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Eating fruits and vegetables could lower the risk of choleliths

09/Oct/2006: The results of a large study conducted in U.S, has shown that women who eat fruits and vegetables regularly, have lower odds of developing painful gallstones (choleliths), crystalline stone-like structures formed within the body by buildup or concentration of normal or abnormal bile components.

Analyzing the records of more than 77,000 U.S women in the long-running Nurses Health Study, researchers found that those women who ate more fruits and vegetables were less likely to require a gallbladder-removal surgery.

If the gallstones are not removed from the gallbladder, they may pass through the intestine and block the bile ducts, resulting in severe pain and infections, which may turn fatal. In their report in the American Journal of Medicine, Dr. Chung-Jyi Tsai at Harvard Medical School in Boston and his colleagues, who carried out this study, suggest that a diet, rich in fruits and vegetables (particularly leafy greens, citrus fruits and other vitamin-C- rich foods) can prevent the formation of gallstones or prevent them from causing symptoms.

The results of this study were based on the analysis of the data of 77,090 female nurses, who, in 1984, were between the ages 37 and 64. All these nurses had answered a dietary questionnaire in 1984 and were followed through till 2000. The rates of gallbladder removal - called cholecystectomy, in this group, were recorded until the year 2000.

Cholecystectomy is a treatment used for symptomatic gallstones (gallstones that shows symptoms like pain etc.,) and hence the cholecystectomy rates are indicative of the painful gallstones. In many cases, gallstones cause no symptoms and hence are left untreated.

Tsai and his team found that nearly 6,600 women in the study group had their gallbladders removed, but those women with the highest intake of fruits and vegetables (estimated with the help of dietary questionnaires) were 21% less likely to develop gallstones compared to those with the lowest intake of fruits and vegetables.

The reduction in the risk was independent of other factors like age, weight, diabetes etc., (all these factors are known to increase the risk of gallstone formation). The study also found that, women, who ate more fruits and vegetables, typically ate seven or more servings a day, compared to three servings in the case of women with lowest intake of fruits and vegetables.

Further Reading
http://www.phaa.com
http://www.veganeating.org/

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