Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists. Gallbladder disease occurs when too much cholesterol is in the bile, the digestive juice stored in the gallbladder. The cholesterol forms tiny particles in the gallbladder that eventually form stones.
Gallstones can cause severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.
Close to 500,000 Americans each year have their gallbladders removed as a result of gallbladder disease. Two-thirds of them are women. Leitzmann and his group looked at 60,290 women with no history of gallstone disease between the ages of 40 and 65 in 1986. Every two years the study participants filled out surveys about their activities. Overall, women who exercised about 30 minutes each day cut their gallbladder surgery risk by 31 percent.