Gallstones and Kidney Failure

[Peytonn]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

this person that's so concerned... have they ever mentioned being concerned about what the WEIGHT was going to do to your health? or they just wait until we begin to LOSE, then go beserk about atkins....?

[clyder]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

Exactly ... if I didn't tell anyone what I was doing to lose the weight, I wouldn't get any of this negative feedback. Oh well, the weight is coming off, I feel better than I ever have ... and that is that!!!

[Peytonn]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

Exactly!!

[Jsnake]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

Unfortunately,

I have had to have my gallbladder out very recently. Gallstones grew very large, escaped and blocked my bile duct. Not a good situtaion, was very very sick with jaundice and liver problems.

Doctor's attributed it to weight loss and low carb dieting. Like previously said, I probably had gallstones, and the higher fat diet attributed to the growth of the stones. They were pretty good size stones, excess of 2cm.

The very positive, losing the 60lbs on Atkins help make the surgery much easier!!

good luck to eveyone!

[mcotton]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

I am a nurse and have worked side by side with a wonderful surgeon for a period of years as well as I have worked with a Gastroenterologist for a period of years. I have seen my fair share of choleoscystectomies (gall bladder removal)and kidney failure patients. High fatty diets do cause gall stones. Losing a lot of weight (especially rapid wt. loss) can cause you to go into choleocystitis. It happens with different diets, not just the atkins. If you remember back to Nutra-systems years ago, they had law suits because they had a high percentage of their clients needing gall bladder surgery. It took nutra system years to recover from that and change their diet to teach their clients from losing wt. so quickly. Diabetics end up in kidney failure due to the damage from not keeping their blood glucose levels under control. If you let your BGL run high constantly this causes your kidneys to have great amt of unrepairable damage. It is especially worse for people who have diabetes and hypertension. People who have just uncontrolable hypertension can blow their kidneys out as well.
We have even put clients on low carb diets so they can lose wt. to prepare them for surgery. One of the Urologists I worked with has been on Atkins a period of years and prescribes it for his obese clients. I have worked with Internal medicine doctors and they prescribe the diet as well. We also sent them to a nutrionalist for monitoring as well as monitoring their blood work. We would check liver and thyroid functions as well as a complete chemistry profile.
Each person is an individual case. I am not a professional on this. I am just telling you what I have observed and with all the hype that was about this diet, doctors were prescibing it. As with any diet...you do have to be careful to do it the healthy way, get exercise and visit your doctor to make sure you are doing ok. The wt loss on your internal structure (heart and lungs mainly) is so much more benificial. This diet has proven to improve health.
There that is my soap box. Sorry!

[mcotton]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

I forgotten to mention that Bariatric (wt loss) doctors are still prescribing atkins along with their prescripton diet pills. I believe the atkins is helping more than the pills.

[Brook]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

mcotton ..

High fatty diets do cause gall stones

My question is this: This is traditionally accepted, but I have yet to see anything showing anything on a diet that's not only high in fat, but low in carb too. Are these patients with gall stones eating high fat AND low carb, or one or the other? This is a major distinction and has been an issue, as I'm sure you well know, for low carbers for years. 99.9% of these studies on high fat diets are apples and oranges comparisons because the high fat eaters were not eating a restricted carb diet too. Were the patients you're referring to? And in comparison, how many people come through there that aren't on a low-carb eating plan vs people on a traditional American diet (hahaha..using the term loosely there) or low-fat? My guess is that the low-carb people are in a big minority.

And thank you for taking the time to share what you've observed. I think it's always helpful and reassuring for people to know that there are a lot of doctors out there prescribing this WOE to improve health.

JSnake, speaking of which, how long have you been on Atkins?

~Brook

[mcotton]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

Well to answer your question Brooke.(I hope)..the majority of our patients were on the "all american diet". I believe we had about 6-10% that was on high fats and low carb diets. I will include this percentage with the over all percentage (25%) of patients that were getting gall bladder surgery because of rapid wt. loss. I know your body chemisty becomes different while on a diet that is causing rapid wt. loss and your body will naturally be somewhat resistant to a newer woe. For some reason your body likes to hold on to things that it is used to having, so change causes and upheavle. Your gallbladder and pancreas are greatly effected by this( we read about some of this in our book, ie, insulin levels rising and falling). The pancreas is responsible for the manufacturing of insulin and our gallbladder produces the bile that our bodies need to help in break down of food. They work hand in hand. With such disturbances, we see problems. Atkins is a safe way of eating. You have to look at some of the other underlying health problems that some people have or may develope due to genetics that can be effected by this woe. It is not healty to live your life or years of it on induction, but if you follow the steps all the way to maintenance, then it is a safe woe.


