Brief Answer:
Information on treatment of gall stones.

Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX

Unfortunately, once gall stones are diagnosed and have caused a gall bladder attack, conventional medicine recommends that the gall bladder be surgically removed because of the very high risk of recurrence.

If the gall stones have not caused symptoms, then they can be "watched" for symptoms and surgery may not be necessary. Exceptions to this, in which surgery is recommended, are the following:

-large gallstones, greater than 2 cm in diameter
-nonfunctional or calcified (porcelain) gallbladder observed on imaging studies
-people with spinal cord injuries or sensory neuropathies affecting the abdomen
-people with sickle cell anemia in whom the distinction between painful sickle cell crisis and gall bladder attack may be difficult

Also, people with risk factors for complications of gallstones may be offered elective surgery, even if they have asymptomatic gallstones. These groups include persons with
Portal (liver) hypertension
Children
Transplant candidates
Diabetes with minor symptoms

In situations where a person has gall bladder stones with some gall bladder colic, but not obstruction, medical management can sometimes be an alternative to surgery in selected patients, particularly those in whom surgery would pose a high risk.
Medical treatments for gallstones, used alone or in combination, include the following:
Oral bile salt therapy (ursodeoxycholic acid)
Contact dissolution
Extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy

Medical (rather than surgical) treatment is more effective in people with good gallbladder function who have small stones (< 1 cm) with a high cholesterol content.

So - about medical dissolution of gall stones:
Ursodeoxycholic acid (ursodiol) is a gallstone dissolution agent. For people with stones that are cholesterol based, Ursodiol can gradually dissolve the stones over 6-18 months but is successful only with small, mostly cholesterol stones. The recurrence rate (reforming stones) is 50% within 5 years.

Whether there might be alternatives using herbals or diet, I am not aware of any that have been found effective by established research. What I described here is how they are treated by conventional medicine.

I hope this information helps. Please let me know if I can clarify further.

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