How to prevent gallstones

Although no definite preventive technique for gallstone development has been discovered yet, research shows that there are ways people can lower their risk for these stones.

Refrain From Taking These Medications

If you are taking any of these medications, remember that the following can increase your risk for gallstones:

Cholesterol-lowering drugs: Medicines like gemfibrozil (Lopid) and fenofibrate (Tricor) can increase your gallstone risk. Although they may decrease your blood cholesterol levels, these medicines can also increase the amount of cholesterol released in bile.

Hormone therapy: HRT is a general term referring to the administration of estrogen or a combination of estrogen/progestin therapy. Increased estrogen levels can cause the body to produce more cholesterol and raise the levels of it in bile.

As such, if you are a woman who is undergoing HRT or is taking high-dose birth control pills, talk to your doctor about your gallstone risk and ask if there are other hormone-related medications that are better for you.

A Healthy Lifestyle Can Lower Your Gallstone Risk

Decreasing your risk for gallstones begins with a healthy lifestyle, specifically by following these habits:

Maintaining a healthy weight: People who are overweight or obese have a higher risk of gallstones. Boost your diet with these foods:

  • Unlimited amounts of fresh, organic and vegetables, especially fiber-rich options (just make sure to introduce these foods slowly into your diet, since they can prompt digestive discomfort, especially in those who have had gallbladder surgery).
  • Moderate quantities of high-quality protein from meat ideally organic.
  • High portions of healthy fats from sources like avocados, coconut oil, organic butter, pastured egg yolks and raw nuts like macadamias, pecans and pine nuts.

The following common practices can also raise your gallstone risk, so it’s best to avoid them:

  • Skipping meals or fasting for long periods of time. As much as possible, try to stick to your usual mealtimes.
  • Following diets that promote rapid weight loss.  By rapid I mean aiming to lose more than 1 to 2 pounds, or 0.5 to 1 kilogram, per week.

• Exercising regularly: Research shows that moderate physical activity can help with increasing the body’s levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) or “good” cholesterol.

References

Related Posts

  • More on building your resiliance

    Following on from last week’s entry on building resilience, it is important to state that resilience don’t just help you manage stress but it fosters inner strength to help you meet goals, life challenges and achieve success. Most of my clients hold more or less physical tension which I would like you to think of as a bad habit that relaxation will help you break.  Relaxation is like changing the idling speed on a car.  When a car turns over too quickly, wasting expensive fuel and putting a strain on the engine, the mechanic can reset the idling speed to a much lower level.  Similarly when busyness, concerns, time pressure have speeded us up too much, making us tense and irritable, we can learn how to let go and attain a much calmer state of being.  So taking the time to learn what relaxes you! It is worth re-emphasising the point that it is possible to make an enormous difference to your state of mind through yoga, tai chi, relaxation and meditation and all other sorts of physical exercise. While most of celebrate our wins, it is also important to celebrate when we do good for others, as often other’s don’t notice.  We all know life has its ups and downs, when your life is in turmoil, you may not do things "perfectly".  Rather than worrying or simply surviving turmoil, why not ask what you can learn from the situation.  But don’t beat yourself up, remember you always do your best, when you know better, you do better! One habit that I try to cultivate to help put a smile on my face especially when I am feeling down is to cultivate a gratitude attitude.  However bad my day goes, before I got to sleep I try to think of three things that I am grateful for.   These don’t need to be big things; it can be as simple as “I am grateful that the transport system ran on time” as I had a busy day.  A gratitude attitude helps foster joy, fulfilment & peace of mind.

  • An alternative way to do simple mindfulness (Part 1)

    Most mindfulness techniques have at their heart a simple instruction. Focus on your breath... This is supposed to be simple, but what if it isn't simple for you?  What then? For people struggling with anxiety it may increase the feelings of panic. Mindfulness involves placing our attention on a chosen anchor, noticing when our mind is distracted or wandering and choosing to return it back, with a king and friendly curiosity towards the experience.  You should start simple by focusing 1 - 5 minutes or even do short 30 second bursts a couple of times during the day.  So, I want to introduce you to a few alternatives to using breathing as the anchor focused around our senses. 1. Look & Focus Choose an everyday object in the room to look at and become aware of the colour, shape or light reflections.  I personally like looking at a light candle as its often flickers so there is movement too.    

  • The Impact of Sitting All Day – Part 3

    In part 1, I looked at the impact of sitting on your muscles,  and in part 2 I started to explore the impact on the rest of your body.  In this post I continue to explore the impact of sitting on your circulatory system including your heart. Heart Disease When sitting for prolonged periods of time, muscles burn less fat and blood flows more sluggishly, allowing fatty acids to more easily clog the heart.  In 2012 Ford & Caspersen in their research paper, Sedentary behaviour and cardiovascular disease: a review of prospective studies (International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 41, No 5 pages 1338 - 1353) showed that the people with the most sedentary time are more than twice as likely to have cardiovascular disease than those with the least. In 2012 Zedric and Hamilton found that just a few hours sitting suppresses a gene that helps keep your cardiovascular system healthy by controlling inflammation and blood clotting. T W Zedric & M T Hamilton, 2012 Identification of hemostatic genes expressed in human and rat leg muscles and a novel gene (LPP1/PAP2a) suppressed during prolonged physical inactivity (sitting), Lipids in Health and Disease, Vol 11 see http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1476-511X-11-137.pdf Cholesterol Sitting also means that your large postural support muscles are inactive.  When active these muscles produce a quite of beneficial molecules.  One molecule skeletal muscles produce is an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase - which you can think of as a vacuum cleaner for fats in the blood stream.  A study in rats showed that after 24 hours forced inactivity, their lipoprotein lipase acitivity was reduced by 90 - 95%, which led to a 75% drip in the ability of their muscles to remove fats from their bloodstream as will as a significant decrease in "good" (HDL) cholesterol. L Bay & Mark Hamilton, 2003, Suppression of skeletal muscle lipoprotein lipase activity during physical inactivity: a molecular reason to maintain daily low-intensity activity, Journal of Physiology, Vol 551, No 2 pages 673 - 682.See http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/jphysiol.2003.045591/full