Читать книгу Old Age Deferred. The causes of old age and its postponement by hygienic and therapeutic measures онлайн

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Inflammation of the bile-ducts plays a most important part in the origin of gall-stone disease, for, as Naunyn and his pupils have shown, inflammation of the bile-ducts leads to a precipitation of cholesterin, and so to the formation of gall-stones.

In women gall-stone disease is more frequent than in men. This depends upon the greater frequency of diseases of the thyroid and sexual glands in women. Changes in the sexual organs produce an irritation of the splanchnic with checking of the peristaltic movements of the intestine and, at the same time, relaxation of the muscular coat of the bile-ducts. Thus there arises a deficient expression of bile, and stagnation follows, with invariable immigration of bacilli producing inflammation and precipitation of cholesterin and gall-stones. For the above-mentioned reasons constipation is far more frequent in the female, and constipation, being always accompanied by atony of the bile-ducts with stagnation of the bile, directly exposes to the risk of gall-stone disease.