Hi everyone, ive been on keto for over two years, its my life & i love it. I do cheat on occasion maybe like twice a month but keto is my default and my comfort zone. However, I recently went into emergency and they told me i had gallstones and needed my gallbladder removed. But at that point i was in no pain and felt good. They are having me schedule my surgery outpatient which i did and and it will be Friday. From now until Friday i am eating carbs but very low fat to ensure that I don’t contract my gallbladder and end up back in the hospital. Ive only been doing this for 3 days and my body HATES IT. My joints hurt and im developing a rash on my back, but ive had NO gallstone attacks. Im so conflicted and dont know what to do. Im also nervous about after surgery, will i be able to be keto? Did keto cause this? I have lost 90 pounds on my journey for reference. Im so miserable right now. I miss keto and i have to do this for 6 more days !!! Ughh
Keto and gallstones- help
I had mine out a year ago in January. I went right back to keto after, and have noticed nothing different, except I don’t have pain after eating fried chicken. 
They did say I had mild fatty liver disease, but I don’t know how that was before I went keto and was 60 pounds heavier or if it’s better now.
Oh, I forgot to address your question. I don’t think it was the keto that made my gall bladder act up to begin with, because I had issues before going keto that the docs were blaming on reflux. Odd how all the acid reducers didn’t seem to help, and I don’t have pain anymore after the gall bladder got removed… Seems we were all blaming the wrong organ!
I have no idea what dietary guidelines will be necessitated pre-surgery, but I know several people who’ve continued on with a Ketogenic dietary model post gallbladder removal. Some folks begin supplementing with bile salts, as there is no longer a gall bladder to produce the necessary bile to process fat- however not everyone requires them. As to whether Keto caused this- you and I have been Keto for similar amounts of time and have lost similar amounts of weight. While my gall bladder is in tact and healthy, the fact is that we’ve been asking a lot of our gall bladders and livers in the past two years, by way of processing fat. I don’t have any kind of evidence or empirical data to cite, so I’d welcome anyone to blow that theory out of the water. It’s just kind of an intuition- and I’m not naive enough to just believe my intuitions are correct. But if I am correct, I hope you’ll not be discouraged away from Keto long term because your gall bladder failed. 90 lbs lost surely comes along for the ride with a long list of improvements to your health markers and an increased longevity. Best wishes!
Gallbladder out here and on keto. No problem.
There is no evidence that keto causes gallstones up till now that I know of. I had been taking Saxenda and there are rumours that it is associated with subsequent gallstones. But of course the Saxenda producers dont want to hear that. At any rate I did have gallstones after taking it for some months, and my gallbladder is now gone. The reason I stopped taking Saxenda though is the extreme constipation it caused. I wonder if THAT is connected to a thickening of the bile? Saxenda slows down intestinal motility so you feel full longer.
I am assuming here- but I think gallstones have to do with a thickening of the bile. Not an overproduction though, as might be expected on a keto diet. But who knows? Maybe if you need more bile it can get thicker. I think though that a lot of people here have been operated on BEFORE they started keto.
I had my gall bladder out years before I started Keto. To me, it makes absolutely no difference. They take out the bladder, but they leave the bile duct, which starts taking over. I am thriving on Keto, I eat lots of fat. I never realized how much my gallbladder affected my well being in a negative way until it was out. It caused a very gradually increasing feeling of being unwell, not any localized feeling you could detect. The contrast after it came out was surprising.
I was told I had large stones in my gall bladder a couple of years before I got ill enough to take myself to the emergency room. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had listened and had it removed sooner.
Good riddance, if you ask me.
@velvet
I had the tiny stone variety. The surgeon told me the tiny stones are more nasty and dangerous than the big stones because they can block the tiny exit of the pancreatic flow into the intestines. So actually the bigger stones are safer!
The large ones just make you progressively sicker, slowly so you hardly notice. They are a nuisance on their own. They are too big to exit the gallbladder is the issue there.
@velvet
I had the same symptoms. The first gall stone colic I thought was either bad heartburn or a heart attack! And it was months until the next, with a bit of milder nausea in between. I am just saying that the possible complications are dire with the tiny stones. If the pancreas cannot get rid of its enzymes through a blockage by a tiny stone - they begin to digest the pancreas from the inside.
