Gallstones??

During the past couple of months, I’ve been experiencing gallbladder pain on a semi-regular basis (at least twice a week, although at this point, it’s more like 5-10 times a week). I’ll have really sharp twinges right in the middle of my chest, between my ribs, maybe twice or three times a day, and then every so often about an hour to two hours after I eat, I will get really bad pressure under my rib cage in the middle of my chest. It comes along with nausea and just a general feeling of pain in that whole area.

I’ve read up on the “gallbladder cleanses” and I know there are two sides to that coin. One night it got so bad, that I finally downed about 1/2 cup of olive oil, hoping that by itself would do *something*. After that, I had about a 10 day period of no pain whatsoever, and felt like my digestion was better. I don’t know if that validates the gallbladder cleanse idea or not.

My digestion is also seriously crappy. I’ve lost some of my appetite, so most foods don’t sound very good, which makes it hard to eat until I really feel full. But even when I do eat until I feel full, I find myself getting hungry very shortly thereafter. This leads me to wonder if I’m becoming malnourished? Am I getting enough nutrients/calories from my food? I’ve started feeling pretty crappy most of the time.

ANYWAY… I’m wondering if anyone has any advice about this? My mother had her gallbladder removed, but I would like to avoid that as much as humanly possible (without totally destroying my health) and would like to seek a more natural alternative. Does anyone have any ideas about the gallbladder cleanses? Are they absolutely horrible for you? I know that olive oil isn’t great (pufa, etc.), so downing that much at once concerns me. Also, it says to go for most of the day without food, which concerns me since I already feel hungry about 100% of the time. I know there are a lot of people who say that the gallbladder cleanses actually *cause* the stones that you excrete to form. Which seems… less than helpful.

Also, does anyone have any idea WHY this problem occurs so that I can avoid it in the future? I see all the “gallbladder diets” and everything, but I know as soon as I put myself on some restrictive diet, I’ll go all orthorexic and crazy. I’m a little nuts that way. I’m thinking maybe it has to do with pufa, or salt consumption?? Low stomach acid? To ease the pain, I’ve been drinking apple juice and taking HCL with every meal.

I’m really sick of feeling this crappy all the time, and the fact that I spend most of my day feeling undernourished is starting to stress me out, probably because I’m never turning the stress hormones off. Any thoughts?

• This topic was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by catie.