Gas and stomachaches following meals

[xpeetzax]

Hey everyone,

So ever since the onset of my symptoms that started with a bout of diarrhea, I've been having GI issues that include bloating, gas, and mixed stool at times when I eat too much. It seems like everything I eat causes me to feel some mild stomach aches, urge to defecate, weakness, and extreme gassy/bloaty feeling that causes some discomfort in my chest shortly after meals. I've tried changing up my diet but it seems regardless of what I eat but moreso happens when I eat and how much I eat that seem to trigger symptoms. If I don't eat for 3+ hours I get this really bad stomach acid feeling where my gut feels like its burning along with slight nausea and other symptoms such as dizziness and fatigue...but upon eating I feel what I mentioned above...When I do eat but eat too much, I have to go defecate immediately and my stool ends up being mixed between normal and fatty, soft stool that floats to the surface... Also, not sure if this is just hemorrhoids (what my doctor told me last time)..but I've also been seeing blood intermittently on my toilet paper after I finish my daily poop in the morning. So to summarize:

1. Gassy/bloaty feeling with stomach aches and urge to defecate after meals
2. Acidic, burning, nauseous feeling along with some other symptoms when no food for 3+ hours.
3. Immediate reaction which consists of mixed stool after eating too much.
4. Blood in stool/toilet paper intermittently

Currently all I am taking for my GI issues is a probiotic supplement that includes a whole bunch of healthy gut bacteria which has helped me stay asleep at night but that is all. But mostly throughout the day, I battle with GI discomfort of this sort all day.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to how I can deal with this? Not sure whether or not I should go see a GI specialist...my PCP is completely incompetent and doesn't refer me to any specialist unless I ask for it.

Thanks so much!

 

[ljimbo423]

Currently all I am taking for my GI issues is a probiotic supplement that includes a whole bunch of healthy gut bacteria which has helped me stay asleep at night but that is all. But mostly throughout the day, I battle with GI discomfort of this sort all day.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to how I can deal with this?

A good functional medicine doctor would probably be best if you can do that. It sounds like you have significant intestinal dysbiosis, which is extremely common with me/cfs.

A good probiotic is very important but to re-balance dysbiosis often takes a comprehensive protocol. A low starch diet, anti-microbial herbs and supplements to heal the gut will most likely be needed.

Dysbiosis can cause increased intestinal permeability, which can cause many systemic problems associated with me/cfs. Not the least of which is increased inflammation.

I learned that I had small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). It's the overgrowth of bacteria feeding on our food, also called fermenting, that causes the gas and bloating we experience.

The overgrowth of bacteria in my small intestine (SI) were not only feeding on (fermenting) starches, which is widely known but they were also feeding on protein.

I would have only a pork chop for breakfast and still would get bloating and gas from the bacterial overgrowth in my SI, fermenting it. Starches are their favorite food though and the most important to avoid when treating dysbiosis.

Jim

 

[caledonia]

You can look at the 4R Gut Rebuilding Program in my signature link. This was the developed by the Institute for Functional Medicine, and a functional medicine doc can help you with it, if you need help.

"Floaters" are a gallbladder and possibly liver issue, in that things are running slow, and there is not sufficient bile to metabolize the fats. So some support supps or foods could be helpful, like beets or beet root powder, ox bile, milk thistle, etc.

I would not suggest doing any kind of gall bladder flush with lemon and olive oil - too harsh for an ME patient. And I'm not really convinced that it works anyway.

 

[nanonug]

Does anyone have any thoughts as to how I can deal with this?

I've had gastrointestinal issues all my life, going as far back as I can remember as a child. So, my question is: have you been seen by a gastroenterologist? Seeing one would be my first advice in this case. You need at the very least to have an upper endoscopy done. After that, and depending on the results, there are other things that can be done.

 

[Judee]

I completely agree with Nanonug. With those types of symptoms the best thing would be to make sure something more serious is not going on...then once that has been ruled out you can start to address some of those other issues.

 

[kangaSue]

GI problems are often difficult to fathom with there being such a wide variety of causes. Ongoing symptoms starting from diarrhea can be due to an enterovirus but a stool analysis is probably the best place to start to rule out the more common pathogen causes. Some panels check fecal calprotectin level too. It's a measure of mucosal inflammation and can can be elevated when other inflammatory markers are not elevated in blood tests.

Leaving an oily slick in the toilet bowel can be a sign of fat malabsorption, pancraetic enzymes taken with food can help with that.

Blood in the stool, what colour are we talking? Bright red is not too worrisome and often just a hemorrhroid issue, anything else needs investigation.

There are a number of abdominal vascular compression disorders that can cause a wide variety of vague or acute GI symptoms. Try eating standing up or sitting with your knees to your chest after eating to see if this reduces or relieve symptoms. Have any doctor listen to your bowel sounds for any indication of having an abdominal bruit sound next time you see one even if positional change doesn't help.

 

[CFS_for_19_years]

1. Gassy/bloaty feeling with stomach aches and urge to defecate after meals
2. Acidic, burning, nauseous feeling along with some other symptoms when no food for 3+ hours.
3. Immediate reaction which consists of mixed stool after eating too much.
4. Blood in stool/toilet paper intermittently

Since your issues began with diarrhea and your GI symptoms never improved, my first thought was a stool pathogen (protozoa such as Giardia or common bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella, Shigella, certain strains of E. coli).

Then when you said you had blood in the stool, that confirmed for me that you need to see a doctor right away who will have you collect stool samples at least 3 different times and look for the pathogens I mentioned. Treatment with antibiotics is available. Even if you have had hemorrhoids in the past, they wouldn't cause you to have diarrhea.

