Standard Medical Treatment for a Bad Gallbladder

Learn how most doctors are likely to treat a bad gallbladder

Most conventional medical doctors feel that people can easily live without a gallbladder. So when patients come to them seeking treatment for a bad gallbladder, all too often the recommendation is surgical removal. As a result, over half a million people in the U.S. alone lose their gallbladder to surgery each year—and they are most often told there will be few, if any, long-term negative consequences.

In my opinion, this is a crime. Here’s why.

Bile acids are produced from cholesterol in your liver and then flow into your gallbladder where they are stored and concentrated as much as fivefold. As your body senses the movement of fat into the small intestine, the gallbladder releases the bile to emulsify the fat—making it easier to absorb. 

With a healthy gallbladder, proper amounts of bile are released into the digestive tract as needed. But once the gallbladder has been removed, there is a continuous trickle of bile into your system regardless of the presence or absence of fat. The failure to match bile output to fat presence jeopardizes one’s ability to properly digest fat and, eventually, leads to deficiencies in fat–soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids, poor cholesterol metabolism, and the absorption of improperly digested fat globules.

Keep Your Gallbladder

Instead of immediately opting for surgery and subjecting yourself to such long-term digestive health consequences, I recommend a number of alternative therapies to treat a bad gallbladder. And if you’ve already lost your gallbladder to surgery, see my advice on how to help your body regulate the proper flow of bile after the removal of your gallbladder. 

More Dr. Williams Advice on Gallbladder Problems

• What causes a bad gallbladder?
• Symptoms of a malfunctioning gallbladder