For most of us, there probably hasn’t been a good reason for you to think about your gallbladder. Ever. Much of the time, it sits there, silently storing, concentrating, and, when needed, churning out bile every day. But occasionally, this unassuming organ will announce itself through waves of unceasing, excruciating pain brought on by a blockage of some sort. Why it does this to us, what we do about it, and how we can live a gallbladder-free life are just some of the things we cover in this episode. We’re also taking this opportunity to deep dive into the substance most closely associated with the gallbladder: bile. Bile plays an outsized role in the history of medicine, mostly through its role as one of the four humors in the humoral theory of disease. Are you of a choleric temperament or is your vibe more sanguine? Maybe melancholic or phlegmatic suits you better. Don’t know what the heck we’re talking about? Tune in to find out.
| History | Biology |
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| Barie & Franck 2015 History of medical and surgical management of acute cholecystitis | Portincasa, P., Moschetta, A. and Palasciano, G., 2006. Cholesterol gallstone disease. The Lancet, 368(9531), pp.230-239. |
| Becerra, Pablo, et al. “Giant gallstone: a case report.” International journal of surgery case reports 2.7 (2011): 228-229. | Gallaher, J.R. and Charles, A., 2022. Acute cholecystitis: a review. Jama, 327(10), pp.965-975. |
| Lagay, Faith. “The legacy of humoral medicine.” AMA Journal of Ethics 4.7 (2002): 206-208. | Roa, J.C., García, P., Kapoor, V.K., Maithel, S.K., Javle, M. and Koshiol, J., 2022. Gallbladder cancer. Nature reviews Disease primers, 8(1), p.69. |
| Singh, Yardesh, et al. “A giant gallstone: the largest gallstone removed laparoscopically in the world.” Cureus 12.5 (2020). | Hegyi, P., Maléth, J., Walters, J.R., Hofmann, A.F. and Keely, S.J., 2018. Guts and gall: bile acids in regulation of intestinal epithelial function in health and disease. Physiological reviews, 98(4), pp.1983-2023. |
| Russell, D.W., 2003. The enzymes, regulation, and genetics of bile acid synthesis. Annual review of biochemistry, 72(1), pp.137-174. | |
| He, Liyun, Jialu Wang, Fan Ping, Na Yang, Jingyue Huang, Yuxiu Li, Lingling Xu, Wei Li, and Huabing Zhang. “Association of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist use with risk of gallbladder and biliary diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.” JAMA internal medicine 182, no. 5 (2022): 513-519. | |
| McDermott, J., Kao, L.S., Keeley, J.A., Nahmias, J. and de Virgilio, C., 2024. Management of gallstone pancreatitis: a review. JAMA surgery, 159(7), pp.818-825. | |
| Xu, Y., Wang, J., Wu, X., Jing, H., Zhang, S., Hu, Z., Rao, L., Chang, Q., Wang, L. and Zhang, Z., 2023. Gut microbiota alteration after cholecystectomy contributes to post-cholecystectomy diarrhea via bile acids stimulating colonic serotonin. Gut Microbes, 15(1), p.2168101. | |
| Hu, H., Shao, W., Liu, Q., Liu, N., Wang, Q., Xu, J., Zhang, X., Weng, Z., Lu, Q., Jiao, L. and Chen, C., 2022. Gut microbiota promotes cholesterol gallstone formation by modulating bile acid composition and biliary cholesterol secretion. Nature communications, 13(1), p.252. |
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