Constant belly bloat

[Jpac]

I've had bloating, gastroparesis and slow motility that was unrelated to food intake.

Things that help me are acetylcholine precursors and cofactors, serotonin precursors and cofactors, and calcium. Calcium is the absolute number 1 solution for me and is super easy to test, but the acetylcholine and serotonin supps won't even help if my calcium is too low. I usually take 100% of the RDA at once if my GI tract freezes up.

All muscles, including the ones in the gastrointestinal tract, need calcium to contract, and every cell needs calcium as it's an important signaling molecule, so the body doesn't tolerate low calcium very well. Dysregulated calcium metabolism seems to be a big part of the equation for me.[/QUOTE

Very interesting, thx

 

[joanierav]

hi sherda. how do they test your calcium? ive never seen that on any of my blood work. i will double up on the calcium and see what happens. thank you.
joanie

 

[SherDa]

hi sherda. how do they test your calcium? ive never seen that on any of my blood work. i will double up on the calcium and see what happens. thank you.
joanie

No one has tested my calcium. I simply thought poor muscle function might be related to electrolytes, especially because I tend to get muscle spasms in my low back.

I taste-tested electrolytes to the degree that I could, which means I taste-tested sodium, potassium and magnesium. None of these relieved muscle tension, so I proceeded to experiment with taking the electrolyte I don't have a taste test for, which is calcium. Calcium relieved the GI freezing and the other muscle tension as well as gave me a lot of energy and improved my mood.

Calcium is a component of the basic metabolic panel and comprehensive metabolic panel. These have to be the most common lab tests drawn. They would be drawn at yearly physicals and for almost every illness, but doctors will likely only mention the calcium result to you if it is too high or too low. It is worthless for determining overall calcium level though. Calcium level in the blood must be maintained, and the body will just rob calcium from bone to maintain it. Therefore, there would have to be a disease severely impacting calcium metabolism (such as a parathyroid disease that affects the ability to draw calcium from the bone) for the serum calcium to rise or drop.

My calcium levels on blood tests are always in the normal range, and yet, I have this response to calcium that indicates a strong need for it. This is why I refer to it as dysregulated calcium metabolism. I seem to have no issues with absorbing calcium; it is maintaining its levels in the bone/muscle/nerves that I seem to have an issue with.

Ultimately, I think this may be due to inflammation, anemia of chronic inflammation or sideroblastic anemia as I have chronically low B6 and zinc that I cannot seem to replete, but I'm still trying to determine which of these is true and how to fix it. I definitely have issues with protein metabolism and that could possibly be affecting calcium metabolism, but that would likely be caused by low B6 and zinc.

I should also mention that, if I try to go without calcium, I will get very thirsty and this thirst is only relieved by calcium and not the other electrolytes.

 

[pamojja]

Calcium is a component of the basic metabolic panel and comprehensive metabolic panel. These have to be the most common lab tests drawn. They would be drawn at yearly physicals and for almost every illness, but doctors will likely only mention the calcium result to you if it is too high or too low. It is worthless for determining overall calcium level though. Calcium level in the blood must be maintained, and the body will just rob calcium from bone to maintain it.

Actually serum calcium could be low without the doc doesn't even mentioning! I requested copies of all my lab tests and found it was lower than normal for 1-2 years, at the same time starting to supplement vitamin D3 also brought calcium consistently in to the normal range afterwards.

 

[malk]

I know it is an old thread, but since I came across, some of my experiences:

I have similar problems:
The slightest amounts of carbonhydrates, fodmaps, starches, probiotics, fermented foods gave me enormous bloating and pain.
Especially when I ate something after 15:00 (afternoon) I got problems during the night (waking up with pain in the belly).
Diet wise the only things I could eat where: Meat and salad leaves (which ist obviously not healthy in the long term). Interesstingly processed foods (crap like chokolate bars) I was able to tolerate, so sugar without other fodmaps worked.

Things that helped me a lot:
- Exercise (sports) but only if I do it for hours each day which is obviously impossible (I have to work) exept during holidays where I do sports every day for hours.
- DMSA (I guess that hints to a biofilm, and I have a mercury allergy Type IV so maybe the allergy causes the irritated bowel and therefore slow movements)
- Nystatin (I guess that hints to a Candida overgrowth)
- Candida treatment (the full protocoll with many herbs and supplements) together with biofilm degrading enzymes (I guess that hints to biofilms).
- Sauna (I do not know why, but usually my swollen belly and the pain dissapears when I am in the sauna for a while. Maybe immun system wakes up?)

Currently I can tolerate most of the foods better than before. I still get some swolen belly but without pain (!!!) and it is far less swolen. Nock on wood. I can not exactly tell why works but it does.