In the right upper quadrant of the abdomen is situated a small pear-shaped organ directly under the liver called the gall bladder. Its principal function is to collect and concentrate the bile that the body uses to digest fats. The very common problems with the gall bladder and biliary system are inflammation of the gall bladder and bile ducts, muscular spasms or poor contraction of the gall bladder wall, stones forming in the gall bladder or bile ducts and obstruction to the free flow of bile.



The gall bladder is developed by the body to store bile that has been recovered from the bowel to be recycled, thus the liver is saved from having to produce new batches. The gall bladder is very important because it takes from the liver a lot of workload. When the liver is under stress and dysfunctional the gall bladder is itself dysfunctional. When the liver is dysfunctional can produce toxic unhealthy bile. In the liver cells called hepatocytes is made a substance formed by water, electrolytes, bile acids, cholesterol, phospholipids and bilirubin. This substance is called bile.

Bile is a fat emulsifying agent which keep the cholesterol levels in check and helps with absorption of nutrients like the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. The gall bladder can be caused by the production of toxic bile by the liver, inadequate production of bile by the liver, sluggish flow of bile, excess amounts of cholesterol in the bile resulting in stone formation, infection of the gall bladder, poor dietary choices with excess consumption of fatty foods, dairy products and fried foods, the hormonal changes of pregnancy, the oral contraceptive pill and some types of hormone replacement therapy and some types of blood disorders.

The gall bladder disease have the following symptoms: indigestion and nausea after eating especially fatty foods, vomiting attacks and pain in the right upper abdomen, which often radiates to the right shoulder and back. Gallstones are formed by the crystals precipitation out of the bile. These gallstones can stay in the gall bladder and cause no symptoms, but when a stone moves the neck of the gall bladder or the common bile duct may be obstruct giving rise to severe pain in the upper right side of the abdomen. Jaundice is caused by the stone in the common bile duct and in this case the skin and the eyes become yellow due to accumulated bile pigment.

There are cases when the people have large stones in the gall bladder and they never have problems. When the gall bladder becomes distended and inflamed often with resulting localized peritonitis is acute cholecystitis. In this case the neck of the gallbladder or cystic duct can be obstruct by a stone. The pain appears in the central and right upper abdomen, it can be continuous and severe and increases in intensity over 24 hours. The pain can radiates around to the back and ca be associated with nausea, vomiting and fever. An ultrasound scan can confirm if the gall stones and acute cholecystitis are present. If the condition is untreated may occur repeated attacks of cholecystitis.

The people must avoid fat food for a good function of liver.