Can starting a diet kick off gallbladder attacks?

Digestive health
1

Hi, I just wondered can a healthy change of diet be the cause of a new gallbladder attack? I'm not sure if I had a GB attack last night and if it's starting all over again.  

A bit of background - I'm currently waiting for my Gallbladder removal operation and been waiting since October 2017 (around 4 months).  From around September to December 2017 I had a lot of Gallbladder attacks but for some reason things eased off in January 2018 and apart from heartburn I've not had many attacks or symptoms for over 6  weeks. And soon as the discomfort went I started to eat anything I fancied again so haven't really watched what I ate since before Christmas - and all has been relatively okay apart from the odd heartburn.  

This week, I decided to try and lose some weight and joined slimming world so started to eat healthy so have increased my fruit and veg intake  and stopped eating high sugar and high fat products. Anyway yesterday as I was eating my dinner I  started to get these terrible stomach cramps before I could even finish my plate of food.  The pain was very sudden and  got worse and worse throughout the night but didn't radiate to my shoulder like all the gallbladder attacks that I have had previously - these cramps stayed at the centre of my stomach but were very strong and painful - like having a baby an going into labour!! I was very bloated and ended up vomiting through out the night. The painful cramps did not go away even after I had vomited....and this lasted nearly all night. 

​Does this sound like another Gallbladder attack? Only at first I thought I might have food poisoning because it came on so suddenly - like I hadn't even finished my dinner - but my husband ate the same food and was fine. 

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2

HI 

doesn’t sound like gallbladder attack to me .. 

the Flu starts with vomiting then turns into the flu 

and there is also a vomiting bug going round too ..

if you feel fine now it could be gallbladder because as you know it can flare up then disappear as quickly 

hope u feel better soon 

3

It is proved dieting can trigger attacks. I used to get attacks that I put down to ‘something I ate’, mainly sudden diarrhoea, yet husband was fine. It does sound like a gallbladder attack to me. Sometimes I had no back pain, other times I did. Mainly it felt like my stomach was overloaded to the point of bursting and, yes, I can compare the level of pain to that of childbirth. You say you are waiting for surgery, so maybe this is your gallbladder getting worse? Even though I was able to control the pain to a large extent by eating a very low fat diet, I still got attacks from time to time. I’d avoid the foods you were eating at the time of the attack if I were you and stick to several small meals of plain low fat food: baked/mashed potatoes, rice, toast, bananas, pears, which are all supposed to be good for gallbladder trouble. Everyone is different. Some can’t eat eggs at all, others are fine. You just have to play it by ear and avoid anything that upsets you. Good luck with your surgery!

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Hi Alison. That did happen to me a few times. Low fat and salads would bother mine. I would eat something fatty and be fine. Good luck with your surgery. Let us know how it goes.