When we eat, bile is added to the food as it passes out into the duodenum. Bile is stored in the gallbladder, which serves reservoir of bile. When we eat, fatty foods, the gallbladder contracts and push extra bile out through the common bile duct and into the duodenum. Bile breaks the fatty material of food into tiny fragments that can be more easily absorbed by the intestine.

We don't remove the gallbladder unless you already have gallstones that are causing symptoms. Weight loss is slow and natural, so the risk of gallstones is not sufficiently elevated as to make gallbladder removal worth doing. See similar questions...

Problems with the gallbladder begin once inflammation of it and of the bile ducts occurs. Sometimes the gallbladder's wall will not contract any more or it will have too many muscular spasms. If stones are forming inside the gallbladder its function will also be affected by them. These stones can even give an obstruction and the bile will not flow freely as it used to do. See similar questions...

Though some Bariatric teams remove the gallbladder on all of their patients, we think that removing the gallbladder is another big surgery with some risks (and it is even riskier in an obese patient) and that it may have severe complications; therefore you should remove it only when it is absolutely necessary. See similar questions...

Gallstones are the most common risk factor for gallbladder cancer. Between 75% and 90% of people with gallbladder cancer also have gallstones and an inflamed gallbladder. Gallbladder cancer is more likely to happen if your gallbladder has a single large gallstone than several small ones. Doctors believe that large gallstones grow over a long time, irritating the gallbladder wall and increasing the risk for gallbladder cancer. See similar questions...

People with a so-called porcelain gallbladder, which occurs when the gallbladder wall contains calcium. Just because you have one or more risk factors does not mean you will definitely get gallbladder cancer. In fact, you can have all the known risk factors and still not develop the disease. On the other hand, you can have no risk factors and still get gallbladder cancer. See similar questions...

There may be no symptoms in the early stages. The signs and symptoms of gallbladder cancer are like those of gallstones or an inflamed gallbladder. Common symptoms include the following. See similar questions...

If you're having gallbladder-cancer-like symptoms, your doctor will ask you about your medical history, family history of cancer, and other risk factors. The doctor will do a physical exam, X-rays, and other tests. Your doctor may order either an ultrasound or a CT scan of your abdomen. If these scans show any abnormality near the gallbladder, the doctor may request a biopsy. A biopsy is the removal of a sample of tissue that a specialist looks at under a microscope to check for cancer cells. See similar questions...

Surgery is a common treatment for gallbladder cancer if it is confined to the gallbladder or has spread only to areas touched by the gallbladder. The goal of surgery is to take out all or as much of the tumor as possible. The whole gallbladder and surrounding tissues may have to be taken out. More extensive surgery may be done if your cancer is more advanced, meaning it has spread. Sometimes surgery is done to ease symptoms rather than to remove the whole tumor. See similar questions...

Many people with cancer get a second opinion from another doctor. There are many reasons to get a second opinion. These are some of those reasons. See similar questions...

The food you eat contains the nutrients that serve as building blocks, and provide energy and nourishment throughout your body. In food, nutrients are contained in large molecules that are chemically and physically bound together. Digestion is the process of breaking down these tightly bound molecules into individual nutrients that can be taken into your body and used to support its functions. See similar questions...

Function Junction allows users to simultaneously search six different functional analysis project sites for all available functional information for a given gene or ORF. The projects searched are: Yeast PathCalling: two-hybrid analysis of protein interactions, from CuraGen and the University of Washington Worm-Yeast Protein Comparison: identification of similar sequences in the C. elegans and S. See similar questions...