Gallstones & IP?
 

Has anyone heard of or had gallstones or gallbladder issues while on IP? Had some dizziness, nausea, & pain my MD thinks might be due to rapid weight loss and high protein diet (IP)

Hi, I've heard of a couple of IPers that developed gallbladder problems. I also know of a few people on other diet plans who developed gall bladder problems after losing a lot of weight. One was my WW leader, 2 were on a liquid shake diet, very lo cal and low fat. I thought it might be due to not getting enough fat in the diet to keep the gall bladder and bile on the move, and that it stagnated and stones precipitated out as a result. I don't know if that's true.

I hope you feel better soon. It looks like you've made great progress on IP, so I hope you can stay with it and get a solution for your symptoms.

thank you! so far, so good. Did some more research and rapid weight loss can definitely lead to gallstones (I feel like maybe this should be mentioned as a potential side effect of IP when you get your consult!)

per NIH (National Institute of Health), here’s the summary:

As the body breaks down fat during prolonged fasting and rapid weight loss, the liver secretes extra cholesterol into bile in the gallbladder, which can coalesce into gallstones. Rapid weight loss can also prevent the gallbladder from emptying properly.

BTW, this is not a High Protein Diet. This is a moderate protein diet.

"Protein Summit 2.0 highlighted the growing body of scientific evidence documenting the benefits of higher protein intakes at amounts approximating twice the RDA, which include promotion of healthy body weight and preservation of lean body mass and functional ability with age."

As the RDA for women is 0.8g protein per kilo of body weight this means that you will have more benefit from 1.6g protein/kg body weight. RDA's are usually set up as the very minimum required to not get a disease of insufficiency, but that does NOT make it an optimal range for health.
Here is the scientific study: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/101/6/1353S

I'd check into other reasons for gall bladder issues if I were you ;)

Liana