gallstones and their complications
Gall stones are quite complicated and it is important to know just exactly why and how they form. A patient with gall stones at the age of twenty-four is not unusual, but although doctors never expected to see such young people with this degenerative disease it is now no longer a rarity.
Sometimes a gall bladder will look fairly normal but when it is opened up the stones are revealed inside. These are cholesterol stones and they are often squared because they press up against each other and they are usually surrounded by a thin watery-looking bile.
Opening up a shrunken and deformed gall bladder the stones are found inside, as expected, but on further examination an obstructing stone is frequently found just as in the appendicitis. This means that the gall bladder cannot drain and becomes stagnant and infected. The stones rough up the inside which becomes a centre of infection. It causes a lot of pain and eventually contracts as a result of a fat free diet, causes further pain and before long has to be removed.
Sometimes the gall bladder becomes a bag of pus with stones embedded inside, largely because it cannot drain, and sometimes the stones block the bile duct causing the bile to be released into the blood stream and the patient goes yellow. In this case it means opening up the duct which is a long and tedious procedure and removing the blockage while also removing the gall bladder.
The ultimate complication is cancer of the gall bladder. It is said that cancer of the gall bladder is never seen without stones being present. This is a very difficult condition to treat because it is so close to the liver and is often fatal. These are the complications of gall stones and the reason for having to take them out.
HOW GALL STONES ARE FORMED
Contrary to what many people have been led to believe, cholesterol is not an evil product of modern living. It is a perfectly natural substance that is secreted by every living cell.
In the bile, the cholesterol should be about 8%, the bile salts should be about 85%, and the phospholipids about 10%. These three variables meet at the Micelle corner as shown in the diagram. As long as these three meet at this point all is well and the cholesterol is in biophysical solution and not crystalline in any way. If the cholesterol starts rising, or if the bile salts become weak then the cholesterol will come out of solution and start to form stones. This means that stones of the gall bladder are not a disease of the gall bladder itself but a disease of the bile and the bile is made in the liver cell. Stones therefore, are a disease of the liver cell.
THE LIVER
There now appears to be a toxic substance in our food that is poisoning our liver cells and that substance is being shown to be crystalline sugar because this is a substance the body had never met before until it was made about 170 years ago.
It is not that sugar is bad for us in its own right but it is the quantity in which it is eaten which is so bad for us. It is absorbed by our bodies at very great speed, literally in minutes, and because it is so soluble large quantities are taken in tea and coffee. Sugar is so poisonous to the liver cell that the liver cannot produce bile of the right strength and this in turn means that the cholesterol cannot be used in the natural way and that is the basic cause of gall stones.
Tests showed that patients with gall stones ate more sugar than normal people, they also had a higher concentration of insulin in the blood.
Sometimes a gall bladder will look fairly normal but when it is opened up the stones are revealed inside. These are cholesterol stones and they are often squared because they press up against each other and they are usually surrounded by a thin watery-looking bile.
Opening up a shrunken and deformed gall bladder the stones are found inside, as expected, but on further examination an obstructing stone is frequently found just as in the appendicitis. This means that the gall bladder cannot drain and becomes stagnant and infected. The stones rough up the inside which becomes a centre of infection. It causes a lot of pain and eventually contracts as a result of a fat free diet, causes further pain and before long has to be removed.
Sometimes the gall bladder becomes a bag of pus with stones embedded inside, largely because it cannot drain, and sometimes the stones block the bile duct causing the bile to be released into the blood stream and the patient goes yellow. In this case it means opening up the duct which is a long and tedious procedure and removing the blockage while also removing the gall bladder.
The ultimate complication is cancer of the gall bladder. It is said that cancer of the gall bladder is never seen without stones being present. This is a very difficult condition to treat because it is so close to the liver and is often fatal. These are the complications of gall stones and the reason for having to take them out.
HOW GALL STONES ARE FORMED
Contrary to what many people have been led to believe, cholesterol is not an evil product of modern living. It is a perfectly natural substance that is secreted by every living cell.
In the bile, the cholesterol should be about 8%, the bile salts should be about 85%, and the phospholipids about 10%. These three variables meet at the Micelle corner as shown in the diagram. As long as these three meet at this point all is well and the cholesterol is in biophysical solution and not crystalline in any way. If the cholesterol starts rising, or if the bile salts become weak then the cholesterol will come out of solution and start to form stones. This means that stones of the gall bladder are not a disease of the gall bladder itself but a disease of the bile and the bile is made in the liver cell. Stones therefore, are a disease of the liver cell.
THE LIVER
There now appears to be a toxic substance in our food that is poisoning our liver cells and that substance is being shown to be crystalline sugar because this is a substance the body had never met before until it was made about 170 years ago.
It is not that sugar is bad for us in its own right but it is the quantity in which it is eaten which is so bad for us. It is absorbed by our bodies at very great speed, literally in minutes, and because it is so soluble large quantities are taken in tea and coffee. Sugar is so poisonous to the liver cell that the liver cannot produce bile of the right strength and this in turn means that the cholesterol cannot be used in the natural way and that is the basic cause of gall stones.
Tests showed that patients with gall stones ate more sugar than normal people, they also had a higher concentration of insulin in the blood.
