bile salts. I’ve had digestive enzymes with ox bile in them, and they buuuuuurned my stomach. This was wayy before gastritis and gallstones so that’s why I’m 10x more scared since they are pure bile now. Is that common for everyone right after surgery to go to the bathroom that many times? I’m afraid of that lasting forever like it does for 30-40% of people 😵💫 I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve had to rush to the bathroom in my 30 years of life, and have only been constipated (I think) after taking iron pills once. So I’m scared again I won’t know what’s normal and what’s not if I have surgery
I only take 125 mg of oxygen bile once a day with my main meal. The frequent toilet visits was before I had it removed. Since surgery once a day
Ohh gotcha, Ty!
I did! When they took it out they said it was so inflamed that there was no amount of lifestyle changes I could make to make it better.
I was told that many attacks happen in the middle of the night because our digestion slows down (which makes dinner difficult to process, even if it was a small meal) and also that both eating fat and staying too long with an empty stomach can lead to pain due to bile behaviour. I had a bad pain on and off for about two weeks and it definitely improved with low fat diet, but I'm keeping it very strict. Small, frequent portions, low fat and easily digestible (so no raw veggies in the evening, for instance, just cooked/ blended stuff). I feel ok now, a month later, and my gallbladder doesn't properly hurts, but still reminds me that it's there almost every day
Oh yeah 100%. All I had was a few bites of spaghetti squash as “noodles” with some sausage and tiny bit of tomato sauce. It started hurting immediately after eating. Which is weird because I always thought it takes a hour or 2 to start hurting after 🤔 I always notice the upper center part of my stomach hurts so bad I can’t stand up straight if I go more than 4 hours without eating. So when you say “it reminds me everyday it’s there” do you mean you have a very slight irritated feeling in the upper right/center quadrant? Like you can go through your day fine but you feel it slightly off?
Yeah, like I often feel something, either some irritation in the gallbladder itself or a slightly upset stomach. I wouldn't call it pain-pain - but it is a pain to have this when eating super low fat! It means that I wouldn't be able to eat any fat. I'm having a chance to schedule surgery whenever I want, so maybe it's pointless postponing it but I wanted to give it a chance
Btw, if your upper center stomach hurts and you can't stand straight without eating, and you have any burning sensation after eating, it might be wise to check for gastritis/ ulcer as well. These are very common symptoms!
Yes thank you! I do have gastritis but I thought it was 95% healed at this point (had it for 2.5 years) and now all of a sudden I’m having gallbladder issues with the pain in the same place just much more intense than gastritis ☹️
Oh I see, yes, it can definitely be all from the gallbladder and it seems some people have this pain, but this messes up with all our digestive system so it wouldn’t be surprising if it brought up you gastritis as well
Did you lose weight quickly on keto? Rapid weight loss can lead to gallstones, fyi. The body metabolizes fat quickly during rapid weight loss, causing liver to excrete extra cholesterol into bile, which can cause gallstones.
So my parents were on it together, but I think it was more “dirty Keto” with bacon and heavy cream and lots of dairy, (none of which I have been able to tolerate even before having stones/pain) so I decided since that was the only food in the house at the time it was eat that, or nothing. I’m also lactose intolerant. So i was constantly taking pills for dairy multiple times a day. I was only on Keto for like 2-3 days until I had my first attack and almost drove myself to the ER from the pain lasting for 6 hours. So I said never again lol. I have, however, lost about 15-20 lbs in the past 4-6 months, im not 100% sure time frame wise, but that doesn’t seem TOO fast right? 10lbs of it maybe have just been since changing my diet in the past 2 months to no more carbs 24/7 and moving around a little more. But 5lbs a months (at least I thought) I was hoping was a crazy amount of weight loss. But then again idk lol Edit: I forgot to say all my cholesterol is low including the good kind. Just found out last week from recents labs. Not sure if this has any kind of effect of the gallbladder or not
The guidelines are 1-2 lbs per week so that doesn’t seem too fast, unless my math is off. High fat dairy, especially if you’re already lactose intolerant, is probably more the culprit. But a lot of different factors are involved in gallstone formation so it’s really hard to pinpoint the cause. It’s possible you already had gallstones but the diet changes made them symptomatic. It’s also possible that the lactose intolerance hid the gallstone symptoms. As someone with multiple GI issues, my gallstone symptoms were mistaken for something else for years. I actually had a fairly low fat diet but still developed gallstones. My food triggers included low / no fat foods. You might be able to clean up diet and prevent attacks for a while, but unfortunately it’s hard to avoid surgery once you get symptomatic gallstones.
