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Gallbladder health
by Catherine DiBenedetto
Your gallbladder is like a little storage sac: It sits under your liver, collecting bile until the liquid is needed to help break down fats. After you eat fatty foods, your gallbladder contracts to pump bile into your small intestine for digestion. William Silverman, MD, a professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and the Iowa governor of the American College of Gastroenterology, says that when people develop a problem in this pear-shaped organ, it’s typically one of two things: “Gallstones, which are incredibly common, or gallbladder cancer, which is exceedingly rare.” Read on to learn more about both.