What Is The Use Of Gallbladder In Human Body – The gallbladder plays an important role in the digestive system, but many people don’t quite understand what this organ does or what causes gallstones. Here’s what you need to know about the purpose of the gallbladder, gallbladder disease, and gallstones.

Your gallbladder is located below your liver and connects to the common bile duct. When your liver produces bile, the fluid is stored in the gallbladder until it is needed. After you eat, the gallbladder releases its contents into the bile duct, which transports bile to the small intestine to aid in digestion.

What Is The Use Of Gallbladder In Human Body

While the gallbladder plays a key role in proper digestion, it is possible to live without this organ. If you have your gallbladder removed, the bile will flow directly from the liver into the intestine. Side effects of this surgery include temporary diarrhea, but your body will adjust over time and resume normal digestion.

When Should You Visit A Hospital For A Gallbladder Attack?

The New York Times estimates that 25 million Americans have gallstones each year, but only 1 to 3 percent of those people experience symptoms. Gallstones are just hardened digestive fluids—they can be tiny or grow to more than an inch in diameter.

There’s a good chance you’ll never know you have gallstones. Painful symptoms only occur when a person is stuck in the bile duct. This causes sudden, intense pain that can last for several minutes or several hours.

There are several conditions that are referred to as “gallbladder disease”, including gallstones. It is also possible to have an inflamed gallbladder or gallbladder cancer. These conditions usually lead to the removal of the gallbladder, an operation called a cholecystectomy, often performed laparoscopically.

If you think you may have gallstones or have questions about your gallbladder, contact your local gastroenterologist. While the liver is hard at work making bile to help with digestion, the gallbladder stores bile until you actually need it.Shutterstock

Gallbladder Stock Illustrations

Your hollow, pear-shaped gallbladder hangs just below the right lobe of your liver. When the organ is full of bile waiting to help digest some food, it can grow up to 8 to 10 centimeters (cm) long and up to 4 cm wide.

Unless you’ve had a gallstone or had your gallbladder surgically removed, you probably think little of it. And that’s okay. But if it’s causing you serious pain or other problems, you may need to throw out this little organ.

While the liver is hard at work making dark green bile to help with digestion, the gallbladder holds onto bile until you actually need it, says Erin Gilbert, MD, assistant professor of surgery at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. “It concentrates the bile into a form that is best used for digestion,” says Dr. Gilbert. “When you eat, bile is pushed out of the gallbladder and goes through the common bile duct into the first part of the small intestine, the duodenum.”

The liver produces 500 to 1,000 milliliters (ml) of bile per day, but the gallbladder can concentrate this bile up to tenfold and store 30 to 50 ml of thicker bile.

Gallbladder Removal Surgery (cholecystectomy)

Gallstones form when one of two substances—cholesterol or bilirubin—gets oversaturated in bile and crystallizes, much like sugar does when someone makes candy. Bilirubin is a brown-yellow substance found in bile, which is produced when old red blood cells break down in the liver. Your body normally excretes bilirubin through your intestines (this is the reason for the color of your stool). Gallstones caused by bilirubin are rarer than those formed from hardened cholesterol, and are more common in patients with blood disorders such as sickle cell disease.

What is the best diet for a healthy gallbladder? “Most gallstones are formed from cholesterol, so eating a low-cholesterol, low-fat diet is best for gallbladder health,” says Cathleen Khandelwal, MD, a general surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic.

Any diet that would qualify as “heart healthy” is also “gall bladder healthy.” This means a diet with some healthy monounsaturated fats, such as nuts, avocados, seeds, olives, peanut butter, and oils from these products. This balanced diet should also include polyunsaturated fats, which are found in oily fish, walnuts, flaxseeds and vegetable oils. Avoiding foods that raise cholesterol also reduces the risk of gallstones.

Almost as important as what you eat, however, is how often you eat it. “If you eat one large meal a day, it increases the likelihood of stones because the bile sits in the gallbladder for a long time until it is excreted,” says Gilbert. The longer the bile sits, the more time there is for the cholesterol in the bile to become saturated and crystallize into gallstones.

