For women, having a large waistline will mean being more likely to eventually undergo surgery to resolve gallbladder stones. The 14-year study, published in the journal Gut, was conducted with 42,000 female nurses. They (39-66 years old) reported their waist size, height and weight in 1986, and every two years they completed a questionnaire about their health. By 2000, they had undergone nearly 3,200 surgeries for gallbladder stones. The study showed that women with large waists and high waist-to-hip ratios were more likely to have gallstones and undergo surgery. About gallbladder stones The gallbladder is a small organ that stores bile and distributes it to the digestive tract to aid in digestion. Gallbladder stones are crystal-like deposits that occur in the gallbladder. Gallbladder stones can be the size of sand or golf balls, soft or hard, single or multiple. According to statistics, 10% of men and 20% of women in the United States have gallbladder stones, and they are more common after age 60, but not everyone is aware of them. In most cases gallbladder stones are not threatening, and once bile duct obstruction occurs, patients can experience abdominal pain, infection, and fever. More than 800,000 procedures are performed each year to remove gallbladder stones in the United States, and in Western countries, the main component of gallbladder stones is cholesterol. Large Waist Circumference as a Risk Factor Researchers didn’t just focus on the waist circumference of the study subjects, they also considered their height. Women with height-adjusted waist circumferences of 36 inches and above were twice as likely to undergo surgery for gallbladder stones as women with height-adjusted waist circumferences of less than 26 inches. Women with a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.86 and above were 40% more likely to undergo surgery for gallbladder stones than women with a waist-to-hip ratio of less than 0.70. Other female study participants may not have been examined or may not have had symptomatic gallbladder stones that did not allow surgical treatment. Abdominal fat deposits are a problem Studies have shown that abdominal obesity is a particularly important factor in the formation of gallbladder stones. As people age, their waistlines become progressively larger and fat is deposited. Visceral fat, or fat deposits, appear more active in the abdominal cavity than fat deposits in other parts of the body.