I was recently diagnosed with having gastroparesis. Could you please give me a complete and comprehensive explanation about this complication and perhaps some information on nutrition?

Gastroparesis refers to a condition involving the nerves which control the movement of food through the digestive tract, specifically the stomach. We have learned much about this entity in the past few years. For instance, low and high blood sugars also cause problems with motility in the stomach. However, when gastroparesis begins to be a problem, there is a prolonged period of time for food to stay in the stomach. This does several things. First, it delays the food recently eaten from being absorbed. This would include any carbohydrates important for keeping your sugars up. Second, the large volume effect of food, just staying in the gut, causes fullness and reflux into the esophagus or food pipe.

Blood sugars become very difficult to control with this condition. There are some medications which may help with this condition. It is usually diagnosed in the nuclear medicine department when a meal is tagged with an isotope and followed for emptying into the small intestine. It may also require you have your insulin injections moved to correspond with the delay in the absorption of your food. I would recommend you speak with your physician regarding the treatment of this condition. There are also several trials for different drugs being carried out for this condition.

JTL