How do gallstones pass?

Gallstones are the worst kind of stones you could ever have. No, scratch that – they’re a close second to Rolling Stones (they’ve been making music for 60 years and haven’t stopped yet!). But hey, let’s focus on gallstones for now.

These are small hard deposits made from cholesterol or bilirubin in your gallbladder. They can range in size from a grain of sand to as large as a golf ball. Talk about being an over-achiever!

So, how do these bad boys pass? Well, put your seatbelt on because we’re about to embark on an educational journey like no other.

The Gallbladder: What is it really doing there?

Before we get down and dirty with gallstone passing process, let’s first understand what the gallbladder does exactly.

The gallbladder might sound mysterious but it isn’t really – It’s basically a pear-shaped organ located near the liver which stores bile produced by the liver until it’s needed for digestion.

Bile is essential equipment when digesting fats,imagine eating chips without salt!, which means that not having enough bile would lead to inefficient fat digestion aka clumps of fat floating around undigested. Yikes!

Developing Gallstones

Your body should produce just enough bile so you don’t end up with excess amounts lying around This problem tends occur if:

  • There’s too much cholesterol or bilirubin in your bile
  • Your digestion goes into hibernation mode
    You go through Pregnancy because yeah who doesn’t want dramatic ‘new year new me’ storylines?

When this happens, tiny shards start forming together to create bigger pieces until they form what we know as our dear friend ‘gallstones’.

So now imagine little chunks of stuff floating inside the normally liquidated material–just like adding coconut-flour to your smoothie. The liquid becomes thicker and that’s never a good thing when it comes to digestion.

Understanding the Symptoms

Gallstones can be described in 2 ways: asymptomatic, where you don’t even notice they exist or symptomatic, which involves throwing a huge tantrum as soon as you eat fatty food.

The symptoms include:

  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Pain on your right side just under your ribcage
  • Abdominal pain accompanied by severe sweating

So how do Gallstones Pass?

Now let’s get into the real reason why we’re all gathered here today…the main event…cue drumroll because this is going to sound like magic!

Whenever you eat fat-containing foods, hormones from the small intestine signal the gallbladder to release bile into the digestive system leading them straight away to have a meeting with these pesky stones–in fact it’s more of an organised brawl than anything else.

What happens next? It causes muscular contractions throughout your entire digestive system—now imagine musical chairs; except instead stones rather than people playing. The goal? Leave one person out everytime there is..urmm tight situation?.

These tightening muscles force gallstones out of their hiding places until they finally reach….

DUNDUNDA!

Your intestines!

We know what you’re thinking- “How’d it go through my pipes?”, but trust us –your body knows exactly what it’s doing. Your pancreas naturally produces enzymes that break down fats plus acids neutralize everything before leaving your body without so much hullabaloo.

Surgical Intervention

If after all this trip down memory lane nothing seems to work for you may need some external help i.e surgery. After performing various tests sometimes docs realise that taking things further might be necessary depending on how large/unrelenting those pesky rocks really are.

In surgical intervention long ago when rocks could not be passed due to size or blockage it would essentially involve quite a bit of cutting and then removal. But, as time went on new advances meant that surgery was LESS invasive i.e laparoscopic surgery which entails small incisions rather than cut-and-sew.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while gallstones might seem like an insurmountable problem it’s important to note two things:

One, there is always help just around the corner (don’t worry about waiting times)

And two

That despite all those little pebbles/rocks causing us problems from time-to-time our body’s natural digestive processes are pretty impressive in dealing with them. It won’t completely rid you off having future gallstones but at least your intestinal pipes will remain clear-ish making for easier digestion!

So keep laughing, keep eating…and maybe don’t forget how much healthier celery actually is!

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