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Postprandial vagus nerve symptoms/wiredness

judyinthesky

Senior Member
Messages
361
Hi, I wonder whether there is anyone that gets postprandial wiredness symptoms - like stemming from the gastro stystem - after everything they eat?

It has not to do with what I eat, but as a tendency I can keep it down by distracting my nervous system (= doing something else).

It is a mix of feeling like you are poisoned, nervous, it is also related to a pressure to the nerves closer to the heart (under left ribs).
Sometimes it feels like a feeling of a nervousness in the stomach has been "locked in"

I have pancreas insufficiency and I reckon it could have something to do with it, but then again I did only experience this type of symptoms after my fatigue set in. so it could be more fatigue-nerve-related.

Anyone?
 

sb4

Senior Member
Messages
1,654
Location
United Kingdom
My heart pounding gets drastically worse after eating, especially carbs. Think its a double whammy of more blood flowing to your gut (POTS) and problems with glucose metabolism.
 

judyinthesky

Senior Member
Messages
361
@sb4 wow that is so interesting that you mention the gut because due to severe pancreatic insufficiency my gut is never normal. But the blood low to the gut... that is only with POTS? Because I do not have that. I have postprandial heart symptoms in the sense that I feel the nerves of my heart, but it is not really pounding super more (probably with a healthy person the heart would also go up....) But the issue is I FEEL it.
 

sb4

Senior Member
Messages
1,654
Location
United Kingdom
@sb4 wow that is so interesting that you mention the gut because due to severe pancreatic insufficiency my gut is never normal. But the blood low to the gut... that is only with POTS? Because I do not have that. I have postprandial heart symptoms in the sense that I feel the nerves of my heart, but it is not really pounding super more (probably with a healthy person the heart would also go up....) But the issue is I FEEL it.
The blood flows to the gut after eating in anyone, but if you have blood flow issues due to POTS or any number of other things it could cause an increase in symptoms. Not sure what the heart feeling is you describe, for me it pounds very hard in my chest and is sometimes accompanied with elevated heart rate.
 

judyinthesky

Senior Member
Messages
361
@sb4 that sounds logical. Hm. Yes, it is very difficult to describe. I have noticed some MCAS people saying similar things, but I am not sure it actually feels different (and maybe it never does, as our nervous systems are so different). But I can describe it as activation of the nerves around the heart, a wiring of my nervous system via my gastro nerves... I also am more exhausted then (digestion feels like a nervous exhaustion, and physical one)... When I look at my pulse I am not sure it would elevate beyond a normal person's... probably not. It is a classic palpitations sign to feel it more. Most doctors suspected diabetes but that is not it. (but then again we might not know how this feeling comes together in diabetes people, via the nerves, neuropathy or any other mechanism).

Thanks for your thoughts, anyways, appreciated. It's something I have not considered, the blood flow to the gut... do you have glucose issues yourself?
 

sb4

Senior Member
Messages
1,654
Location
United Kingdom
@judyinthesky I have glucose issues in the sense that it significantly worsens my postprandial symptoms, however I do not think this is necessarily diabetes related, I am more incline to think it is PDH inhibition or something similar.

I would classify the heart pounding as somewhat separate to the palpitiations. I am pretty sure it is beating harder to help poor blood flow.
 

judyinthesky

Senior Member
Messages
361
Thanks. It's the first time I think about it in terms of blood flow but it does make some sense. Have to research PDH inhibition.
 

judyinthesky

Senior Member
Messages
361
I have to admit I do not quite understand it.. PDH inhibition would be related to mitochondrial processes?
These postprandial symptoms started at the same time as my fatigue started for sure, so they are not directly related to the pancreas insufficiency (and the related gut changes this brought for me).

@sb4 yes I notice that when I eat high GI index, then my postprandial symptoms are also more, but it is not that easy of a relation. Sometimes when they are bad, I can eat baby food or low GI index in almost liquid forms and it would do it to me...

But it is also worse in the mornings. Do you notice any rythm in it?
I am not sure whether antihistamines help with it... At first when I wasn't fatigued, movement helped, but that is a bit out of question now... but what definitely helps me is when I am distracted, this is whey I think it is not unrelated to the autonomous nervous sytem. It is so mysterious!! Definitely though they are related to my "nervousness" and brain, so if I, let's say concentrate afterwards, then it can happen that I get "locked in", like the nervous system is stuck in the belly area... it is hard to explain!
 

sb4

Senior Member
Messages
1,654
Location
United Kingdom
@judyinthesky With regards to PDH, if it is inhibited (various things can do this including virus) then pyruvate (glucose/sugar) cannot be made into energy through the mitochondria (this is much preffered) and instead makes a small amount of energy by changing into lactic acid. Fats and proteins generally don't have this issue as only some proteins can convert to pyruvate.

So I theorise that if you eat a carb meal, you have lots of glucose entering cells which cannot make energy anywhere near as well as fats (inbetween meal fasting/ high fat low carb diet). So you get symptoms after carb meals. My symptoms peak at around 1hr post meal then slowly drop off over the next few hrs.

The blood flow to the gut issues exacerbate this problem.

Of course this might not be how it is happening in you but it is my best theory so far in what is happening to me.
 

judyinthesky

Senior Member
Messages
361
@sb4 thanks. Yes it's a real logical possibility!
Particularly since my blood sugar is always normal, but then again I also have pancreas insufficiency and many people describe similar things with that. It might be due to malnutrition?
Did you ever test antihistamines with this?
Anything else that helped?

My timeframe is similar, but sometimes my nervous system gets stuck on it, and also it's really less bad when I am distracted, which is what I don't really understand :)
 

sb4

Senior Member
Messages
1,654
Location
United Kingdom
@judyinthesky I haven't really tested antihistamines. I am on mirtazapine which has helped some of my symptoms and is an antihistamine. I don't really have classic histamine symptoms though.

Thiamine helped but strangely. It helped improve tolerance to carbs, I checked my thiamine levels and they where normal. Stopped thiamine and didn't degrade back to pre thiamine so I left it for a while. Earlier this year I noticed my post meal symptoms where getting bad again so I went back on the thiamine and felt significantly better and more relaxed however this went away after a few days.

Think body compensates. If body "wants" PDH to be inhibitted for antiviral effects/whatever then if it gets upregulated by thiamine, you feel good, however body then accounts for this and the effect wears off. Could be something else though.
 

sometexan84

Senior Member
Messages
1,229
@judyinthesky Do you notice it when you go to bed? Like, do you feel pretty strong heart palpitations when you get in bed to sleep? And does it seem faster than it should?
 

judyinthesky

Senior Member
Messages
361
@sb4 Ah that is interesting, because I got some vitamin B injections and they helped a little bit too. But not like significantly, very subtly. I tried Mirtazapine once and I got so hyper from it it was crazy... just on a very low dose, plus more urination issues at night... I could not keep it up because it gives me so much food cravings and that is not how I need to eat with my pancreas insufficiency... however it is good to know that it helps you. But how the heck can you deal with the cravings? :)
 

judyinthesky

Senior Member
Messages
361
@sometexan84 not really. I do have a heart fluttering that wakes me up when I sleep, like two times... but not really when I go to bed. That has been there since a long time. I have a tiny mitral valve prolaps and the heart was measured but nothing worrisome was found.