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Water Fasting (7-8 days) and Gallstones risk

I made a question yesterday about electrolytes and their potential effect on gallstones, but then realized that was not the issue I wanted to address.

My question, briefly, is if water fasting with electrolytes for reasonable lengths (7-8 days) implies a real, tangible risk of gallbladder stones.

I know that many reputable sources and maybe common sense say yes, because the gallbladder does not contract when you are not eating, but in my opinion the issue is not solved at all.

For example in this study http://www.jlr.org/content/17/3/211.full.pdf the saturation of cholesterol in the bile after 4-6 days of fasting in a group of 9 healthy men was REDUCED by 30%. Less cholesterol in your bile, as you may know, reduces the chances of gallbladder stones. According to this and other studies, cholesterol saturation in the bile increases for fasts of length between 10h and 20h, but then (quite surprisingly) seems to decrease after that. https://gut.bmj.com/content/gutjnl/21/12/1087.full.pdf

Prolonged fasting is still considered a risk factor for gallbladder stones by many institutions, but as far as I know they do not seem to specify the potentially risky length. Could it be that they mean prolonged water fasting like under 24h, which might seem nothing in this sub but is hardly a treshold the layman will ever surpass (or even want to surpass)?

I want to emphasize I am interested only in pretty short water fasts (7-8 days like) done not too often, at most 2 times per year. Would that pose a significant and worth worrying risk, for someone without other risk factors for gallstones?

I’m male, 30yo, normal weight, I do eat fats when I eat (which is basically every day of the year, my fasts are quite sporadic in a sense), and with no previous gallstone history and without familiarity for the issue. I’ve also already completed like 4 extended fasts like the above mentioned, but for some reason yesterday I started to obsess about this.

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Answer

I found that after an extended 8 day fast I had a gallbladder attack… but I have had them about twice a year for the past ten years. I was doing fasting and keto at the time but I probably started referring wrong. Referring is definitely something I am interested in learning more about. I would love to learn how to avoid the attack if anyone knows.

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