You may feel constant pain in the upper abdomen that neither antacids nor painkillers can get rid of. You try to change your position and stand, bend or stretch, but in vain nothing helps to relieve the pain, and after a while you start feeling nauseous and that the pain extends to the lower chest and back, and in the end you decide to go to the emergency, thinking that you have a heart attack.

After medical examination and tests, you discover that the cause of the aches is not the heart but the gallbladder, and gallbladder pain, or what is usually called a gallbladder attack, occurs when the stones in it are stuck in the neck of the gallbladder or in the gallbladder and blocking its opening. This leads to increased pressure in the gallbladder as it contracts slowly, causing persistent pain and often nausea.

In fact, gallstones are a common condition that affects one in 10 people, and it does not cause any symptoms in most people and does not require treatment, but in 20 percent of patients, gallstones cause a gallbladder attack, in fact, cholecystectomy is one of the most common surgeries in the world . Statistics indicate that 500,000 Americans undergo this procedure annually.

The gallbladder, or gallbladder, is a pear-shaped sac 3 to 6 inches long and has a point in which symptoms range between 1 and 2 inches. Bile is made up partly of water, electrolytes, cholesterol and bilirubin.

Bilirubin is a yellow-green substance secreted by the liver that gives bile its colour. If this substance returns to the blood, it causes the skin and eyes to turn yellow (jaundice). Bile also contains bile salts and the chemical lecithin, which together dissolve cholesterol and allow the liver to excrete it.

contain fat

When you eat a meal that contains fat or protein, the gallbladder contracts and empties bile through small tubes called bile ducts that lead to the upper part of the small intestine (duodenum). Bile helps the small intestine to digest and absorb fats and some vitamins. But when the chemical balance of this digestive juice is upset, it turns into solid particles, which can grow into pebbles the size of a grain of sand or larger than a golf ball. In fact, in 20 percent of cases, there is one stone in the gallbladder, while in the remaining percentage, there are many stones and may number hundreds or even thousands, and they are sometimes called sand. In fact, many factors contribute to the formation of gallstones, many of which have not yet been clearly understood. Among the well-known factors are:

Too much cholesterol. In normal cases, bile contains an amount of bile salts and lecithin that is sufficient to dissolve the cholesterol that is secreted, but cholesterol does not dissolve easily. Obesity and genetic predisposition to the occurrence of this process.

Incomplete or irregular emptying of the gallbladder. The gallbladder may fail to contract and empty as it should, which occurs during pregnancy and prolonged fasting. The longer the bile remains in the gallbladder, the more water the gallbladder absorbs and the more concentrated the bile becomes. The highly concentrated bile may become “muddy” and turn into fertile ground for the formation of gravel.

Not all pebbles have the same composition, but there are three types:

Cholesterol stones. It consists of cholesterol that the bile is unable to dissolve. Based on statistics, 80 to 85 percent of gallstones in the United States and Europe are primarily cholesterol.

Hemoglobin stones. This type of stone is formed when the level of bilirubin in the bile rises, and the hemoglobin stones are generally dark brown or black in size.

The first gallstones of the biliary tract. Cholesterol and hemoglobin stones that come out and get trapped in the bile ducts are known as secondary or impure duct stones. As for primary duct stones, they form inside the bile ducts. These stones are usually soft and brown in color, and composed of dissolved bile.

In a forthcoming issue, we will discuss what is known as a gallbladder attack, how it occurs and its symptoms, and we will address factors that double the risk of developing gallstones in people without others.