At 22, I was rolled into an operating room to have my gallbladder removed. I was told it was a "routine" procedure—that the gallbladder was essentially a disposable organ, like an appendix. "You don’t really need it," they said. "Just avoid greasy pizza for a few weeks, and you’ll be fine."

For the next two decades, I believed them. But looking back from age 50, I realize that surgery was the quiet beginning of a metabolic landslide that led me straight toward migraines, joint pain, and eventually, Type 2 Diabetes.