I want to share this client’s case because it highlights how GLP-1 medications can affect many organs in the body, and while they have positive effects for blood sugar and inflammation, they can also slow down essential organs such as the gallbladder, and this can lead to bile becoming sludge in the gallbladder, and then the bile can build up into gallstones.

This case highlights the importance of being attuned to your client’s family history, detox and digestive history, and the clues to look for when assessing a client’s symptoms.

I want to share this client’s case because it highlights how GLP-1 medications can affect many organs in the body, and while they have positive effects for blood sugar and inflammation, they can also slow down essential organs such as the gallbladder, and this can lead to bile becoming sludge in the gallbladder, and then the bile can build up into gallstones.

A little background on this client. She is 37 years old, microdosing GLP-1 + GIP for perimenopause symptoms, including night sweats and mood swings. Her family history is important because her mother had her gall bladder removed with gallstones in her 60s, and her cousin had his gall bladder removed with gallstones in his 20s. So, healthy bile could be genetically compromised. Secondary to this is a family history of poor liver detoxification. If her father, aunt, cousins, or herself has anesthesia, it can take up to 48 hours for the body to fully clear it and feel awake. Moreover, when drinking alcohol, even one glass, she would wake up with a hangover and then up to five days of digestive pain and loose stool. This combination is essential in this case because detoxification can occur in the liver, enter bile, pass into the gallbladder, and then into the small intestine, or it can occur in the liver and then enter the bloodstream. If the liver is producing bile with cholesterol and toxins, but that bile is sludged up in the gallbladder, then the detoxification pathway is stalled.

With all that background in mind, this client reached out to me 5 days after her GLP-1 + GIP injection. She said she was having weird cramping in the center of her abdomen, and she was also having diarrhea with really dark brown stool. This is where a nutritionist becomes a researcher. My first thought is it digestive? I recommend increasing her fiber intake and taking a PHGG supplement to help calm inflammation. She reached out on day 6, saying her stool had improved and was normal, but she was still getting these constant waves of pain in her abdomen. This is where the researcher in me knew we weren’t dealing with just the digestive tract. Her medication had peaked and was less potent in her system, and her gall bladder was either spasming or contracting, trying to release the bile. From this, I asked about what she had been eating- she reported Thai food one night and then for lunch the next day, a cheeseburger. This was the culprit because it was a very high-fat food, and an indicator that we are dealing with her liver and gallbladder, not her digestive tract alone.