Gallbladder Pain Symptoms
The gallbalder is a very small organ that resides just underneath the liver. The bottom of the liver is concave, and it fits right inside that concavity. The bile duct comes out of the bottom of the gallbladder. This is the green stuff that we vomit up when we have dry heaves. It helps digest proteins in our stomach. Gallbladder pain symptoms occur when the gallbladder gets backed up (usually from having a gallstone), or it gets diseased.
It’s possible to live without a gallbladder. It just stores bile that is manufactured by hepatocytes in the liver. Since it really doesn’t need to be stored, it can pass directly to the small intestines and do just fine.
It can get diseased, and if it does there will be a symptom that ranges from mild discomfort all the way to extreme unbearable pain. This disease tends to hit women more often than it does men, for some reason.
Jaundice occurs because that yellow-green color starts spreading throughout your body. You’ll also get a fever and start vomiting. Gallstones are the culprit. These are either composed of cholesterol, bile salts or calcium and they can affect everybody (although they tend not to affect the very young).
These gallstones can be different sizes. They tend to grow in those who have high blood cholesterol levels, or if they’re obese. If you have chronic intestinal diseases and are taking estrogen-based pills such as “The Pill” or are doing HRT which stands for Hormonal Replacement Therapy.
You can tell that your gallbladder might be the problem if you get a severe pain just below your right lowest rib. The liver can also grow to be painful if you have been taking something that irritates the liver such as lots of cinnamon. Some take as much as a teaspoon (or more) of cinnamon a day because they think that’s a healthy thing to do. However, too much cinnamon, nutmeg, or many spice can cause an inflammation of the liver which causes it to swell. Since the liver is the biggest organ in the body (besides your skin or intestines, which are sometimes also called ‘an organ’) it will press on the inside of the ribs if it gets enlarged a bit. This enlargement can also cause a pain in the same general area as your gallbladder.
Gallbladder pain symptoms tend to occur only after you’ve had gallstones about ten years. Most (90-98% of people) can experience no pain at all for all of those ten years even if they do have gallstones. And, after ten years, the likelihood of getting those symptoms reduces enormously. Nobody knows why this is true, but scientists have theorized that it might be because newly-formed stones cause more pain than older stones do.
Gallbladder pain symptoms are associated with what is termed ‘Bilary Colic’. This is the most prevalent form of gallbladder disease. If you have a piercing pain just below the ribcage on the right side that feels like it’s also occurring in the upper-back area… then that might be biliary colic. Also, you might have pain just below your breastbone.
If you take over-the-counter pain medications and the problem doesn’t go away, that’s a sign, or if you have pain when you move your body, or when you fart. Generally these pains occur about one-per-week. You might feel a sense of nausea or you might wish to vomit.You might have gallbladder pain symptoms occur, then they might go away for years without recurring.