Very Slow Digestion Of Foods

[DrMom]

After I eat some meals, the food just sits in my stomach for about 4 hours. It is not being digested and I constantly taste it when I burp. What causes this and what can I do? I take Reglan (metaclopramide) before every meal and at bedtime to speed up digestion, but it is not working. Help!

DrMom

[gfgypsyqueen]

I don' tknow if you have had this problem tested, but I have Gastroparesis. I just do not get hungry. The food sits in my stomach for hours on end. I have vommited, when sick, undigested food that I ate 8+ hours ago. Gastroparesis is delayed gastric emptying. That was one of the items that was diagnosed prior to Celiacs being found. They took my gallbladder out thinking that sometimes helps stomach to work better. It didn't, so keep your gallbladder if you have a choice. The Dr put me on Reglan too. The fun part of Reglan for gastroparesis is that it will not work as well the longer you take it. I think the doc used to call it Law of deminishing effects. The only drug that works well for Gastroparesis is not sold in the US, sold in Canada. It was expensive to me years ago. End result is the dr put me on a variety of drugs wanting only the side effect - increased gastric emptying. In the end, gluten-free diet was a huge help. I still have occassional problems with being full for days. Or just not hungry for days. What I have found that works the best is food enzymes. When I take 1 food enzyme pill before breakfast, I start to feel better. So I take the pills for a few days until I feel normal again. I only take 1 pill a day. Maybe two if I am in really bad shape.

Maybe some of that will help you feel better.

[DrMom]

Too late, they already took out my gallbladder, and that is exactly when this problem started. I don't think I have the digestive juices that I need now. Thanks for the reply.

DrMom

[bluejeangirl]

After I eat some meals, the food just sits in my stomach for about 4 hours. It is not being digested and I constantly taste it when I burp. What causes this and what can I do? I take Reglan (metaclopramide) before every meal and at bedtime to speed up digestion, but it is not working. Help!

DrMom

Have you experimented with your diet. The first thing that comes to my mind is very low fat and no raw veggies. Then hard to digest veggies like cabbage and broccoli, legumes?

What has been your experiences with these, do you have a food diary?

Gail

[delcarolyn]

I don' tknow if you have had this problem tested, but I have Gastroparesis. I just do not get hungry. The food sits in my stomach for hours on end. I have vommited, when sick, undigested food that I ate 8+ hours ago. Gastroparesis is delayed gastric emptying. That was one of the items that was diagnosed prior to Celiacs being found. They took my gallbladder out thinking that sometimes helps stomach to work better. It didn't, so keep your gallbladder if you have a choice. The Dr put me on Reglan too. The fun part of Reglan for gastroparesis is that it will not work as well the longer you take it. I think the doc used to call it Law of deminishing effects. The only drug that works well for Gastroparesis is not sold in the US, sold in Canada. It was expensive to me years ago. End result is the dr put me on a variety of drugs wanting only the side effect - increased gastric emptying. In the end, gluten-free diet was a huge help. I still have occassional problems with being full for days. Or just not hungry for days. What I have found that works the best is food enzymes. When I take 1 food enzyme pill before breakfast, I start to feel better. So I take the pills for a few days until I feel normal again. I only take 1 pill a day. Maybe two if I am in really bad shape.

Maybe some of that will help you feel better.

[delcarolyn]

When you take the digestive enzyme, do you still have to be careful with what you eat? What enzyme pill do you like the best?

[hayley3]

I had this for a while. I always thought it was a kind of a muscle myopathy. I have muscle weakness in other areas like my arms and legs, so why not the stomach muscle. Turns out I have a vitamin D deficiency which can also cause myopathy. Haven't gotten it yet, but the endo has prescribed some vitamin D for me to take. In the meantime I bought some sublingual vitamin D. You might want to try it and see if it helps you. Vitamin therapy takes a while to work though, unless you know exactly how much to supplement. I read 50,000 iu of vitamin D but I wouldn't take it without a doctor's okay. I'm currently taking 2000 iu.

[ravenwoodglass]

Another thing that can cause this in celiacs is nerve damage from the disease. You may want to try a sublingual B12 to help with nerve function. My DS has suffered from this most of his life, not a great thing for a young man trying to gain weight as it makes him feel full very quickly when he eats certain foods. Being gluten-free and the B12 have helped a bit but not gotten rid of this totally. I have noticed that some foods he is able to eat a lot more of, for example he usually can only get down about 1/2 a sandwich for lunch but if he has a stew or soup he can eat the equivelent of a full meal. A food diary might be helpful to track what you digest the best and most smoothly.