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Gallstones & Coffee

Question:
Can drinking coffee can prevent gallstones? Can supplements help?

Reviewed and edited by Tod Cooperman, M.D.

Initial Posting: 9/7/2019 Last Update: 9/7/2019

Coffee and Gallstones -- coffee in cup and coffee beans

Answer:
Higher consumption of certain coffees has been associated with a lower risk of developing symptomatic gallstone disease.

Although several types of supplements have been proposed to help with gallstone disease, the evidence is weak — and some may lead to complications. For more details regarding coffee and supplements for gallstone disease, sign in and see the full answer >>

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COMMENTS

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LINDA18314 September 8, 2019

had my gall bladder out at 40 years of age, had been drinking at least 2 cups of coffee every morning, sometimes more, since age of 17! Have a jar with 7 gallstones, brownish rocks. Very painful!

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CLAIRE18313 September 8, 2019

I have found that fenugreek capsules helped. I saw some research about it being used on rats for gallstones and thought if its good enough for the rats, I will try it! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21215764 I got gallstones due to being on a very low fat raw vegan diet and losing weight fast. I slowly started to increase the fat in my diet which stimulated the gallbladder.. I got ultrasound scans to see the size of stones and make sure that I had no other signs of disease etc. I found that the gallstones were just small enough to be expelled and via several nasty gallstone attacks, I got rid of some of them! (If they had been really big, it would have been a different matter!) the others simply dissolved over time. I now eat a much higher fat, low carb diet which has put on weight but at least I don't have the gallstones any more! And I still take fenugreek capsules though not as many as I did at the height of the gallstones. The product I took was Solgar fenugreek, and I took 2 with each meal but now as a maintenance dose, I take 1 with each meal. I must stress though that the normal dose is only 1 capsule per day, and I may further reduce my dose in due course. I am not suggesting that others take as many as I did - each person must experiment for themselves and do their own research to ensure that they are safe! (I have no financial interest in solgar!)

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ConsumerLab.com September 10, 2019

Hi Claire - Thank you for sharing this. As you noted, there have been a few studies in mice showing a benefit with fenugreek (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19794519; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3193144/), but there do no appear to be any studies investigating the effects of fenugreek in people with gallstone disease. Be aware that fenugreek may lower blood sugar. For more information, see the Encyclopedia article about fenugreek https://www.consumerlab.com/tnp.asp?chunkiid=21712.

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This CL Answer initially posted on 9/7/2019.

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