Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Stones often do nothing for a lifetime — trouble starts only when one blocks the exit.
Also known as: gallstones · cholelithiasis · biliary colic · cholecystitis
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Very common — and lifelong silent in most people. Symptoms arise only when a stone blocks the bile duct: severe, wave-like pain in the right upper abdomen, often after a fatty meal, radiating to the back or right shoulder, with nausea. A colic typically lasts minutes to hours. If flow stays blocked, jaundice, pale stools, dark urine and fever follow — then it becomes urgent. Silent stones usually need no treatment; with repeated colics the gallbladder is generally removed, which is well tolerated.
Stones found by chance on ultrasound need no operation. Only about one in five ever gets complaints — and only then is a decision made.
Severe, waxing and waning pain in the upper right belly, often after fatty food, radiating to the right shoulder, lasting one to five hours. Afterwards one is free of complaints — that is exactly what separates it from inflammation.
If the pain lasts for hours, if fever joins in or if eyes and urine change colour, it is no longer a colic but an inflammation of the gallbladder or a stone in the main duct. That belongs in the clinic the same day.
Very fatty meals set off colic, but a very low-fat diet over a long time encourages new stones. Several smaller meals with a moderate amount of fat are the middle road.
Without a gallbladder one can eat normally. Some people have softer stools after fatty food in the first weeks; that usually settles. There is no diet rule for ever.
In warm countries a migrated roundworm is one of the most common causes of biliary colic with no stone. Ultrasound shows a fine strand in the duct.
About ten to fifteen in a hundred adults have gallstones, and three out of four never notice. Only when a stone blocks the duct do colics arise — then surgery follows, not because of the finding alone.
Ursodeoxycholic acid can dissolve small, pure cholesterol stones over six to twenty-four months — that applies only to a small share of all stones, and after stopping about half form new ones within five years, because the cause remains. Painkillers and antispasmodics act on the colic, not on the stone. Stones without symptoms are not treated; only about one in five people ever develops symptoms at all.
A swelling, cramping pain under the right ribs or in the pit of the stomach, usually half an hour to an hour after eating, often at night, lasting fifteen minutes to hours and then easing by itself.
Radiating into the back and the right shoulder blade, with nausea and vomiting. This spread tells the colic apart from ordinary stomach pressure.
An incidental finding on ultrasound without ever having had colic usually needs no treatment. Only when complaints appear is something done — that spares many an operation.
Fever and shivering, a pain lasting longer than six hours, yellow eyes, dark urine, pale stool, or a belt-like pain into the back. Then it is about inflammation, blocked bile or the pancreas.
Taken up right at the end of the small bowel and needing a helper from the stomach. If either place is affected a deficiency arises — often only after years, because the liver holds a store.
Taken up in the upper small bowel and needing stomach acid. Acid blockers, an inflamed lining and silent blood losses often come together here.
One of the fat-soluble vitamins, lost with the fat when fat digestion is disturbed. Fatty, floating stools over months are the pointer to it.
Needs vitamin D for uptake, and with disturbed fat digestion it additionally binds to fatty acids in the bowel. So bone density and bowel disease hang together more closely than assumed.
Lost in considerable amounts with lasting diarrhoea. Signs are cracked corners of the mouth, loss of taste, poor wound healing and thinning hair.
Traditionally used for gallbladder complaints. It does not dissolve stones — and with a blocked bile duct, bile-stimulating remedies can worsen the colic.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
Clearly effective with proven deficiency, useless without. Take only with a documented deficiency — excess is harmful.
Clearly worthwhile and well studied when deficient; fewer data for the wider uses. Fat-soluble — check blood levels at high doses.
This hormone makes the gallbladder contract — strongest after a fatty meal. That is exactly when a stone presses into the outlet, and the pain comes in waves, 30 to 60 minutes after eating.
Oestrogen raises the cholesterol share of the bile, progesterone slows the emptying of the gallbladder. Together they explain why women have roughly twice as many gallstones — and why they form more often in pregnancy and on the pill.
Reduced insulin action goes with more gallstones. The second part matters just as much: losing weight very fast — more than 1.5 kg a week — makes them form all the more, because the gallbladder then barely empties.
Rapid weight loss above 1.5 kg a week clearly raises the risk of new stones. 0.5–1 kg a week is the range where this does not occur.
Fat triggers gallbladder contraction — hence the pain after a fatty meal. Smaller amounts of fat spread over the day trigger colic less often than one large portion.
Artichoke and milk thistle are the traditional choice for pressure on the upper right after a fatty meal.
Stimulates bile flow — with a stuck stone that is exactly what can trigger the colic.
As a warm belly compress for cramps. Nothing here dissolves stones — and a colic that lasts hours or comes with fever belongs looked at at once.