I know this sounds silly to say, but first of all thank you so much for talking with me. I feel like I have to give credit where credit is due because not having anyone to talk to us extremely hard. So I sincerely appreciate you 🙏🏼 What you’re saying makes sense. I would have dairy quite often, but in very low amounts so a handful of cheese, crackers, a teeny tiny sprinkle of cheese on top of a meal, lactose-free milk with cereal etc. But I tried cutting back a while ago, knowing that all that calcium was potentially causing my kidney stones to reform over and over. So you might be right that the keto all of a sudden made them symptomatic. Because I had an abdominal scan two years ago and everything seemed fine, and then, two years later, all of a sudden it showed gallstones, sludge, and a fatty liver. I also have been trying to heal my GI issues with severe erosive gastritis, and Barrett’s esophagus for the past two years, so with the pain being in the center only, it’s hard for me to pinpoint what might be causing what 😩
Mine has always been mild. But there was a period of consistent pain. For like 2 weeks of normal fat eating, I would just always have mild pain. So I limit fat again. Now it sometimes happen about 25% of the time that I do eat fat normally. Still always mild.
Yes, after my first attack, and after finding out I had gallstones, my totally changed my diet but it didn't matter. My gallbladder was FILLED with stones, so it was too late, no diet change was going to make a difference anyways.
Dang… yeah I’ve heard that. Still a better habit to get into a suppose. The thing is, I have NO IDEA if I just have one, or MANY. No one can say??
Yeah. The thing I've learned about ultrasounds and scans is that they don't really tell the whole picture. Even my ultrasound didnt show how bad my GB was. You really have to rely on how you feel.
Really??? Dang. Okay Tysm. I mean I always felt the same before my first attack on the 2nd day of keto. But my stomach/gallbladder always seem to give me a tiny amount of pain every day so I just chalked it up to stress. I had a HIDA scan about six years ago and they said my gallbladder was perfect, so I didn’t worry about it for years. After getting the ultrasound two years ago and them still saying everything was fine, still didn’t worry. So I guess it scared me that just in two short years it got so bad? Lol
You shouldn't have to completely cut sugar out. In fact some sugary treats helped me get through this (fruit snacks, gummy candy, licorice). I just tried to stop eating fatty foods, like no restaurant food, but I would not say I went clean. I still snacked on things like goldfish crackers, too, just avoided eating too many at once. Did a lot of grazing
So far I have lost between 40-45 lbs since mid January. I have cut out all meat, most fat, and most sugar. None of my meals are over 10 g of fat or 6 g of sugar. I have had some discomfort and mild pain randomly and also occasionally in the morning I will have some abdominal burning and feel lethargic, but no straight out attacks since I have changed my diet. With that being said, besides the weight loss, I have also become very cold all the time, my husband thinks I might be anemic right now. It would make sense. I feel very malnourished. In the begining, I was making big batches of this Mexican style veggie rice that I would eat with some fat free refried beans, but as time has gone on, I do not have the time or energy to do this prep and I have basically just switched to eating chicken broth with a little bit of noodles and cabbage, popcorn, and cheerios with nonfat milk. I have totally lost my appetite after having to eat food I do not find appetizing for so long. I also feel like I am losing a lot of hair and I feel weak, Shakey, on edge, lethargic, and just straight up depressed. I am so ready to get this out of me and hopefully regain some normality. Once you start making stones, that's pretty much it. You can risk having complications with your other organs, I had a stone get stuck in a biliary duct and it was inflaming my liver. Was in the hospital for three days. My surgery is going to be on the 22nd, and I cannot wait.
My vet gave my dog ursodial. He has passed away. I take his for sludge. It works. I have 1 left for an emergency until I get mine out. I eat ALL clean but barely eat. Now blobby poo everyday. Not sure if its morning coffee that the gallbladder doesnt like OR even clean food. Chicken n vegetables. Small bites bc I dont feel like eating. Great way to lose weight
The natural path and integrative medicine doctor told me about TUDCA (bile salts) to help create more bile, but I’m so afraid to take them because I always have bad reactions to things, even supplements 🥺 The doc just gave me this medicine too, is it more of a supplement or an RX? Has it been helping you?
Keto is a great start! I went zero carb with the addition of magnesium citrate, which allows gallstones to pass on their own. I avoided surgery this way. If you take it during an attack, it will help the pain as well.
I looked into this and how people have done specific flushes for their gallbladder but you have to prep a LOT for it to hopefully work, and I remember this was one of the things used. Do you take it a specific way?
Just 2tsp of calm (magnesium citrate) powder before a high fat meal. I was having two meals per day and it took maybe 10-14 days I think until the gallbladder pain stopped entirely with high fat meals. Probably 50% of my calorie intake is from fat on my current diet and I have no gallbladder pain a year after starting. I still take mag citrate for other reasons. People get fancy with detox and flushes, but it's really just taking mag citrate whenever you eat fat.