
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 16, 1995                   TAG: 9503160038
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GALLBLADDER HYPOTHESIS HAS NO BASIS

Q: I recently had my gallbladder removed. Afterward, in conversation with a number of my 40-something contemporaries who also are sans gallbladders, one said he had heard the Roanoke Valley has one of the highest gallbladder surgery rates in the country - this due, he says, to the high lime content in area water. Any truth to this? And what's in a gallstone, anyway?

J.H., Cloverdale

A: That's an interesting hypothesis, blaming the water for gallstones.

There's no evidence to back it up, though.

One consistent thread shared by you and your contemporaries is that gallbladders are likely to flare up in the fifth decade.

Most of us know someone who's had a cholecystectomy - which is what doctors call gallbladder surgery.

Looking at calendar year 1992, there were about 500 of these operations at the Roanoke Valley's four major hospitals. They serve a region with a population of 250,000, so that's a rate of 200 surgeries per 100,000 people.

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 765,000 gallbladder surgeries in 1992, for a rate of 306 per 100,000 people.

If these statistics were perfect, we could say that the Roanoke area's rate is substantially lower than the national rate - 200 to 306.

Chances are, the statistics aren't perfect. Valley hospitals occasionally serve people from as far away as West Virginia. Some local residents may have their surgeries done in Charlottesville or in Durham, N.C.

Though the figures don't support your hypothesis, they aren't scientific enough to disprove it, either.

As for the content of gallstones, that was easy to find: Britannica says the main ingredient is crystallized cholesterol. Bile pigments and calcium salts also are present, and calcium can come from limestone, of course.

Medical sources tend to think high-fat foods have more effect than water on gallstone formation. Rapid weight loss also can disrupt gallbladder function, causing stones to form.

Food supplements provided in some diet plans also have been associated with gallstones.

Cholesterol seems to be the primary suspect, and the food we select may be a greater factor than minerals in the water.

One last point: Most gallbladder surgeries now are done with laparoscopes, which are fiber-optic instruments that require two small incisions - a great improvement over the old-fashioned procedure in which the incision started near the backbone and circled below the right rib cage to front and center.|

Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.

by CNB