11 Effective Remedies To Relieve Your Gallbladder Pain

8. Medications To Break Up Gallstones

Oral dissolution therapy uses medications to break up gallstones for patients who are not good surgical candidates or who don't want surgery. These medications are bile acids that affect the stones chemically through a natural process. Two medications, ursodiol and chenodiol, are commonly used for this purpose. They contain bile acids identical to those the body makes naturally. The medications work better on smaller stones. They supplement natural bile acids to dissolve and decrease the production of cholesterol, thus preventing the formation of gallstones. Patients usually take two or three pills per day, and the medication usually takes quite some time, usually for months, to effectively remove all the gallstones.