Gall Stones
Kenzie Eklund Hr 4
What is a Gallstone?
A gallstone is a small, hard mass formed in the gallbladder or bile ducts from bile pigments, cholesterol, and calcium salts. Gallstones can cause severe pain and blockage of the bile duct.
What Causes Gallstones?
The specific cause of gallstones is not clear to doctors but they believe that gallstones will form when an individuals bile contains to much cholesterol or bilirubin or when your gall bladder doesn't empty correctly.
Body Systems
Gallstones are apart of the digestive system because the gall bladder itself is used to store bile and when the body is digesting food bile is released through ducts to help break down the food. Gallstones in the liver can interfere with digestion and the absorbent of food, which fills the plasma with excessive waste material and cuts down on the nutrient supplies to the red bone marrow. This then upsets the balance of blood cell components, disrupting hormonal pathways and causing abnormal responses in the nervous system.
Treatment
If gallstones are not causing any discomfort then treatment isn't necessarily needed. The normal treatment for a gallbladder attack is surgery and removing the gallbladder entirely. If the patient is unable to receive surgery there are different nonsurgical treatments that are used to dissolve the gallstones.
Prevention
There is no real way to prevent gallstones from occurring but it is a possibility to lower the risks of getting them. To do this you can maintain a healthy body weight, eat regular balanced meals, exercise regularly and taking hormones such as estrogen.
Quiz
Where do gallstones form?
A. Gallbladder
What is one symptom of gallstones?
A. Severe pain
What is one way to treat gallstones?
A. Surgery