What Side Is The Gallbladder On?

Along with a healthy diet, a healthy weight keeps the gallbladder in good working order. Obese individuals have a higher risk of gallstones, but that doesn’t mean you should go on a crash diet to lose weight: Rapid weight loss can also cause stones, Gilbert says. Losing weight is fine, but “you don’t want to lose it all at once,” she says.

Another way to ward off stones is to keep your cholesterol under control, including taking statins if you have high cholesterol, he says. Some evidence supports regular vitamin C supplements to prevent gallstones, and surprisingly, drinking coffee seems to offer some protection against cholesterol gallstones as well.

In addition to obesity and those who eat a poor or high-fat diet or have high cholesterol levels, pregnant women are also more likely to develop gallstones, which means they may need to pay extra attention to fatty foods during pregnancy. People with certain blood disorders, such as sickle cell disease, may have a higher risk of bilirubin stones.

Older adults and people of certain ethnic groups, such as Native Americans, also have a higher risk of gallstones, and a family history can double their risk of developing one. Some medications, such as oral contraceptives, can increase the risk of gallstones, but the increased risk is small and should not prevent someone from taking necessary medications.

Gallbladder Questions Answered

In fact, up to 12 percent of the population has gallstones, Gilbert says, but only a minority cause problems.

Up to 80 percent of people will never have symptoms of their gallstones, and there’s no need to do anything about it, Gilbert says. But if there’s a problem, you usually know: the pain can be intense. “The pain is generally described as sharp, stabbing, and very excruciating — a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10,” says Gilbert. The pain most often comes after eating a fatty meal because “fat is the strongest trigger for gallbladder emptying,” he says.

Dr. Khandelwal says the place where your gallbladder is is under your breastbone and can radiate into your back. It can last for several hours and may be accompanied by nausea, he adds.

But the pain can also be a dull ache on the right side, like an upset stomach or heartburn with bloating, Gilbert says.

Understanding Gallbladder Disease

The best test for gallstones is an ultrasound. “It’s quick and safe, and it gives us a lot of information about what the gallbladder looks like, and it’s pretty accurate,” says Gilbert. An ultrasound technician will be able to see gallstones or gallbladder irritation, such as a thickened wall or fluid around the gallbladder.

Some patients may be sent for a second type of test called a HIDA (hepatobiliary) scan, in which a radioactive chemical is injected into your arm and a technician watches what happens when it reaches your gallbladder. In general, a HIDA scan is only performed in patients who have other underlying conditions or who have symptoms of gallbladder pain but no stones on ultrasound.

If it doesn’t cause symptoms, or if it passes like a lucky few, nothing. “But if they’re causing problems,” says Gilbert, the gallbladder may need to be removed. If a person experiences pain, called biliary colic, or develops a gallbladder infection, called cholecystitis, gallbladder surgery is probably in the cards.

“If stones get outside your gallbladder and travel into the duct, they can cause some pretty serious complications, so it’s important to get them taken care of if you have a problem,” says Khandelwal.

Why Do So Many People Have A Gallbladder Problem?

Passed stones can cause blockages in the ducts that lead to jaundice or pancreatitis, Gilbert says. Any of these symptoms would require gallbladder surgery, called a cholecystectomy.

If you need a cholecystectomy or surgery to remove your gallbladder, this will usually mean a week or two off work. The laparoscopic surgery involves one incision through the belly button and two or three under the ribs on the right, Gilbert says. Although this is usually an outpatient operation, it requires general anesthesia because the surgeon fills the abdomen with carbon dioxide to expand it and make it easier to work on.

Expect three to five days of pain, which may require narcotic pain relievers, and avoid strenuous activities for at least two weeks, Gilbert says. People usually recover completely within four to six weeks and may experience short-term diarrhea.

Perhaps one to two percent of people will have loose stools every time they eat

Gallbladder Disease A Modern Illness On The Rise

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