Gallstones are dreaded deposits of hardened bilirubin, cholesterol, and bile that can block your bile ducts causing severe abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, vomiting, high fever, and a potentially fatal infection. They usually occur when your body chemistry is thrown out of sync for a variety of reasons.
Living with an unhealthy gallbladder can be quite difficult. While for some people gallbladder disease may be asymptomatic, in others the symptoms can make life unbearable. Your doctor may initially suggest a wait-and-watch approach to see if your condition can be alleviated with medication and diet changes. However, a gallbladder attack can occur at any time causing intense abdominal pain, bloating, vomiting, and fever. Sometimes, during the wait-and-watch approach gallstones escape out of the gallbladder and into the common bile duct, resulting in serious life-threatening complications like pancreatitis or cholangitis. In a patient who has gallbladder symptoms, surgery just makes more sense and is considered the standard of care.
These days, the gluten-free diet has become quite popular among people in their 20s and 30s. Supermarkets are stocked with gluten-free products and restaurants have the letters ‘GF’ on the menu. Let’s look at the science behind this trend. Gluten is a broad term that refers to a group of proteins commonly found in grains such as wheat, barley, and rye. When flour produced from these grains is mixed with water, the gluten proteins combine with water to form a glue-like consistency, hence the name gluten. Other common foods containing gluten include pasta, cereal, cookies, pastries, processed foods, and beer.
Bariatric weight loss surgery has long been recognized as the most effective and durable means of weight loss for individuals with excess weight of 80 lbs or more. Nearly 300,000 successful weight loss procedures are done every year in the United States, with majority performed at bariatric centers of excellence. Thanks to a robust prospectively gathered national database linking all such centers, comparative data are now available for quality improvement purposes.
Diverticula are outpouchings or sac-like protrusions that occur along the digestive tract anywhere from esophagus to colon. We are usually not born with them, but tend to acquire them as we grow older. They are common in the Western World, especially in large intestines. By age 60, half the US population will have had at least one, if not a dozen diverticula. They are less commonly seen in […]
