Does Eating Make You Feel Bad?

[bizbiz]

I feel like I am existing on a diet of youghurt and fruit salad! If I try to eat anything heavier I feel so bad - HR jumps up into the 140's, BP 140/105, body 'forgets' how to swallow, muscle aches and pain, tight chest - what is going on?!?

Anyone else? And why? I had to watch my husband eat my favourite Thai food last night...I'm hungry!

[Broken_Shell]

Eating often makes me feel more dizzy and have increased headaches. At times I feel like I am being "sucked into a black hole" - i.e., it generates a lot of bizzare autonomic symptoms. I think that it is because eating involves so many autonomic processes and our bodies are struggling with dysfunction of the autonomic system. I have been this way for years, some days worse than others. Does anything else seem to be associated with your developing these symptoms?

Broken_Shell

[fire_lupine06]

Sorry your tummy is being a brat with you, I'm the same way sometimes all last week i couldn't eat without getting really bloated and really blah feeling...not fun.

My other tummy pain is the fact i will eat and then have something like hunger pains...tho i just eat.

[carinara]

Heavy meals cause some POTS Patients to have bad blood pooling in the stomach due to digesting the food. If i dont watch what i eat i can set of real bad symptoms because of the blood going more into my digesting system and away from my brain and other parts. Before i got diagnosed i suffered bad tachy almost everytime i ate a normal size meal. Now i just eat tiny little meals and avoid carbohydrate because they set my system off as well (always about 20 minutes after eating them). My POTS doctor told me, that carbs dilate the blood vessels.

[Sophia3]

ditto to what carinara said!

SMALL meals and learning the glycemic index of foods and watching your carb intake made ALL the difference in the world to me.

Also digestive enzymes can help or fresh ginger tea before dinner or 100% ginger capsules taken before a meal.

If I eat huge amounts of carbs, which I have not done in years i.e. pancakes, I feel HORRIBLE afterwards. I've always had reactive hypoglycemia. but add to that the splanchnic shunting and post prandial low BP...ugh...feel like a slug.

become a grazer.Good luck.

[bizbiz]

Thanks for the replies. I was just curious if this was a POTS thing or a 'me' thing.

It's strange because I dont have a sore tummy, and I do have an appetite, but I just start feeling bad halfway into a meal.

I think I'll be sticking to grazing from now!

[ramakentesh]

it is definately a POTS thing and is often confused with reactive hypoglycemia which may exhibit similar symptoms. But this may not occur in all forms of pots - stomach pooling is the cause as previously stated.

I used to get this all the time - now I get symptoms when i miss a meal...

[cordila]

Biz Biz: the symptom of 'forgetting how to swallow' is one I'm very familiar with. When it happens (as it did last night) I say my Swallower is broken. Last night we had a dinner party and somehow the anxiety or excitement for the party translated in a total shut-down of my Swallower. No food in. Not even liquids. I've found that when it gets like that it's best not to push it. Wait until you feel like your body will remember the sensation. I once forced applesauce down my broken Swallower and - well - really bad idea.

In regard to the fruit and yogurt, I ditto all the other responses. But if yogurt and fruit is all your body will take then that's what we have to work with. At least you can still eat SOMETHING. When I get really bad I make UltraClear shakes by Metagenics. It's packed with vitamins as well as fat, protein and rice-based carbs. It's easy to digest and gives me nutrients and vitamins while my body works it out.

Best of luck! WB

[Radha]

i am hungry all the time because i can eat so so little and get so hyper terrible headaches, blood pooling in hands and feet and stomach, so bloated and

stomach cramps, and swallowing trouble, and even face muscles get stiff after so little chewing, its more than a nightmare and i dont eat carbs or sugar or

gluten or fat or caffeine, i take a ton of beta blockers or i get very tachy.........just wanted you to know i can totally relate and sorry you have to go thru this

too!

Radha

[bizbiz]

waterbaby - thankyou for your post. It's good to know I am not the only one with a broken swallower. Its very scary to be eating and then suddenly forget how to swallow! I have tried axplaining it to both my husband and sister and I think its something that you wont understand unless you have experienced it yourself. I hope I dont offend you in saying this, but I couldnt stop laughing when I read your reply...I couldnt help but think of 'renegade swallowers' and 'swallowers bahaving badly'! Sorry, I have a weird sense of humour...

[ana_22]

if eating is worse because of pooling, does this mean miodrine can help GI issues as it constricts blood vessels?

[bwstuckey57]

I have not been diagnosed with a specific type of dystautonomia, but when I eat sometimes I get extremely ill. So sick that I sweat prefusely, headache, dizziness, shakiness, weakiness, brain fog, etc. I get so sick that I can't stay at the table or wherever we are eating. I have to leave the table or restaurant or whatever and go lay down. Either in the vehicle or at home, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IT'S AWFUL AND NO ONE UNDERSTANDS!!! I also have meals that seem like they never digest, even if I do feel hungry it feels like all the food is still in my stomach.

Tiger

[masumeh]

I have this issue, but it has lessened a lot over the years. If I visit my mothers house though....hmmm....really big face stuffing session....I actually pass out afterwards. My stomach gets so big and bloated, I look pregnant. So it's a matter of small meals, slow chewing to look like I'm eating like everybody else at the table, and frequent snack/meals.

I know this is partly blood pooling because of the bloating. It's kinda obvious. BUT...I am also considering the role of sugar byproducts in the brain after learning that --in my particular case-- epilepsy is also involved in my episodes and fainting spells. Epileptic seizures are usually preceded by tachycardia, so it's hard for me to separate the two diseases and determine triggers for each. But epileptics benefit from fatty breakdown (ketones) rather than sugar/carb/protein breakdown due to chemical changing in the brain after the meal. Not eating always cleared me head...reduced brainfog...although prolonged, it leads to total flare-up and fatigue. So anyway, interesting chemical component at play in addition to mechanism of blood pooling.

[ramakentesh]

Midodrine is an overall alpha agonist but im pretty sure it has a preference for the legs and arms - whereas medication that specifically targets gut pooling would be better - ocreotide and perhaps some anti inflammatory meds can help this.