Please don't put this off. I've had Salmonella infection confirmed by lab test, and besides having loose stools some of the time there was also just a small amount of blood present.

Have you traveled recently or been in a place where the water may have not been safe to drink?

ETA: I found your post from April 2:

Mid-December 2017 - Sudden onset in Korea

It all started when I caught a weird flu-like bug going on vacation to korea back in december and experienced sudden flu-like and food poisoning symptoms like diarrhea, nausea, severe bodyaches, chills, severe fatigue and weakness, loss of appetite, and sometimes shortness of breath that landed me in the ER a couple times. Despite the couple trips, doctors couldn't find what was wrong with me as urine samples, blood tests, flu tests, and xrays all returned negative.

Some pathogens like Giardia will give you symptoms that are cyclical. Sometimes you won't be able to find it in stool every time. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/giardia-infection/symptoms-causes/syc-20372786

Even if you are having symptoms that are similar to CFS/ME and wouldn't be attributed to Giardia, it's possible to have both CFS/ME and an intestinal infection. (I had it!) You will feel much better after being treated for whatever intestinal pathogen you may have.

 

[xpeetzax]

Even if you are having symptoms that are similar to CFS/ME and wouldn't be attributed to Giardia, it's possible to have both CFS/ME and an intestinal infection. (I had it!) You will feel much better after being treated for whatever intestinal pathogen you may have.

Wow, thank you so much.. this was helpful.

When I experienced the onset of symptoms I was in Korea and as far as I know the water there is safe to drink...however I did here from my family there that I should perhaps stick to bottled water rather than the tap water there because many foreigners have stomach issues with the tap water there initially...I kind of ignored that advice and drank a lot of tap water there...

I have not done a stool test yet but have wanted to... is that something my doctor orders or do I need to take the initiative on that? I'm going to ask my doc to refer me to a GI specialist the next time I see him.

 

[CFS_for_19_years]

I have not done a stool test yet but have wanted to... is that something my doctor orders or do I need to take the initiative on that? I'm going to ask my doc to refer me to a GI specialist the next time I see him.

Any doctor can order this. It should be done at the level of primary care. One does not need a specialist to have this test done. I recommend making an appointment to see your regular doctor as soon as possible, like this week, so you can be seen and have the stool tests ordered. At your visit, either the lab or doctor should give you three separate containers for collecting stool samples on three different days.

Ideally you drop off each sample to the lab as soon as they are collected, or some labs might have you mix a portion of stool with a preservative to be shipped in the mail. Do not save all three collections to be dropped off at the same time.

One of the tests should say "ova and parasites" and the other test should be a stool culture for enteric pathogens (Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter, or E. coli). You'll collect three separate times. It will work out to be ova and parasites x3 and stool culture x 3.

I'm really surprised no doctor has ordered this test for you yet. It's basic for someone with your symptoms and history. It should have been caught by at some point.

Can @Intuition and @valentinelynx who are doctors give their endorsement? Thanks guys and gals.

 

[Intuition]

I am very surprised your PCP havent ordered a stool test yet. I would definitely ordier a stool test for micro/cult/sensitivity, ovum/cyst/parasite, multiplex pcr (testing for viruses), calprotectin(for inflammation), reducing substances (for malabsorption) and fat test.
You may need other studies such as coeliac serology, ESR, liver and pancreatic function tests, urease breath test, and possibly scopes, but the stool is a good initial investigation.

 

[tyson oberle]

The overgrowth of bacteria in my small intestine (SI) were not only feeding on (fermenting) starches, which is widely known but they were also feeding on protein

Do you have a reference to protein also being a problem to an overgrowth of bacteria? I ask because I was suspecting that, but I always heard it was only starches that were problematic for an overgrowth of bacteria.

 

[Murph]

Get the stool test and test for pathogens. Take the iniiative. book an appointment asap and at the appoitnment ask for a stool test. do a bit of research. tell them about the sudden onset in korea.

If, however, this turns up nothing, consider the possibility that you have a susceptibility to fodmaps.
https://www.monashfodmap.com/about-fodmap-and-ibs/
The name may sound funny and the list of foods it suggests to cut out may appear a little counter-intuitive, but this is very mainstream medicine. It is exceedingly common these days, for unknown reasons.

 

[ljimbo423]

Do you have a reference to protein also being a problem to an overgrowth of bacteria? I ask because I was suspecting that, but I always heard it was only starches that were problematic for an overgrowth of bacteria.

The way I understand it. Fermentation is only suppose to happen in the colon. The small intestine is mainly for digesting food not fermenting it.

This quote below, talks about fermenting both polysaccharides and protein, in the colon. However, if there is an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine, then it makes sense to me, that fermentation would happen their as well as the colon.

These indigestible macronutrients consist mainly of oligo- and polysaccharides which fermentation by commensal bacteria of the colon results in the synthesis of short chain fatty acids (SCFA), and phenolic compounds which metabolism produces bioactive compounds [8].

Fermentation of proteins by the gut microbiota takes also place in the colon via bacterial proteinase and peptidase thanks to species such as Clostridia, Propionibacterium spp., Prevotella spp., Bifidobacterium spp. and Bacteroides spp.

LINK

I think that's probably why the elemental diet is so effective for treating SIBO. All of the proteins and sugars are already broken down into readily absorbed nutrients, like amino acids and simple sugars. Rather than proteins and starches.

Jim

 

[xpeetzax]

thanks everyone for your input. I just recently got a stool test ordered through my PCP doctor who is suspecting H Pylori... we'll have to see when the results come out... In the meanwhile my symptoms have been worsening including bouts of shortness of breath, body aches, and extreme weakness.