Re: Slow Digestion? Please help ..

I hope you're still around.

Slow gastric emptying is a gastro-disorder all of its own, called gastroparesis. Gastroparesis is when the muscles in your stomach that grind food up don't work as they should, or not at all. (It literally means "weak stomach".) Any foods that will slow gastric emptying- such as raw vegetables or fruits, veggies and fruits with skin, and items high in fat- can and will "hang around" in your stomach for hours and hours, if you have this disorder.

I was diagnosed after years (+10) of stomach pain and nausea; barium studies and endoscopies didn't show anything. The test that caught it, finally, was a gastric emptying scan. I was given a breakfast of eggs and toast at the radiology place that was "spiked" with a radioisotope so that it appeared easier on the x-ray, and then I laid under an x-ray machine for about two hours, with the machine taking pictures of my stomach's contents at regular intervals.

Do a google search on gastroparesis, and see if your symptoms match up with what's described (based on what you've written here, I'd say they do, but you know your symptoms best). If they do, I would suggest seeing a gastroenterologist, and tell him or her that this has been going on for a while and you believe it might be this. If you don't want to do that, you can try adjusting your diet yourself, but beware: You're probably NOT going to like the adjustments you must make. You will need to if you do indeed have gastroparesis, but it might be worth your time to rule gastroparesis out, simply because the diet is a royal pain in the butt (speaking from experience). Tweet