I hope this has helped and I didn't stray too far away.

Michele

[Brook]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

Nope. You proved my point and answered my question beautifully Thank you!

~Brook

[2big4mysize]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

actually bile is produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder which is why folk without gallballders can eat fatty foods.

Of those patients of yours who were eating low carb were they checked for stones before they started doing their low carb?
the higher fat low carb makes more bile MOVE and thus if a stone was laying in the gallbladder as many many folk eating the USDA plan have small stones pass all the time with no trouble.
With the low carb high fat plans the bile is moving every meal for several hours and in large amounts ( which is a bonus becaue it is the only way the body can shed LDL) and any stones sitting in the under used former low fat dieters gallbader are goning to get moved and moved a lot giving them a chance to lodge in the neck of the duct and pressure building up behind them causing the pain. Some folk can actually have the bile moving so slow it makes stones in the liver before it ever gets to the gallbladder

[mcotton]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

actually bile is produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder which is why folk without gallballders can eat fatty foods.

Of those patients of yours who were eating low carb were they checked for stones before they started doing their low carb?
the higher fat low carb makes more bile MOVE and thus if a stone was laying in the gallbladder as many many folk eating the USDA plan have small stones pass all the time with no trouble.
With the low carb high fat plans the bile is moving every meal for several hours and in large amounts ( which is a bonus becaue it is the only way the body can shed LDL) and any stones sitting in the under used former low fat dieters gallbader are goning to get moved and moved a lot giving them a chance to lodge in the neck of the duct and pressure building up behind them causing the pain. Some folk can actually have the bile moving so slow it makes stones in the liver before it ever gets to the gallbladder

You are correct about the liver, but the gallbladder and liver work together to produce the bile. The gall bladder produces and enzyme to tell the liver it is time to produce. Together they create bile and yes it is stored in the gall bladder. Most chole patients have had the stones or "sludge" before they need the surgery. The high fat, low carb diet does make bile move as any any high fatty diet usually causing inflamation with in the gallbladder/common bile duct. Chole patients still can eat fats, but a great number of them have some problems(not all) breaking down the fats because of the loss in gallbladder.

I was only giving my opinion on why I believe this woe is not a harmful way of eating unless there are other medical conditions going on that need a different type of diet. Not trying to offend all.

[FightingTheFight]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

High fatty diets do cause gall stones.

Im going with the fact that the studies done to prove that always forget to mention that its always with the present of high amounts of carbs. Not low carb high fat, but high fat and high carb.

[Momtofour]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

My Gynocologist and six other doctors in his practice have followed Atkins for many years. My family doctor also is an Atkineer. That's all the proof I need.

[Jsnake]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

I was low carbing/atkin's for about 2 years. Did very well on the WOE. I was also diagnosed with fatty liver, while undergoing procedures to to check for the loose gallstone.

I have been following a more balanced menu, oatmeal replaced the typical atkins breakfast.etc

I just want to take the Dr's advice, until I can figure out what I need to.

If I could go back in time, I would still low carb. But I may not continue, the WOE showed me the importance of good eating habits, water, regular excericise.

Good Luck to all
J

[not2late]

Re: Gallstones and Kidney Failure

I have a question for you JSnake, did you progress through the phases of Atkins or have you just been doing the Induction part? I'm on the OWL phase and I've incorporated many fruits, veggies, whole grains and legumes into my daily meals. In fact, my typical Atkins breakfast is either a 1 boiled egg, whole wheat crackers and fruit or cottage cheese, wheat germ and fruit/celery sticks

Anyhow, fatty liver takes years to develop. The two causes of fatty liver are obesity and alcoholism. So all of us fat people are at risk to develop fatty liver, because we are fat and have probably been fat for years and year (and years in some cases). And if we are fat people who drink, our risks increase.
If the fatty liver is due to obesity, weight loss will improve it. If the fatty liver is due to alcohol, abstaining from alcohol will improve it.

You might want to scroll down this forum and look for a thread we recently had about fatty liver.

This is a good article from emedicine:
http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic775.htm