Rapid gastric emptying

[yves765]

I go through phases of rapid gastric emptying, where I tend to empty my bowels within 1-2 hours or within 30 mins.

I then get told by gp to eat six small meals a day. I am struggling to eat and keep down food, no nausea or vomiting.

After going to the toilet I still feel full, but I am aware that in the next 1-2hours I will need to eat again, before I leave work, and my journey home is 1 and 30 mins and I sometimes get caught short on the train and have to resort to eating a small amount of sugar to keep me going until I get home.

Getting fed up with this constant chopping and changing with my diet, has anyone been through this


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[Geocacher]

This is one of the commmon symptoms of a vitiamin B12 deficiency.

Ask your GP to test your B12 levels, particularly if you are vegetarian or on metformin. You will probably need to insist on a test because in my experience most GPs don't know about B12 deficiency, what the symptoms are, or that it can be caused by metformin.

Even if your B12 levels are on the low side of normal you could still have symptoms of a B12 deficiency, most of which are similar to the common complications of diabetes and tend to be ignored or fobbed off by GPs. The difference is that if caught early a B12 deficiency is easily treatable with supplements or injections and the symptoms will go away in a short time. If it's left too long you risk permanent nerve damage.

I experienced a B12 deficiency after taking metformin for seven years, but the average is four years. It all depends on how much B12 you get in your diet, how much you had stored in your body when you started taking metformin, and how much your body is still able to absorb while you are taking metformin. If you are vegetarian, whether on metformin or not, you may have a deficiency because a vegetarian diet is low in B12.

Metformin disrupts the uptake of B12 so if you opt to take supplements it is also necessary to take a calcium supplement along with a high dose of B12 to enable your body to absorb the B12. Most GPs will recommend B12 injections but they can be painful and some people find that monthly injections tend to give two weeks of feeling good followed by two weeks of waiting for the next injection.

Do your homework -- information on the relationship between metformin and vitamin B12 deficiency, and lists of the symptoms of a B12 deficiency are available from reliable sources on the internet (such as the Mayo Clinic) and a paper on the link between metformin and B12 deficiency has also been published in the British Medical Journal.

 

[daniel broxson]

hi I suffer from mal absorbtion and chronic pancriatitus and some of the symptoms that you mentioned I have got like I can eat a meal and within 5 minutes I hafto go to empty my bowls.I am also up through the night about 10-20 mies a night to empty my bowls. Do you feel hungry but when you start to eat you are full straight away.it may be worth seeing doctor about testing for pancriatitus. They gave me creon which has helped me not cured me but made things a bit easier could be worth checking out