People tend not to think about their gallbladder unless gallstones become a painful and debilitating problem requiring surgery. However, your gallbladder could be causing gut problems or chronic inflammatory issues, even if you have no overt gallbladder symptoms.
In fact, gallbladder issues are one of the most common reasons people have chronic gastrointestinal symptoms that are difficult to treat. This is because people rarely consider gallbladder health.
First, let’s delve into the biliary tract to understand gallbladder physiology.
The Biliary System
The biliary system is comprised of the liver, gallbladder, and bile ducts that work together to produce, store, and secrete bile. Bile is made in the liver and then travels through the common bile duct and into the gallbladder. The gallbladder is the storage reservoir for bile. When specific cells in the small intestine sense dietary fats, the hormone cholecystokinin is released. Cholecystokinin then spurs the gallbladder to release bile.
Bile is an incredibly important secretion that helps to emulsify fats in the diet. Comprised of bile acids, cholesterol, bilirubin, phospholipids, inorganic salts, and trace minerals, bile is known as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent for its pivotal role in gut health and detoxification. Bile is essential for the digestions of fats within the body as well as the assimilation of fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and cholesterol.
Gallstones
Gallstones are crystallized deposits of cholesterol and other bile constituents. Oftentimes they are obvious and easy to diagnose.
Symptoms of gallstones include:
Severe and sudden pain in the upper right abdomen and possibly extending to the upper back or right shoulder.
Fever and shivering.
Severe nausea and vomiting.
Jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes)
Clay or khaki colored stools or dark urine.
Typically, gallstones include a trip to the emergency room and gallbladder removal surgery, one of the most commonly performed surgeries today.
However, by paying attention to your gallbladder health, you can not only avoid an unnecessary surgery that raises the risks of developing other health problems, but also you can improve your gut function and lower inflammation.
Biliary Stasis
The underlying issue with many cases of poor gallbladder health isn’t gallbladder stones but instead biliary stasis. This is a condition in which the bile becomes overly thick and doesn’t secrete well to help digest fats.
Sometimes in individuals with biliary stasis, an ultrasound can show gallstones that have formed but not yet obstructed the gallbladder. However, for many people, overly thick bile is the problem. This can be identified with several symptoms.
Symptoms of biliary stasis include:
Burping after meals
Fish oil burps from fish oil capsules
Fatty foods make you feel worse
Floating stools
Chronic constipation
Biliary stasis is especially common in overweight women over 40 who have had children due to the effects of hormonal shifts on the gallbladder.
General Gallbladder Concerns
While we have differentiated between gallstones and biliary stasis, there are other red flags that could indicate gallbladder problems.
Other gallbladder related symptoms include:
Dry hair, eyes, brittle nails, itchy skin, skin rashes
Diarrhea, bloating, cramping, excessive gas
SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth)
Headache/migraines
Chemical sensitivities (perfume, cologne, tobacco smoke)
Hypothyroidism
Weight loss resistance
These are symptoms that a conventional doctor may dismiss altogether, and that can also be caused by other imbalances.
It’s important to address overall gallbladder function and biliary stasis as sufficient bile flow is necessary to digest fats. When fats aren’t digested, the undigested fats cause imbalances elsewhere in the body.
Undigested fats can lead to poor sphincter function in the digestive tract, which facilitates the transport of bacteria from the large intestine into the small intestine, causing a condition called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). SIBO causes a myriad of symptoms, including chronic constipation, chronic diarrhea, or both. Bloating and gas are also common with SIBO.
Biliary stasis also backs up the liver’s detoxification pathways. As a result, the liver cannot effectively detoxify hormones, toxins, and other metabolites. This increases the toxic burden on your system, which in turn increases inflammation.
Many people with poor gallbladder function and biliary stasis naturally start avoiding fats, even healthy fats like olive oil and avocado oil. They also may avoid fish or fish oils because they get “fishy burps.” This increases health risks, particularly for the brain and hormones, because we need ample healthy fats for optimal function. It also leads to deficiencies in the vital fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K.
If you are taking all the right GI supplements and consuming the appropriate gut healthy foods but still not improving, your gallbladder health is one thing you may want to consider.
How to Improve Your Gallbladder Health
Fortunately, various nutritional compounds support gallbladder health, fat digestion, and liver detoxification, including dandelion root, milk thistle seed extract, ginger root, phosphatidylcholine, and taurine.
These compounds can also help if your gallbladder has been removed, along with ox bile.
In order to improve and maintain your gallbladder health, also include these practices:
Eat 25–38 grams of fiber a day.
Avoid processed and excess starchy carbohydrates (white flour, sugar, potatoes, pasta, etc.).
Avoid trans fats, hydrogenated fats, and processed vegetable oils.
Get plenty of essential fatty acids and omega 3s.
Eliminate foods to which you have an immune response; gluten and dairy are the two most common.
Heal the gut-lining to break the cycle of gut inflammation, biliary stasis, lack of bile, and further inflammation within the gut.
Promote bile flow with curcumin, dandelion, milk thistle, and/or and ginger
Reduce or dissolve gallstones with beet root, taurine, phosphatidylcholine, lemon, peppermint, and/or vitamin C.
Support low thyroid function or autoimmune Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism.
Next Steps
If you are experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, there is so much the can be helpful from a holistic perspective. We are able to asses various markers on our in-depth blood panels to understand liver, gallbladder, and thyroid function along with markers to understand nutrient deficiencies, inflammation, fatty acid profiles, and many others to help improve your overall health. Please reach out to our office and one of our doctors would love to give you advice on how to support your gallbladder health or your general health if your gallbladder has been removed.
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