Are Gallstones Hereditary?

People often find cases of gallstones affecting more than one family member. For example, a mother in one house experiences gallstones, and soon her child also experiences the same complaint. However, gallstones are not an inherited disease.

So it's actually not hereditary, but sometimes it seems like it's hereditary because one of the triggering factors is diet, lifestyle, and so on. Well, sometimes in one family the same eating pattern is formed.

This means that gallstones that occur in parents and children are not caused by the mother's or father's genetics being passed on to the child. But because of the unhealthy lifestyle adopted in the family and followed by the children.

For example, father and mother often eat fat and so on. Later, his son also followed suit. That's why in one family the mother got it, the father got it, and several of the children got it (gallstones). But it's not heredity, if it's heredity it's genetic. This is due to the same lifestyle factors.

Even though gallstones are mostly experienced by women over the age of 40, this does not mean that those outside these criteria cannot get gallstones. Men and younger or older age ranges can also suffer from gallstones.

There is a term 4F which is known as a risk factor for gallstones, namely:

  • Female (female).
  • Forty (over 40 years old).
  • Fat (overweight/obesity).
  • Fertile (already has children).

So, if you meet the 4F requirements and you continue to have symptoms of pain in your upper right stomach, don't just think that it's gastric pain. Further examination is needed to see whether this is really a stomach problem or whether there are gallstones.

How do gallstones form?

Gallstones are deposits that occur in the bile duct system or in the gallbladder. Actually, the bile fluid in the bile ducts and gallbladder has many compositions. There is bile, enzymes, especially cholesterol, and bilirubin. If all of that is in a balanced condition then the condition dissolves.

But for all kinds of causes, for example due to high cholesterol or problems with emptying the bag, the balance is disturbed. So one of the components will harden, deposit, form crystals, and over time form stones.

What are the symptoms of gallstones?

Regarding the symptoms, gallstones have typical and atypical symptoms. Meanwhile, a common symptom of gallstone complaints can be stomach pain which is often mistaken for stomach ulcers. Pain in the pit of the stomach, penetrating to the back. The symptoms of gallstones are a little more typical in that the pain penetrates to the waist and then spreads to the upper shoulders.

If gallstones cause infection, the symptoms that can arise are fever. And these symptoms are usually not found in general gastric pain.

How to Prevent Gallstones?

To prevent gallstones, what you can do is maintain your diet.

Of course, from food, eat healthy foods, low in fat, low in cholesterol, and maintain body weight. Exercise, don't be obese and so on. So lifestyle and diet to prevent the risk of gallstones getting higher.

The article was created based on Liputan6's Healthy Monday live streaming with: