Lee Hye-young, ‘this disease’ sent to emergency room… 2 weeks hospitalization “it was really painful”

Actress Lee Hye-young (52) recently revealed that she was suffering from health problems due to gallstones.

On the 22nd, Lee Hye-young posted on her social media, “I had gallstones for two weeks, was in the emergency room, was hospitalized, and had surgery. It was a really painful disease. So I finally came to rest,” along with a photo of herself with her dogs.

Upon hearing the news about Lee Hye-young, actress Son Tae-young commented, “Get some rest, unnie,” and singer Yang Hee-eun cheered her on, saying, “Get some rest and get comfortable… I’m always watching you.” Actress Oh Yeon-soo also consoled her, saying, “You must have been sick. Get some rest.”

‘Cholelithiasis’ in which bile hardens

The gallstone disease that tormented Lee Hye-young is a disease in which bile stored in the gallbladder hardens into a stone-like substance and forms stones. The gallbladder is a small, pouch-shaped structure located in the upper right side of the abdomen, below the liver.

The bile contained here is used to help digest fat. About 500 to 1,200 ml (average 800 ml) is produced per day. When you eat, the gallbladder contracts and pushes bile through a tube called the common bile duct and drains it into the duodenum to help digest food well.

At this time, if there is too much cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin in the bile, it can harden and become gallstones. Gallstones are divided into gallbladder stones and bile duct stones based on their anatomical location, and into cholesterol stones and pigment stones based on their chemical composition.

Cholesterol gallstones are mainly composed of cholesterol, and pigment gallstones are mainly composed of bilirubin. Cholesterol gallstones are mainly formed in the gallbladder, and pigment gallstones are mainly formed in the bile duct. Recently, as the diet has become westernized, cholesterol gallstones are gradually increasing.

It is common in middle-aged women… If you have upper abdominal pain and have trouble digesting oily food, you should be suspicious.

In particular, cholesterol gallstones are especially likely to occur in people with the characteristics of the ‘4F’. The 4F stands for female, fertile, fat, and forties. The reasons for the high number of middle-aged female patients include excessive secretion of estrogen (female hormone) due to pregnancy, childbirth, oral contraceptives, and hormonal imbalance due to hormone replacement therapy.

If you have severe pain in the upper right abdomen and especially have indigestion when eating fatty foods, even though you do not have a stomach disease, you may suspect gallstones. If gallstones are left untreated, they can worsen into cholecystitis, cholangitis, pancreatitis, and gallbladder cancer, so proper treatment is necessary.

If gallstones are confirmed through abdominal ultrasound or endoscopy, different treatments are applied depending on their location. If there are no symptoms, only follow-up observation is performed, but if there is accompanying calcified gallbladder, abnormal confluence of the bile and pancreatic ducts, gallbladder adenoma, or if there is a giant gallbladder stone larger than 3 cm, the risk of gallbladder cancer increases, so it must be removed.

In particular, intrahepatic gallstones appear as gallstones spread out like tree branches inside the liver. If these are not removed, they may increase in number and size, and may cause liver abscesses or intrahepatic bile duct cancer in the future, so active treatment is necessary.

Regular meals and foods rich in dietary fiber and unsaturated fatty acids are helpful.

To prevent gallstones, you should eat regular, balanced meals. If you skip meals frequently for reasons such as dieting, the hormones that release bile from the gallbladder are not secreted smoothly, which increases the likelihood of gallstones.

It is recommended to reduce the intake of saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol from meat, butter, fried foods, etc. Instead, eating a lot of foods rich in dietary fiber can promote bile excretion by combining with bile in the intestines. Also, keep foods rich in unsaturated fatty acids, such as nuts and blue fish, close by, which lower blood cholesterol levels.

Also, if you eat late at night, the food stays in your stomach for a long time while you sleep, stimulating bile secretion. This increases the amount of bile in your gallbladder, and as cholesterol secretion in bile increases, the risk of gallstones increases, so it is also good to avoid frequent late-night snacks.