Digestive motility, what is Gastroparesis, and correct testing and diagnosis
*** UPDATE: GP is curable -- L-arginine powder 2-6 grams mixed with beverage of choice can help pump the stomach, and get rid of nausea, bloating, pain, etc. This is proven in a University of Texas study.
*** If you have "idiopathic gastroparesis" either you have an infection and need to treat the infection, or you are misdiagnosed and were not given the right set of tests I have listed below. Do not get botox injections in the pyloric valve or a stomach pacemaker. Get the right testing, and endoscopy, and look into the amino acid L-arginine powder -- and find a MD that is into alternatives and holistic treatments. Pharma motility drugs are very dangerous and cause more motility issues that are serious and possibly irreversible.
You should never be put on motility drugs unless you have done a 4 hour gastric emptying test (you eat a radioactive egg sandwich), NIH standards (which I have linked below, it is a medical brochure explaining the digestive condition and what tests should be done to diagnose correctly). Also, you absolutely need an endoscopy to make sure your pain isn't due to stomach/intestinal inflammation -- which can be healed with a PPI if it's not caused by an infection -- otherwise you may need a PPI in combination with a antibiotic.
Gastroparesis is when you eat food and after 3-5 hours you are not "emptying your food" in your stomach, into the small intestine and moving through the colon as a normal digestive system would. This creates pain, burping, stomach distension, and can ultimately create chronic nausea, and even SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) due to food not emptying out of the stomach. Risks and complications of not being diagnosed properly, can cause food to harden into masses in the stomach, these are called bezoars. FYI - gastroparesis should NEVER be determined by a 1 hour gastric emptying study/test -- is so WE'D ALL HAVE GP!!!
Motility drugs (Reglan, Domperidone - non-FDA approved -- but I don't suggest these when there are way too many people online getting GP symptom relief from L-arginine powder) are deadly and can cause severe muscle spasms and other life threatening issues, when used with a shallow or NO diagnosis. With gastroparesis your diet definitely has to change, and certain foods are you going to have to eliminate all together. Most of your lifestyle of eating what you did before is over, and in order to make due with these stomach emptying issues you need to follow stricter guidelines to help minimize pain, nausea and vomiting. You can see the list of purees, shakes, and other okay small portion meals that you can do; also depending on your allergies you have to decipher some of these yourself and fit them to your needs of GP as well as your other medical conditions (ex: lactose intolerance).
Gastroparesis foods, charts, smaller frequent meals:
http://www.motilitysociety.org/patient/pdf/Gastroparesis%20AMS%20Dietary%20Recommendations%201%209%202006.pdf
http://www.nutrition411.com/education-materials/allergies-intolerances-and-special-diets/item/471-gastroparesis-guidelines-tips-and-sample-meal-plan
Main causes of Gastroparesis:
1) Diabetes 1 or 2, and can happen over time when the diabetes causes nerve damage to your stomach
2) Vagus nerve damage, possibly through surgery of the Gallbladder or another surgery error
3) Idiopathic gastroparesis, mononucleosis, or some sort of infection that could have caused nerve damage to your stomach. Bad food, sushi, or contracting a strange unknown virus overseas or even in the U.S.A. could cause GP.
4) Wrong diagnosis, because all tests were not done to PROVE you actually have GP aka Gastroparesis, such as a 4 hour emptying test, a manometry, a Heidelberg acid test, and most important an ENDOSCOPY, and Sitz Marker ring test in your colon to understand the motility of the rest of your colon/bowel system. Also remember, you can always do virtual, or capsule colonsocopy's you swallow a camera pill.
Sources to back me up; the first one is best to look at:
http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/gastroparesis/Gastroparesis_508.pdf
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/gastroparesis/DS00612
http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/complications/gastroparesis.html
