Meal frequency and duration of overnight fast: a role in gall-stone formation?Supersaturation of bile with cholesterol is a necessary condition for the formation of cholesterol gall stones.'Most normal people have lithogenic bile after an overnight fast,2 and short-term fasting is associated with a decreased rate of biliary bile-acid secretion and an increase in cholesterol saturation of hepatic and gall-bladder bile.3-Thus meal frequency-that is, the duration of fasting throughout the day-might have an effect on gall-stone formation.We therefore tested this hypothesis by comparing, in a prospective case-controlled study, the duration of overnight fasting in patients with gall stones and controls.
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Capron et al. (1981) studied this question.
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