Pain in upper stomach, lower esophagus after eating

[paul80]

i get lots of pain, lots of trapped wind. Not flatulence, just burping. Only happens sometimes. Eating first thing in the morning is when it happens most.

I had to stop eating cereal with milk in the morning as it was happening every morning. switched to a piece of toast and egg or banana and it stopped. I tried eating cereal in the afternoon just to check and i didn't get the pain. Not sure why the morning is significant? I noticed cheese can cause it sometimes as well. When i eat dinner in the evening i seem to be able to eat more without problems.

I can't suffer high fatty foods either like peperoni and things like that, but that has been a problem for much longer.

I wonder if it could be something to do with constipation and/or lying down too much.
Like most things to do with this disease it's a bit random, chaotic.

Anyone have any ideas of what's happening or suggestions on anything i could take? I already tried digestive enzymes and i've tried betaine HCL.

 

[Judee]

I wonder if it is occurring in the mornings more because you have been laying down overnight and the acid in your stomach has had a chance to filter up your esophagus while you slept irritating it. Maybe by afternoon your body has managed to heal some of that.

Here's a website with some tips for sleeping with acid reflux, if that is what you have going on: https://www.healthline.com/health/acid-reflux-at-night#prevention

Edit: For some reason when I click on the link above it takes me to the middle of the page. There is more info up the page as well.

 

[WantedAlive]

@paul80 Might it be histamine sensitivity? Cheese as a trigger makes me suggest this, some cereals are higher in histamine. Mast Cells shown to be more active in the morning also, depending on how normal your diurnal clock runs. Just a possibility.

i suffer terrible dyspepsia, started before I came down with ME/CFS. For me it's nighttime and can totally disrupt sleep. And for me, it's meal volume that is the problem. As a result I struggle to eat enough to maintain my weight if I'm to ensure I can sleep without the bloating and belching.

Mestinon helped me only in small doses, quarter to half a tablet, until I developed arm muscle twitches even on those low doses. In part, I found mestinon significantly improved blood flow and I suspected it was that helping me to improve blood to the gut microvessels as other blood thinners also improved the symptoms somewhat.

Keep experimenting.

 

[paul80]

I wonder if it is occurring in the mornings more because you have been laying down overnight and the acid in your stomach has had a chance to filter up your esophagus while you slept irritating it. Maybe by afternoon your body has managed to heal some of that.
.

That's what my GP suggested but I don't feel any pain in the morning before i eat though, so that stumped him.

@paul80 Might it be histamine sensitivity? Cheese as a trigger makes me suggest this, some cereals are higher in histamine. Mast Cells shown to be more active in the morning also, depending on how normal your diurnal clock runs. Just a possibility.

i suffer terrible dyspepsia, started before I came down with ME/CFS. For me it's nighttime and can totally disrupt sleep. And for me, it's meal volume that is the problem. As a result I struggle to eat enough to maintain my weight if I'm to ensure I can sleep without the bloating and belching.

Mestinon helped me only in small doses, quarter to half a tablet, until I developed arm muscle twitches even on those low doses. In part, I found mestinon significantly improved blood flow and I suspected it was that helping me to improve blood to the gut microvessels as other blood thinners also improved the symptoms somewhat.

Keep experimenting.

@WantedAlive
I could try anti histamine pills to check it but i looked up the symptoms and it doesn't look like it. Worth a try though.

I'm the same with meal volume, i have to eat a lot less now to stop digestive problems but not enough yet that i lose weight. I still crave sweet things so much when i'm low on energy that i can't stop my self.

I was having constant acid reflux about a year ago and Betaine HCL pills stopped it. I also take digestive enzymes but i have no idea if they make a difference. They probably do some good i think.

So did you have to stop the mestinon? I actually bought some from india intending to try them but i read some peoples bad side effects afterwards and didn't want to risk it. I still have them though.
If i took a quarter am i likely to get an effect that day or does it take longer?

 

[Rebecca under the papyrus]

I believe to have read somewhere that there are all grades of lactose intolerance. And if you're not that severely intolerant, it's possible that you only have symptoms when for example eating it on an empty stomach.
Hope you find the reason

 

[WantedAlive]

So did you have to stop the mestinon?

Yes, because it was giving me mild forearm-hand twitches, at 60mg a day in divided dose, which developed after a few weeks. Hard to get to sleep when your hand has occasional twitching spasms! However I do still take 15mg-30mg (1/4-1/2 tablet) if I find I've eaten too much with an evening meal, it does help the gastroparesis I seem to encounter if exacerbated by a larger meal size. It's a damn fine line between not enough and too much if I'm to have an undisturbed sleep.

Ideally one should check for acetylcholine receptor antibodies before taking mestinon, but otherwise at the low doses 15mg-30mg b.i.d it's a pretty safe drug. It has a short half life about 4 hours, so any side effects you experience wear off pretty quick. You'll feel any effect within 15min, better to start 15mg I'd suggest. I started on 7.5mg to be extra safe. For me Mestinon got rid of all my dyspepsia, but honestly I don't know if it was the vagal tone or the improved blood flow that helped. Normally drawing blood is a challenge for me, on mestinon it poured out.

That discovery inspired me to look into mestinon's effect on blood. I found acetylcholinesterase enzyme activity is raised in inflammatory vascular diseases. There's a complex association between AChE activity, ACh stimulation, red blood cell membrane integrity and deformability, and also NO/O2/CO2 gas exchange. So mestinon's anticholinesterase activity might be addressing the sticky blood issue. I do wonder if it was helping my gut microcirculation and gut function, or vagal tone, or both.

I was having constant acid reflux about a year ago and Betaine HCL pills stopped it.

That's interesting. It may be speeding up your gastric emptying, perhaps you've got delayed emptying which can be associated with reflux.

Another possibility you may need explore is SIBO.

 

[paul80]

Very useful, thank you.

 

[Pyrrhus]

Like most things to do with this disease it's a bit random, chaotic.

Anyone have any ideas of what's happening or suggestions on anything i could take?

Some people above have suggested the possibility of acid reflux, also known as gastroesophageal reflux.

What I recently realized is that there is a lower esophageal sphincter which is normally closed to prevent stomach acid and enzymes from entering the esophagus, so when you get gastroesophageal reflux, it means that your lower esophageal sphincter is stuck in the open position, a very common type of dysautonomia!