Gastroparesis
Gastroparesis is a condition that one’s stomach can not empty itself of food in a normal way. It leads to slow movement of the stomach contents through one’s digestive system.
Gastroparesis may be caused by vagus nerve injury. In normal state, the vagus nerve contracts the stomach muscle to help move food through the digestive tract. In cases of Gastroparesis, the vagus nerve is damaged. This prevents the stomach and intestine muscle from working properly and results in the delay of stomach empty. Therefore, patients with Gastroparesis may have heartburn, nausea, vomiting, feeling full quickly, have abdominal bloating or chronic pain, poor appetite and weight loss. It could also cause bacteria overgrowth of stomach and intestinal tract and poor nutrition.
In addition to diabetes, there are other conditions that may cause Gastroparesis, such as viral infections, some medications, amyloidosis (deposits of protein fibers in tissue and organs) and scleroderma (a connective tissue disorder that affects the skin, blood vessels, skeletal muscle and internal organs)
A doctor diagnoses Gastroparesis bases on one’s symptom, medical history, physical examination, blood tests, Gastric emptying study and “Smart Pill”.
Treatment of Gastroparesis with conventional medicine includes medications and surgery.
Medications includes Reglan, Erythromycine and Antiemetics. These medications often do not work well and can have significant adverse effects.
If you are searching for another treatment here for Gastroparesis, it is likely that you have failed to respond to these medications or could not tolerate their adverse side effects of these medications.
There are two types of surgery for treatment of Gastroparesis. One is gastric electric stimulation. In this procedure, the doctor inserts a small device called gastric stimulator into the abdomen. The stimulator provides the mild electric shock which help to control vomiting. Unfortunately, this treatment does not always work.
Another type of surgery to relieve Gastroparesis symptoms is gastric bypass, which is more useful for an obese diabetic patient. This limits the amount of food one can eat, so one will loss weight, but also experience adverse effects of gastric bypass.
Dr Jessica Williams, MD
One newer treatment option is called Per Oral Pyloromyotomy. In this procedure, the doctor inserts a long, thin, flexible endoscope into your mouth, then stomach, the doctor then cut the pylorus, the valve that control the stomach emptying. This allows the food to move from the stomach to the small intestine. Unfortunately, you also lost the control of your stomach emptying after the procedure. Your food goes straight from your stomach to your intestinal after eating without mixing and digesting in your stomach first.
If you have failed to respond to all these treatments above, your treatment options will be limited. One is temporary feeding tube or Jejunostomy, another being temporary Intravenous or Parental Nutrition. None one would like these options since you will not be able to enjoy the pleasure of eating your favorite food.
To help these patients, we have developed an effective and non-surgical treatment based on the records of the ancient Chinese Medicine and my years of experience of practicing Chinese Medicine. This treatment uses a treasured ancient Chinese herbal medicine formula without significant adverse effects. The goal of this treatment is to help your stomach to restore its ability to contract its muscle normally and more the food content into your small intestine (after mixing and digesting in your stomach) through your intact pylorus at controlled normal speed, so you will be able to enjoy your favorite food and your life again.