What Is Diabetic Gastroparesis?

Introduction:

If you’re living with diabetes, an often-overlooked complication called diabetic gastroparesis could be slowly and silently slowing down digestion, thus making it more challenging to control your blood sugar. This silent but serious issue might make you feel full, bloated, or even sick after eating, and you still would not know why. It’s not just your stomach acting up, but it could be your diabetes quietly affecting your gut.

What Is Diabetic Gastroparesis?

Diabetic gastroparesis is a complication of diabetes where your stomach takes longer to empty food into your small intestine. It occurs when diabetes is poorly controlled. This is due to nerve injury, specifically affecting the vagus nerve and the muscles of the stomach.

Normally, muscles within your stomach contract to push food through your digestive system. However, in gastroparesis, your stomach muscles malfunction. This reduction in stomach emptying may result in a range of uncomfortable symptoms, including bloating, nausea, and early fullness after eating. It may even affect blood sugar levels in people with diabetes.

Why is stomach discomfort related to diabetes? Diabetes can damage nerves that regulate your stomach muscles. Over time, this nerve damage can result in gastroparesis.

What Triggers Diabetic Gastroparesis?

The most frequent cause of diabetic gastroparesis is having high blood sugar for a long time. When your blood sugar stays high, it can damage a nerve called the vagus nerve. This nerve helps control the muscles in your stomach. If the vagus nerve is damaged, your stomach muscles can’t work properly. That means food moves through your stomach more slowly than it should.

Risk factors are:

• Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes (more commonly seen in Type 1).

• Poorly managed blood sugar.

• History of stomach surgeries.

• Viral illness.

• Medicines that slow down stomach emptying.

It is not always the situation with everyone who has diabetes, but it is more probable if your diabetes has been very poorly controlled over many years.

Common Symptoms of Diabetic Gastroparesis

Symptoms of diabetic gastroparesis vary from person to person. Symptoms are not noticed much in certain individuals, and in others, they are extremely severe. Symptoms most commonly felt are as follows:

• Feeling very full very early after consuming food.

• Nausea and vomiting (episodic).

• Swelling or distension of the stomach.

• Abdominal pain or stomachache (extremely well-known as a diabetic's belly).

• Loss of appetite.

• Unexplained unintentional weight loss.

• Heartburn or acid indigestion.

• Low or high blood sugar (due to delayed emptying of the stomach).

• Since food stays longer in the stomach, it is harder to know what impact it will have on your blood glucose. This makes diabetes harder to control.

In case you are asking yourself, "Can stomach pain be a symptom of diabetes?" Then yes. This pain might be a symptom of gastroparesis.

Possible Complications of Diabetic Gastroparesis

If diabetic gastroparesis is not treated, complications can be severe. They include:

• Severe dehydration from vomiting.

• Malnutrition occurs because your body is not getting the nutrients it needs.

• Blood sugar problems, dangerously low blood sugar, or dangerously high blood sugar.

• Infection of the stomach occurs because food is present in the stomach for too long a time.

• Presence of bezoars, which are massive balls of food that take up room in the stomach.

• You must be treated well to avoid such problems and recover.

How Is Diabetic Gastroparesis Diagnosed?

Diabetic gastroparesis is occasionally an ongoing diagnosis. Your doctor will ask you about your disease history and symptoms, and how you were diagnosed with diabetes. Your doctor will also test you to see how well your stomach empties and will have you undergo some or all of the following tests:

• Gastric Emptying Study: You have a light meal with an innocuous radioactive marker, and a scan identifies how fast your stomach is emptying.

• Upper Endoscopy: A thin, flexible scope with a camera that examines inside your stomach.

• Ultrasound: Eliminates other explanations for your symptoms, like gallbladder disease.

• SmartPill: Tiny pill you swallow to track how quickly food is moving through your GI tract.

These tests verify that gastroparesis is indeed the cause of your symptoms.

Effective Treatment of Diabetic Gastroparesis

No one can have a definite cure for diabetic gastroparesis, but treatment of diabetic gastroparesis can help you manage your symptoms and enhance your quality of life. The two most crucial goals are to manage blood glucose and facilitate stomach emptying more rapidly.

1. Changes in Diet

Diet is an excellent treatment. A diabetic gastroparesis diet can include:

• Five to six small meals a day.

• Soft, well-cooked food that causes less bother to digest.

• Avoid fatty and fibrous foods, which cause delayed emptying.

• Drinking plenty of water.

• Puree or blend food, as necessary.

You can be assisted by a registered dietitian to develop a plan for you.

2. Drugs

Physicians may prescribe drugs to hasten the emptying of your stomach or to prevent nausea, such as:

• Metoclopramide: Hastens stomach emptying.

• Erythromycin: An antibiotic that makes the stomach draw in food as a side effect.

• Antiemetics: Antiemetics such as Ondansetron or Promethazine reduce nausea and vomiting.

Always obtain your physician's approval before attempting any new medications.

3. Blood Sugar Management

The most important thing is to keep your blood sugar under control. This may involve checking your sugar levels more frequently, or your insulin or diabetes medication.

Other Treatments

In severe cases, doctors may administer:

• Tube feeding is used if you can't take enough food by mouth.

• Gastric electrical stimulation – a small device that delivers signals to your stomach to get it going.

• Surgery, in very rare cases.

• Treatment can keep most people in check with their symptoms and prevent complications.

Living With Diabetic Gastroparesis

Living with this is not simple, but most people lead normal lives with proper management. Some tips that can help:

• Watch your symptoms and tell your doctor.

• Take medication as directed.

• Avoid lying down after meals.

• Check blood glucose, food, and sensation.

• Adhere to the diabetes health care team plan.

You might wonder, "Can diabetic gastroparesis be reversed?" It can’t be. But symptoms can generally be well-controlled very effectively with treatment and management of lifestyle.

Most people also inquire about diabetic gastroparesis life expectancy. The good news is that the condition itself is not typically life-threatening. It can, however, impact your overall quality of life if not treated. Most people can lead a normal life when they are provided with proper treatment.

Conclusion:

Diabetes and gastroparesis go hand in hand. If you experience stomach symptoms, such as pain, nausea, or feeling full too fast, with diabetes, don't brush it under the carpet. They might be your diabetic gastroparesis calling up.

Early treatment and diagnosis can halt complications and enhance the quality of your life. Discuss it with your doctor and develop a plan that suits you.

A Note From iCliniq

At iCliniq, our specialist doctors have years of experience diagnosing and treating this condition. With a tailored treatment plan consisting of dietary changes, blood sugar control, and appropriate medication, we will relieve your symptoms and enhance your lifestyle. In extreme cases, other techniques such as feeding therapy or gastric stimulators could be discussed. iCliniq doctors are committed to walking you through each stage of your therapy.