# What causes gallstones?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-gallstones/215408>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 26, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-gallstones/215408 "2003-11-26T16:16:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/2bfe46/32.png) [@Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xavier)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-gallstones/215408/1 "2003-11-26T16:16:39Z")

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Are gallstones hereditary or are they a result of a particular activity that the person has been doing (e.g. eating too many burgers on Sunday?)

What gives rise to them and what exactly are they?

And I thought that new techniques had been developed that allow ultrasound vibrations to crack them and they then come out with the urine? Is that idea still working?

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-gallstones/215408/2 "2003-11-26T17:54:27Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Xavier \*  
> \*\*Are gallstones hereditary or are they a result of a particular activity that the person has been doing (e.g. eating too many burgers on Sunday?)
> 
> What gives rise to them and what exactly are they?
> 
> And I thought that new techniques had been developed that allow ultrasound vibrations to crack them and they then come out with the urine? Is that idea still working? \*\*

Did you do a search at all? It took me about 10 seconds to find [this](http://www.syracusegastro.com/gallstones.html).

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**Author:** ![disponibilite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@disponibilite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/disponibilite)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-gallstones/215408/3 "2003-11-26T18:31:28Z")

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Don’t some gallstones pass normally by themselves after a few hours of intermittent terrible pain?

I have had that happen sometimes. Terrible contractions every five minutes for hours at a time and then clears up. Everyone I ever talked to about it said “sounds like you had a gallstone”.

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**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-gallstones/215408/4 "2003-11-26T18:51:34Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Xavier \*  
> \*\*And I thought that new techniques had been developed that allow ultrasound vibrations to crack them and they then come out with the urine? Is that idea still working? \*\*

I don’t care how many vibrations you use on a gallstone, it ain’t ever coming out in the urine.

I think you may be mixing up gallstones (from the gallbladder, which empties into the first section of small intestines) and kidney stones (from the kidneys which empty into the bladder).

To my knowledge lithotripsy (vibrations to break up stones) has not been shown to be effective in gallstones, but it has been used for a while with kidney stones.