Dumping Syndrome?

[jenwic]

My POTS symptoms began in 1993. Ever since then, I have had issues with feeling bad after I eat. Carbs and sugar are the worst triggers, but so are large meals. My symptoms are: tachycardia, shakiness, weakness, strong urge to lie down, hungry about 2 hours after I eat, difficulty concentrating for a couple of hours after I eat, bloating, and sometimes dizziness. Breakfast is worst for me but I am able to tolerate more foods by evening. I have discovered that eating smaller meals and adding a fat or protein to my meal helps.

I always thought that my symptoms were the result of delayed gastric emptying, but recently came across the description of something called dumping syndrome (or rapid gastric emptying). People who have this have usually had stomach surgery of some sort, but some people who have it have not had surgery. I have not. The only surgery I had was to remove ovarian cysts and a gangreene, abcessed appendix. This is; however, when all my POTS symptoms started, including the symptoms described above.

Has anyone else heard of a connection between POTS and dumping syndrome?

[statesof]

I actaully have never heard of dumping syndrome, but I was tested for delayed gastric emptying which showed negative on the nuclear egg type test, but positive from an endoscopy. Have you seen a gastroenterologist? If you haven't it might be a good start, as I know there is a number of tests they could run that might help diagnose your symptoms.

Other things to look at might be doing a food diary to see if there are specific foods that always seem to trigger your symptoms (as you said carbs and sugars), then you can always try eliminating those things from your diet and see if it helps. From my experience gastroenterologists seems to like to know that sort of information anyways.

[Raisin]

I definitely had the same nauseous ness before. I now take an acid blocker, promethazine for when and if the nauseaness hits and I also take a pancreatic enzyme and that helps. My pancreas looks fine on an MRI. Someone put down that I was being tested for autoimmune pancreatitis. I don't know who though. Lol!

I can guess that I have dumping syndrome and I had my gallbladder taken out also. This can occur after gallbladder. Surgery.

I think you are doing what also made me feel better. I try to stay away from fried foods, desserts and large meals. French fries are very hard for me to eat. Protein.....I can't get enough of it.

I hope you feel better!

[Aimes]

This study might interest you. It found that a good amount of POTS patients had rapid gastric emptying. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25483980

[srb]

Yes, I have heard of it and suspected that it was the answer to my eating difficulties as well. Ever since I started following the eating suggestions for people with rapid emptying, I have been doing much better.

The study that Aimes posted above was one of the keys in my research on this.

[bethanyh]

I was diagnosed in 2007 with gastroparesis and had all of the classic signs/symptoms that come along with it. After being diagnosed, I went from three meals a day to six or seven smaller meals a day and my flares became much less frequent.
My POTS symptoms began in January 2014 and between 2014 and January 2015 (when I was actually diagnosed with POTS) I had lost about 20 pounds because I was too sick to eat or the plethora of trial medications made eating nearly impossible. Over the past few months I have not had too many gastroparesis flares but when I do they are significantly worse than before. Now I am constantly hungry and eat about every one to two hours in the day but I never seem to become full. Overnight I often wake hungry (I always have snacks by my bed) and in the morning when I get up my stomach is SO upset; I feel like I have not eaten for days. Can this be part of rapid gastric emptying? Can you have both gastroparesis and rapid emptying?

[lewis]

I had median arcuate ligament syndrome (mals) and eating made everything worse. I had surgery to correct it and can eat just fine now. The main symptom is pain after eating though. I just mention this as it is rare and doctors don't look for it.

[bethanyh]

Thanks Lewis, I will keep this in mind for my next appointment!

[fitnesskelly]

My POTS symptoms began in 1993. Ever since then, I have had issues with feeling bad after I eat. Carbs and sugar are the worst triggers, but so are large meals. My symptoms are: tachycardia, shakiness, weakness, strong urge to lie down, hungry about 2 hours after I eat, difficulty concentrating for a couple of hours after I eat, bloating, and sometimes dizziness. Breakfast is worst for me but I am able to tolerate more foods by evening. I have discovered that eating smaller meals and adding a fat or protein to my meal helps.

I always thought that my symptoms were the result of delayed gastric emptying, but recently came across the description of something called dumping syndrome (or rapid gastric emptying). People who have this have usually had stomach surgery of some sort, but some people who have it have not had surgery. I have not. The only surgery I had was to remove ovarian cysts and a gangreene, abcessed appendix. This is; however, when all my POTS symptoms started, including the symptoms described above.

Has anyone else heard of a connection between POTS and dumping syndrome?

It sounds to me like you are describing "reactive hypoglycemia". I have struggled with the same hunger 2 hours after eating all my life. My former doc told me to eat something with carbs and protein, like peanut butter, if I had one of the hypoglycemic attacks (they most often occurred in the middle of the night for me). I now eat a more Paleo style diet which really helps me avoid the hypoglycemic episodes. I still eat carbs, but I am cautious about how much and what kinds (I'll take a sweet potato over oatmeal any day). I HAVE to eat some kind of carb with my evening meal or I wake hungry.

A little background - I was diagnosed with pancreatitis around age 20. They never figured out the cause. I suspected gluten as a cause, so I quit gluten and that has helped some of my gastro issues. They also said my pancreas produced too much insulin, hence the tendency toward hypoglycemia. At 32, my gallbladder failed and I had it removed. Doc said the gallbladder had atrophied and was full of sludge. Determined to avoid the dumping syndrome after eating fat, I immediately ate nuts and nut butters to "train" my body to continue to accept fat. It worked as I have no issues with dietary fat.

[Theresa Yewnohoo]

I have the exact same thing! Dysautonomia probably caused by Dumping Sydrome. A specialist recently told me that it is possible to get this reaction from many abdominal surgeries. I had my gallbladder removed. 

[Jojo79]

I have this, a swallow camera showed rapid gastric emptying. I have lots of dysautonomia issues. 

[toomanyproblems]

I have dysautonomia and gastroparesis. Altho I don't have this, I've read on gastroparesis forums that you can have delayed gastric emptying with intermittent dumping syndrome. 

[kalamazoo]

yes! I feel horrible after eating but I also found out I have insulin resistance. I've found that eating small vegan low carb meals every 5/6 hrs works best for me, the smaller the meal the better I feel and I'm constantly hydrated. How I feel is relative to my blood sugar/insulin levels as well.