GALLBLADDER HEALTH & BILE ACIDS

The Most Commonly Removed Organ — and the Consequences Nobody Tells You About.

The gallbladder is removed in over 70,000 NHS operations annually — making cholecystectomy one of the most performed surgeries in the UK — yet patients are routinely told they can live perfectly well without it. This is biologically false. The gallbladder concentrates and precisely times bile release to coordinate fat digestion, fat-soluble vitamin absorption (A, D, E, K2), hormone elimination, and gut transit. Without it, bile drips continuously into the small intestine in a dilute, uncontrolled manner that impairs fat digestion and promotes SIBO. Beyond the gallbladder, bile acids are now recognised as sophisticated hormone-like signalling molecules that regulate glucose metabolism, thyroid hormone activation, microbiome composition, and even brain serotonin levels via the farnesoid X receptor (FXR) — a biology that conventional medicine has only recently begun to appreciate.