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Normal people have digestive systems that propel the food being digested by both gravity and contractions of the gut. The contractions are normally controlled by the nervous system but some substances will cause cramping and violent contractions resulting in diarrhea. Gastric neuropathy leads to a heightened sensitivity to chemical irritants. Normally harmless substances like cabbage, apples or gummi bears can cause such cramping and diarrhea to go on for several days at a time.
I was diagnosed with diabetic gastric neuropathy after a prolonged bout of diarrhea, several weeks in duration, that I eventually learned was due to having consumed broccoli, a member of the cabbage family. At the time, I was already avoiding apples because, I learned, the sorbitol they contain is a mild laxative that, for sufferers like me, becomes a very strong laxative. That is the same substance that makes gummi bears so harmful.
Any green fruit becomes dangerous, although ripe fruits are frequently harmless. But how can we tell if fruit isn't ripe? The people who sell it to us and their suppliers pick many fruits green and treat it to appear ripe. Like green fruit, uncooked vegetable often contain irritants (but cooking doesn't always make them safer).
When I learned of my problem I was eating a high-fiber breakfast almost every day. They say a high-fiber diet is good for you. Food fiber, however, can cause irritation. My formerly healthy diet was a hazard to my health.
Many doctors don't recognize diabetic gastric neuropathy as such but do recognize one of its side effects, the delayed emptying of the stomach. This upsets my control of high blood sugars. If foods are kept in the stomach for long periods before being released for digestion, the high blood sugar spike is delayed and the insulin I take comes too early to prevent it. My blood sugar is out of control. Big meals aggravate the problem.
Neuropathy, the death of nerves, has another problem associated with it, the memory of the nerves that were there. Phantom pain results. Even when I have nothing actively wrong, the ghosts of dead nerves bring me pain.
Like many other chronic conditions, neuropathy gets worse with the passage of time. I'm now up to having diarrhea two or three days each week despite maintaining a diet designed to prevent it. That's roughly a third of my life spent in misery.
- Mood:
distressed
