Gallstones - diet advice

[Allthegoodusernamesareused]

I've (finally) had an ultrasound which confirmed I have gallstones. I've been having symptoms since about February, with periods of pain on my upper right hand abdomen under my ribs which is mostly not that bad, but I've had a couple of attacks of much worse pain.

Anyway, I've got an appointment to discuss the ultrasound results with my GP in a couple of weeks. I'm keen to avoid surgery if at all possible. Before I had the scan, the GP said gallstones are caused by years of poor diet, and although I don't consider my diet to be bad, I wondered if any fellow / previous sufferers had any advice regarding what I should or shouldn't be eating, to prevent further pain or worsening of symptoms?

The main thing is to avoid fatty food, particularly things with high cholesterol. The advice is mixed on whether to avoid ALL fat, with some sources recommending you have some at least. I have eg tuna in olive oil. Dairy (eg cheese) can be a particular trigger for some, and generally avoid red meat.

some people find other things trigger attacks for them eg soy sauce or gluten, so there is a bit of trial and error.

I don’t think it’s entirely years of bad diet - it’s partly a hormone thing as women are more likely to have gallstones. So don’t be harsh on yourself!

There is a lovely thread on here called ‘gallbladder attacks advice’ which I can recommend, sometimes they talk about food.

The problem is that if you have stones, then they won't just break down and go away so the only way to solve the problem is to remove the stones which is done by removing your gallbladder.

Fatty/greasy foods are a common cause of a flare up, they make you create more bile which can cause the stones to move, the pain is when those stones irritate or get blocked in the bile duct, it alleviates when the stone shifts.

You can amend your diet to try to reduce bile production but it's not fool proof.

I ended up having emergency surgery to remove mine when a stone got well and truly wedged and caused a horrible infection. They admitted me to hospital and tried me on IV antibiotics and morphine for a few agonising days. I have never felt pain like it and hope to never again, and I've broken bones, had a baby, had a couple of other surgeries. Never needed anything synod paracetamol or ibuprofen before but Morphine barely touched the sides of this pain.

When they finally said after 3 days that they were going to cut it out I could have kissed the surgeon.

No problems at all since.

CyberCritical
You don't always have to have the gallbladder removed to remove the stones.. the stones can be removed via endoscopy then the bile ducts have a stent put in.
But they can come back or be missed.
I had stones removed then a stent .. l was inflamed and infected so had the gallbladder out.. then they had left some stones in my ducts which again became infected and inflamed so had to have another endoscopy to remove them.
Left me with liver lesions.
OP if they offer you a gallbladder removal go for it.. it's day surgery and four key hole incisions.. .. recovery can take a few weeks.. but honestly it's the best option.
Because they will only keep coming back and more painful.

I had gallstones several years ago but had to wait 6 months to before I could have a cholecystectomy. During that time I followed a low fat diet as per Rosemary Connelly . Basically I checked the fat content of all the food that I bought and only ate food with 5% fat or less . It worked great and I even lost about 2 stone in weight .
it did mean that a supermarket shop took a bit longer . Good luck

Thank you for all your replies! I feel like I don't eat a lot of fatty food as it is, but I don't check the fat content so perhaps that's something I need to start doing. I don't eat anything fried, and little milk/butter/cheese as most of my family are dairy intolerant. No idea what my triggers are at all.

Usual advice is avoid fat and spice. By the time mine was diagnosed I couldn't eat anything at all without an attack though. Plain chicken and rice would have me in agony. I was on tramadol until the surgery and lost 2 stone in 6 months.

I had it out. Back to a totally normal diet now, fried food and cake are no problem at all.

I know this is a very old thread but it comes up top in Google results for "Mumsnet gallstones diet". I just wanted to say about "Before I had the scan, the GP said gallstones are caused by years of poor diet" I had mine form in 7 months and the only cause could be Mounjaro and the 1.5 stone weight loss I had on it. When I started Mounjaro I had an ultrasound for gnawing pain there and it showed nothing (sludge or stones) Fast forwards to today my gallbladder is full of stones big and small, biggest is 1.8cm. So rapidly losing 1.5 stones can definitely cause them too! Just wanted to add this as people are landing here from Google 🥰