Gallstones

Research overview

AT A GLANCE

• About 80 percent of people who have gallstones have no symptoms (non-symptomatic gallstones). However, in a minority of cases, gallstones trigger severe abdominal pain (symptomatic gallstones). In these instances, the gallstones can cause the gallbladder to become inflamed and this leads to gallbladder disease.
• The majority of the research* shows that coffee consumption is linked to a reduced risk of symptomatic gallstones (or gallbladder disease), and coffee may have a beneficial effect.
• Some studies provide insights into possible mechanisms:

For example, coffee may exert different effects depending on the stage of gallbladder disease.

There is some evidence that coffee, and caffeine in particular, may trigger the contraction of the gallbladder.

Increased gallbladder contraction may prevent small crystals becoming large, symptomatic gallstones in early disease; but if large, symptomatic gallstones are present, gallbladder contraction may cause pain.

*Very few relevant, and significant, human epidemiological studies on the role of coffee in gallbladder disease have been published since 2002.