A
female
age
30-35,
*aymonste
writes:ok so I have gallbladder issues and since I've been having gallbladder issues I've lost weight.When they remove my gallbladder will I gain my weight back? Reply to this Question
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female
reader, pepper27  +, writes (11 June 2008):
 Hi Hunny
Your doctor should have gone over all your worrys and concerns with you, If you have any questions that you need to no do not be frightened to ask, So I would suggest you speak to a parent who will know all the imformation or should do or ask to see your doctor so you no were you stand and then you will feel better about things..Good luck and take care WITH LOVE MANDY XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A
male
reader, Uncle Sneaker +, writes (11 June 2008):
 Oh yes. This is a subject that I know FAR too much about, unfortunately!
Has the doctor explained it all to you? Probably not.
This is how it works:
Your liver produces bile, a nasty substance that is primarily liquid cholesterol. You need this to digest fats - any fats, not just animal fat. However, your liver produces it relatively slowly, so you have the gallbladder to store it until it's needed. When you eat anything containing fat, the gallbladder contracts and squirts the bile into the digestive system.
OK so far?
Right. Now, if you start dieting or missing meals or, sometimes, for no particular reason that anyone can work out, the bile in the gallbladder just sits there and starts to form little crystals which get bigger and bigger. These are gallstones.
As the gallstones get bigger, you start to get problems. As you can imagine, when the gallbladder contract to squirt out the bile, sometimes the gallstones can get squirted out too and sometimes lodge in places they shouldn't be. When that happens, it can be very painful and requires surgery fairly quickly depending on where they get stuck. More commonly, as the neck of the gallbladder is fairly small, the gallstones don't come out. It hurts when the gallbladder contracts and tries to push them out, and often they get stuck in the neck of the gallbladder for a while and often infections form in the gallbladder as a result. This can be very, very painful - some people say it's the worst pain you can possibly experience.
Your gallbladder is not essential. Your liver produces enough bile to digest fats without the burst of extra bile from the gallbladder, as long as you don't overdo the intake of fat (in which case you have a slightly uncomfortable stomach, but nothing worse). So the solution for the gallstones if they're causing a problem is usually to take the gallbladder out. It's a relatively minor operation usually done by keyhole surgery. Most patients are home within twenty-four hours and up and about within a couple of days at the most (although you may need to be a little careful for a week or two).
So... back to your question. As you probably know, when youa re suffering from gallbladder pain you need to cut right down on fats or avoid them altogether, otherwise an hour (or less) after eating you are in absolute agony. So you lose weight.
Once the gallbladder is removed, you can go back to eating normally. Without it, there isn't a significant difference in the efficiency of digestion, so you will put on weight again - the danger usually is that now you can eat all those fatty things you haven't been able to touch for a while, you put on much too much weight!
Does that answer your question?
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