Gallbladder attack triggers..

[GreenVoyage]

Sorry, posting for traffic!

I was diagnosed with gallstones before Christmas, following 3 weeks of nightly attacks in October. But as I hadn't had an attack for months, no further action was taken.

Last night I had an attack. It was agony but luckily I had some left over codeine which helped.

But something has clicked. I've started eating better and doing some light exercise the past 2 weeks and lost some weight. I started doing the same last October and that's when the attacks started. The moment I stopped and reverted back to my bad habits, the attacks stopped.

So can exercise and making your diet healthier trigger attacks? That hardly seems fair!

Losing weight can trigger attacks, that’s what my surgeon told me. Best thing to do is just eat very low fat (less than 5g per meal) and avoid very spicy things too

Yep. I was diagnosed with gallstones when I was 26 and had just lost almost 5 stone in 7 months. I seem to recall some research that rapid weight loss can cause gallstones as your body produces bile to burn fat. My attacks were always triggered by the typical fatty foods such as pastry, but it could be the same reason for causing the gallstones that leads to the attacks in your case?

I've been told about the low fat but honestly, I don't believe it. My diet before was full of fat and grease. Lots of take aways. I eat much less fat now!

I just feel this is the beginning of a series of attacks like before

Gall Stone pains are the worse ever and I had a very difficult child birth!! Everyone has different triggers for it, they say its fat related but I had a very healthy diet and weight when I had problems, although both my mum and dad have had their gall bladders removed so I wonder if it can be inherited.
If you have had a sudden attack maybe a gall stone moved and got stuck in the bile duct? That is extremely painful, they can move on their own or when that happened to me I turned yellow and that is when they removed my gall bladder as an emergency. Just keep an eye on it and if it stays painful go back and get yourself checked

Certain healthy foods can trigger attacks, it’s not just fat. My consultant told me there is a chemical in the skin of courgettes, green peppers and cucumbers that cause the gallbladder to spasm/contract and precipitate an attack. He often has patients coming to him telling him they are eating so healthily but getting problems - and it turns out they are eating lots of salads with peppers and/or cucumber.

Also, when you eat fatty food, your gallbladder is filling and emptying regularly. When you go low fat, that cycle doesn’t happen and that can cause problems with your stones too.

I could have attacks from anything when I had stones, even water or milk or once from plain couscous. I used to take Buscopan when I felt an attack coming on which seemed to help reduce the severity and length of an attack. I had my gallbladder out about 7 years ago now and it was absolutely chockablock full of stones, they didn't all fit in the jar they put them in. I hadn't been dieting immediately before I started to get the attacks, although I had been dieting on and off for about 20 years previously.

I have had gallstones for years, but I can go long periods between series of attacks. I realised about 6 months ago that cheese was present in most of my meals eaten before and attack. I've given up foods containing cheese and the attacks have reduced dramatically. I also reckon eggs have an effect so I've cut down my egg intake too.

I haven't had a full-on attack for weeks now, sometimes a niggle but the not an hour of pain as it was before.

I do miss pizza and lasagne though!

Weight loss triggered mine too. I'm absolutely delighted my gallbladder disappeared from my life seven years ago.

I ended up living on chicken and rice before I had mine removed. I was being admitted into hospital about once a week and put onto morphine as the attacks were so bad. Hospital told me they couldn't remove it as it was inflamed and had to wait for it to go down. Cucumber was a trigger, but then again so was just about anything except chicken a plain rice!

After 3 months, including a miserable Christmas, the surgeon finally relented after yet another admission. What should have been a 20 minute keyhole procedure took them 3 hours. And they also presented me with a gallstones the size of a golf ball. The relief was massive.

As an aside, husband had to bring me food into Hospital, despite it being a specialist ward, on many of my admissions. One particular day stands out in the memory when the options for the ward menu were jacket potato with cheese, curry and rice or chicken in a cream sauce. On a ward for people with gallbladder problems!

I couldn’t identify any specific triggers for an attack. If it was going to happen then it was going to happen! And painful does not describe how it felt.

Do make sure you get it sorted/ removed. Mine was removed 5 years ago and I still have stones stuck in my bilary tract despite attempts to get the buggers out. My pancreas can’t cope and I have semi-regular bouts of pancreatitis, which led to a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.

Food never triggered attacks for me but my periods set them off. I got them after pregnancy (not uncommon apparently) and they flared accordingly each month. Even the thought of it is making me shiver and my gallbladder was removed years ago. Try a food diary but the best thing I ever did was get that gallbladder out!

Breast feeding triggered mine 😣
Always when feeding on left side. The attacks would last 8h up 72h (I turned yellow and a bit odd so was admitted for a week and it was removed 😁😁)
I still occasionally get attacks same pain so possibly a stone passing, now episodes linked to IBS issues. Very glad it's gone though.