Obese teens getting gallstones

Children are increasingly suffering from gallstones, traditionally thought of as a problem confined to adults, because they are becoming so overweight, a study has found.

Doctors have found obese children are up to eight times more likely than those of a healthy weight to be diagnosed with gallstones, which can cause excruciating pain.

Researchers said that although gallstones were “historically rare” in adolescents, doctors were seeing more cases in that age group.

It was adding to an “alarming trend” of youngsters presenting with conditions usually only seen in adults, they warned.

The American academics, from private insurer Kaiser Permanente, looked at the incidence of gallstones in over 500,000 Californian children aged 10 to 19.

They found girls who were extremely obese were eight times more likely than their healthy-weight female classmates to be diagnosed with gallstones. Those who were merely obese were at a six-fold greater risk.

Gallstones are crystal-like masses that typically form in the gallbladder. The gallbladder is a small organ located on the right side of the abdomen, just below the liver. The gallbladder's main function is to store bile (made by the liver) and secrete it into the small intestine to help digestion. Bile is made of water, cholesterol, fats, bile salts (natural detergents that break up fat), and a pigment called bilirubin. Gallstones form if the bile contains too much cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin.

There are two types of gallstones. Cholesterol stones contain mostly hardened cholesterol and account for approximately 80% of gallstones. Pigment stones are made of bilirubin and account for the other 20%. Gallstones can range in size from very small to as large as a golf ball. The gallbladder may develop any number and size of stones.

Gallstones are more common in women and people who are older, as well as in certain groups of people, such as people of First Nations descent and people who are overweight. In the United States, 20% of people over the age of 65 have gallstones, but most never experience symptoms. However, complications from gallstones can be serious if symptomatic stones are left untreated.

Among boys the link was weaker: the extremely obese had triple the chance of developing them and the obese were at almost double the risk.

Children who were overweight, but not obese, also had a higher incidence of gallstones. Among boys, being overweight increased the risk by almost 50 per cent, while it almost tripled the risk in girls.

Four out of five gallstones are caused by unusually high levels of cholesterol in the gallbladder, according to the NHS Choices website. This excess cholesterol “gradually solidifies to form a stone”. A minority are caused by high levels of bilirubin - broken down red blood cells. They can be as big as golf balls, although most are much smaller.