Intermittent fasting increases the risk of gallstones

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is one of the most popular fasting methods for weight loss today. In this method, the body is only allowed to eat during a specific period of time. After this period, the body is not allowed to take in any food except water, unsweetened coffee or tea. Fasting helps the body increase fat burning.

By limiting the time your body takes in nutrients, your calorie intake will naturally decrease. In addition, it also helps promote the process of burning excess fat.

There are many different ways of intermittent fasting today, such as:

- Alternate day fasting: Apply a diet and fast every other day.

- Fasting for many days. Usually eating for 5 days and fasting for 2 days a week.

- Time-restricted fasting: August 16; June 18; April 20...

The most popular of these is the 16/8 time-restricted fasting. This means you are allowed to eat within 8 hours and fast within the remaining 16 hours.

Is intermittent fasting healthy?

Intermittent fasting can help you lose weight, but your physical activity will be limited. Fasting for a long time will make you tired, reduce your endurance, reduce your memory, and even affect your sleep and mood.

Currently, there are still many conflicting opinions about the effects of intermittent fasting. There are many people who are suitable for intermittent fasting. Besides, there are also some people who need to pay attention when eating intermittently such as people under 18 years old, people with underlying diseases of blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease... Moreover, be careful with pregnant women, breastfeeding women, people with digestive problems...

However, to fast and lose weight effectively, it is necessary to have the supervision and advice of doctors and nutritionists. Doctors and experts rely on each specific case to provide appropriate menus to help the body still supplement adequate nutrients when eating intermittently and limit the amount of calories consumed.

Why intermittent fasting increases the risk of gallstones

According to Dr. Le Van Duy (Department of Digestive Surgery - Hepatobiliary Pancreas - Bach Mai Hospital), fasting or intermittent fasting can increase the risk of gallstones.

Dr. Duy explained that the gallbladder is where bile is stored. Bile is secreted by the liver and put into the gallbladder, which will concentrate the bile. When the body consumes food, bile will push the bile to digest the food. When the body does not consume food, bile will not be pushed down but will continue to concentrate. Over time, it will create stone chambers, increasing the risk of gallstone formation day by day. In addition, it can be seen that in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) who are not allowed to eat or fast, the abdominal ultrasound often shows the gallbladder chamber. Therefore, for those who do not eat at the right time, fasting will have a higher risk of gallstones. In fact, intermittent fasting is not scientific. And currently there are no recommendations to prove the effectiveness of intermittent fasting. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully choose the fasting method to lose weight and need advice and supervision from medical staff.

Besides people who fast or skip meals, there are also some people at high risk of gallstones:

- Being female, having given birth many times or over 40 years old; pregnant or using birth control pills.

- People who are obese or have a diet high in cholesterol.

- Family members have gallstones.

- People with Crohn's disease, congenital hemolytic disease./.