My mother is no longer able to eat eggs. Many years ago, she had her gall bladder removed. About two years later, without any particular stand-out event between, she began to feel naseous after eating eggs. With experimentation, she has discovered that she is able to eat eggs whites freely, but anything more than just a small bit of yolk will cause the nausea problem.
To further complicate the situation, it seems that she is able to eat more than that tiny bit of egg yolk if she hasn’t had any in a long time. However, as soon as she has eaten an egg or two, it seems that she is then again no longer able to eat egg yolk. While she could get away with those one or two eggs, even a tiny bit a couple of weeks later will again bring on the nausea.
Her doctor has never really given her any answer as to why this might happen. Someone had once told her that it probably has something to do with the gall bladder removal, but she’s not really sure how the two are related. She’s hoping that you brilliant, knowed people will be able to clear up this mystery for her.
This explanation sounds too simple, but I’m going to throw it in here anyway, so that when a real doctor comes along, I will be notified by e-mail, because I really want to know!!
This is what I think:
The gall bladder produces bile which digests fat.
People with no gall bladders have to eat a low fat diet and take digestive supplements to help them digest the tiny bit of fat they are allowed.
The yolk of an egg is mostly fat, so it probably cannot be easily digested by people with no bile.
My wife had her gall bladder removed and had an impaired ability to digest fats. She has not noticed anything specific to eggs. The gall bladder’s function is to retain bile for delivery to the digestive system to aid in digesting fats. Without the gall bladder, the bile just trickles in as it is produced rather than being stored up for when it is needed. Egg yolks are rather high in fat but I would be surprised if this is the only food that your mother has trouble with.
It is, in fact, the only food that she has problems with. The problem begins almost exactly at 2 hours after consumption, and lasts about 2 additional hours thereafter. She doesn’t partake of a specially low-fat diet, nor does she take any supplements. She has no problems with any other fatty food or food that contains a significant amount of cholesterol. This does sound quite odd.
It is possible, I suppose, that the gall bladder removal has nothing to do with the egg problem. As I said, it arose two years after removal, with no other significant events in between, and she has always connected the two, but there is no proof that they are indeed connected.
It sounds to me like she has developed an allergy to (the protiens in the yolk of) eggs and it is just coincidental that she had her gall bladder removed. This because only a small amount makes her nauseated and the fact that she becomes re-sensitised after not eating any for awhile.
I had my gall bladder out about 8 years ago and I didn’t develop any sensitivities to eggs or any other types of food. My doctors at the time said nothing about me having to watch what I ate or anything, and assured me that I’d do just fine without it. The only thing that I have to deal with is the occasional messy poo because if I eat a high fat meal, not all the fat gets digested in time since bile enters the digestive tract only as fast the my liver can make it. (Maybe it’s even a bonus? I don’t know…)
Seeming as how only eggs do this to your mother and not fatty food in general (and eggs aren’t even considered a high fat food, AFAIK), I wouldn’t think that this is a lack of a gall bladder issue.