Many of these causes have an individual page dedicated to them. Please follow the links for more information.
- Hypothyroidism
- Hashimoto’s Thyroid Disease
- Low stomach acid
- Food Sensitivities or Allergies
- Gluten Intolerance
- Parasites such as giardia, liver flukes, ascaris lumbricoides and others can invade the bile ducts as well as the gallbladder
- Brain degeneration
- Overweight
- Overeating
- Rapid weight loss
- Lack of exercise
- Smoking
- Pregnancy (due to excess hormones)
- Estrogen intake and birth control pills (estrogen increases concentration of cholesterol in bile)
- Low testosterone levels in men
- High androgen levels in women
- High SHBG
- Anabolic steroids – those that convert to estrogens and especially oral ones
- Chronic Heartburn
- Frequent use of Antacids and PPIs
- Atkin’s Diet – due to the amount and indiscriminate kinds of fats
- Over the age of 40, risk increases risk as one ages
- Female especially those who have had children
- Ethnicity (Pima Indians and Mexican-Americans)
- High triglycerides, high LDL cholesterol, decreased HDL cholesterol
- Alcohol intake
- Family history of gallbladder disease (heredity)
- Cholesterol-lowering drugs, immunosuppressive drugs
- Certain antibiotics such as ceftriaxone and amoxicillin and quinolone antibiotics such as cipro may cause cholestasis
- Antidepressants that slow down gallbladder contractions
- Constipation
- Diabetes
- Insulin Resistance
- Diseases such as chronic inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease (ulcerative colitis is controversial) Hemolytic anemias, PCOS
- Very Low-Calorie Diets
- Diet high in saturated fats
- Diet high in refined foods and sugars
- Diet low in fiber (which is what the refined diets are) and not enough vegetables
- Non-fat diets
- Low-fat diets
IN SEARCH OF THE ROOT
Once you manage to get your symptoms under control, your next step is to sleuth out the root causes so that you can address those.
Removing the gallbladder does not remove the underlying causes. Ignoring them is likely to create digestive problems in the future because even though the gallbladder organ is gone, the rest of the biliary system, the liver, the bile, the bile ducts, and sphincters remain. Inflammation in these organs tends to increase after removal once the gallbladder’s role of balancing the bile acids is gone. The caustic effects of the more hydrophobic bile salts can wreak havoc in the entire digestive system from the bile ducts to the small intestine. At least 40% of our calls and consultations are for symptoms after gallbladder removal.