I’ll never forget my first colic! I was on my way to a conference in Europe and felt really lousy on the plane. Then I got off for a short layover to catch the next plane and was told the flight was cancelled until the next day. So I had to find a place to spend the night, I really just had to lie down. It was miserable. The next day I felt lousy but caught my plane, got to the conference and held my speech. Then I went to bed and could not sleep and it hit me with force. I ended up calling for an ambulance (this was In Amsterdam) and they wheeled me right past all the conference goers. The hospital fixed me up temporarily, gave me a couple of pills to take during the flight and told me to go see a doc when I got home. Let me just say that reports of my “heart attack” and subsequent death at the conference were wildly exaggerated! LOL!!! I felt much better on the flight home and postponed my visit to the doc - until the second one hit even worse. I got an ambulance to the hospital and they operated right there and then.
Soon after waking up I realized how much better I felt. It was nothing short of amazing! I could have saved myself a lot of trouble and suffering if I had listened to the first doc who pointed out that I had huge stones in my gallbladder, over a year earlier.
Anyway, good riddance and I have experienced not a single drawback after I had the gallbladder removed.
Not chewing you out here, but YOU ARE CHOOSING to do this! Your Doctor is there to inform you of things, and ultimately YOU choose to do them. It’s pretty apparent you don’t want to loose an organ (who the hell would) so given that you feel fine and not having any symptoms why would you jump to removing an internal organ when there’s a ton of known ways to treat gallstones that have been shown to work? Between natural supplements, coffee enemas, even ACV has been shown to help. If you try something and it doesn’t work after it should have and they’re still there… ok, you gave it a shot.
This stuff is for both kidney and gallbladders, I used it for a while when I was told I had kidney stones, last time they checked I was clear. I can’t speak for the gallbladder side of thing but there’s lots of things mainstream docs completely discredit that work great… (like keto!).
@velvet
Oh how unlucky!! On a long distance business trip no less. Poor you! I had my first one in bed at midnight in SPAIN. It felt like a burning pole was thrust through my chest. I never even thought of gallbladder. I thought heart or stomach. Took a few months to get to the bottom of it. I studied medicine and didn’t realise what it was for a long while! YES- I agree with you 100%! I am SO glad they took it out. Nobody needs a gall bladder or an appendix, and today I am living without a uterus or ovaries too, and at my age like you say: good riddance. One worry less.
@lfod14
You do know that you can die of gallstones right? I would never recommend keeping a gallbladder full of stones, and it also is breeding grounds for gall bladder cancer. The surgeon told me they always return.
No shortage of people fix them without loosing their organs. Doc’s also have the option of removing the stones themselves if they want. The do what’s easier for them. Not whats better for us long term. Yes, you CAN die from them, along with a million other things. That surgeon must have a crystal ball! I take mainstream Doctor opinions with a grain of salt. The people that tell me fat makes me fat going to kill me and that sugar is good for diabetics don’t have too much of my respect. I listen to what my doctors say, but I also do my own research and make informed choices.
@lfod14
I studied medicine MYSELF and doubt a lot of what doctors say! LOL
But as a layperson you really have to watch out that your scepticism doesn’t get you in hot water, and sometimes your surmising this or that lacks a basis in reality and might even be wishful thinking, because you dont have the training. So be careful. I mean you might end up not being able to trust yourself simply because you dont have any real training on these subjects!! Question by all means. but know your limits too.
Gall bladder removed 2 years prior to going keto, here. Very glad it’s gone, no problems with anything…
Chanca Piedra is only good for kidney stones, you want ‘stone root’ then combine with artichoke extract.
I use Apple juice, epsom salt, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil to get rid of them. Expands the gallbladder and they come flying out of gallbladder.
The stones come from saturated fat backing up into gallbladder and up into the bile duct. i.e. eating to much saturated fats, alcohol, endo-exo estrogens ect.
I don’t think keto or saturated fat cause gallstones, but I know it is a VERY common side effect among weight-loss surgery (WLS) patients to have their gallbladder out within a year of the WLS as a result of losing so much weight so fast.
Best wishes and a speedy recovery with your surgery!
Just so I don’t get accused of being wrong[1], but I tend to agree with you on that also.
You can either not get enough dietary fat or you can get too much saturated fat!
References:
[1] ”…For example, diets high in saturated fats , such as those found in red meat and whole milk, may promote the formation of gallstones. When changes in bile occur, such as too much cholesterol, it can cause bile to crystallize and form gallstones. …” …WebMD
I agree with this - when there’s too much cholesterol (more than the bile salts can dissolve) that’s when the stones often start forming. But I wonder about “diets high in saturated fats” - that sounds like the same old song-and-dance we’ve been hearing for decades, which often does not prove out.
Most of our cholesterol is made by our bodies, and seems to me that it’s more often a hormonal matter or one tied in with other things (like liver problems, genetic predisposition, etc.) Estrogen, for example, increases cholesterol in the bile, and young women have about three times the rate of gallstone formation that young men have.