19. Your Gallbladder
Your gallbladder is a four-inch, pear-shaped organ. It’s positioned under your liver in the upper-right section of your abdomen. The gallbladder stores bile, a combination of fluids, fat, and cholesterol. The gallbladder sends this stored bile into the small intestine to aid in the digestion of food. It then delivers bile into the small intestine. Your gallbladder serves as a storage pouch. It concentrates the bile into the form that’s best used for digestion. When you eat, the bile is squeezed out of the gallbladder and goes into the first part of the small intestine, the duodenum, through the common bile duct.
While the liver is hard at work making the dark green bile that helps with digestion, the gallbladder holds the bile until you actually need it, says Erin Gilbert, MD, an assistant professor of surgery at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. “It concentrates the bile into the form that’s best used for digestion,” Dr. Gilbert says. “When you eat, the bile is squeezed out of the gallbladder and goes into the first part of the small intestine, the duodenum, through the common bile duct.” The liver produces anywhere from 500 to 1,000 milliliters (ml) of bile per day, but the gallbladder can concentrate that bile up to tenfold and store 30 to 50 ml of the denser bile.