Exercise To Avoid Gallstones!

Maybe. Maybe not. Probably making too much of themselves and their research.

"A new University of Illinois study shows that exercise-trained mice get far fewer gallstones than sedentary mice and identifies potential mechanisms to explain why this occurs...

Gallbladder disease affects 10 to 25 percent of adults in the United States, although some persons who are affected may not have symptoms. It has the second highest cost of any digestive disease at $5.8 billion annually and results in over 800,000 hospitalizations each year...

In the study, 50 mice from a gallstone-susceptible strain were fed a high-fat diet containing cholic acid, which helps increase cholesterol absorption. They were then divided into two groups. One group of mice ran on treadmills 45 minutes per day five days a week; the other group did not exercise.

After 12 weeks, the scientists removed the animals' gallbladders, pooling the stones from each group and weighing them. The gallstones in the sedentary group weighed two and a half times more than the stones in the exercised group.

'You could see through the gallbladders in the exercise-trained group, whereas the gallbladders in the sedentary group were full of stones,' Wilund said."

For practical purposes, the alleged mechanism matters not and the better issue is whether the high fat diet and likely fatty weight gain due to less physical activity are the causes in people. The researchers hint at this.

"Previous observational studies have suggested that people who are physically fit have fewer gallstones and lower cholesterol, but laboratory studies had not confirmed the link."

Exercise remains a terribly inefficient way to lose weight.

Better to avoid gallstones by avoiding getting fat.