Can eating Saturated fats make your stomach feel better???
About five month ago I changed my diet to lower my cholesterol. After I was being on a low fat diet for about 6 weeks I began having pain in the upper abdomen. The pain is kind of a burning aching pain and is in usually located in in the area of the abdomen right below where the rib cage meets to form the breastbone.
I have visited my GP and his opinion is that I have a reflux problem. When the doctor examed me he also found a small hernia just right of the ziphod process but did not think that the problem I'm having was related to the hernia. He gave me several weeks worth of Protonix samples to try. As of this time I still have them sitting in the cabinent because I'm still not convinced that this is a reflux problem. I never seem to be bothered by this while sleeping and it always seems to get worse as the day progresses.
I have also noticed recently if I stray off of my low fat diet and eat a steak or burger my stomach seems to feel much better. Does that make any sense? From what I've read I though that saturated fats made these problems worse. Could this be an ulcer and the fat protecting the stomach lining from acid or something?
Re: Can eating Saturated fats make your stomach feel better???
well there ya go - yes! i was eating low fat for awhile and having the exact same stomach pain in that exact same spot. when i drink a supplement with a high fat content or when i eat fats, i found that i don't have that pain either. thanks for verifying my experience. i wonder why that is? - i seem to need fats - the opposite of what they recommend for reflux. you too huh? does our pain have something maybe to do with bile? - like maybe we have non-acid reflux and need fats to give our bile something to process?
Re: Can eating Saturated fats make your stomach feel better???
Humm..
Fat is hard to digest and would effect an ulcer.. Being hard to digest and normally basic in nature fat can act as a temporary buffer to your stomach acid before kicking it into over drive and the need to produce more acid.
Your reflux may not be to the most severe degree yet.
Recommended Reflux hygiene is:
1) Eat light meals through out the day and at least three hours prior to any physical activity(bending and stooping make reflux realy bad on a full stomach), intense vocal activity, reclining or sleeping.
2) Beverages to avoid ingestion of: alcohol, caffeinated beverages, decaf coffee, carbonated beverages, and citrus juices. I miss carbonation but that stems from carbonic acid in the drink which buffers and strengthens the acid in your stomach.
3) Eliminate fatty, fried, spicy, and acidic foods from the diet.. my husband misses his fried seafood.
4) Avoid acidic medications such as aspirin and vitamin C
5) Take medications as directed
6) Elevate the head of the bed by at least six inches (15-30 degree incline.. I used blanket rolls between the matress and box springs to do this.
7) Take antacids when acute symptoms appear
8) Avoid chemically filled environments (smoke, fume filled environments)
9) Avoid mints, chocolates, or nuts (I could care less about the nuts, but chocolate and mints come on!)
10) Eat slowly, too much food hitting the stomach at once, will stimulate the stomach in to producing large amounts of excess acid, because the current stomach acid volume is not sufficient to process the overload.
The only way to be sure is to go to a GI MD and get a scope to confirm your status. Trust your MD most have had a decent exposure to training and treating reflux.
Sincerely.
MG
__________________
If we learn by our mistakes, I am working on one hell of an education.
Re: Can eating Saturated fats make your stomach feel better???
I have suffered from varying degrees of GERD for most of my adult life. In the past two years, I have decided to follow my instincts and have flouted "good sense" and deleted all bread, rice, pasta, flour products from my diet. It is not quite the Atkins diet, cos I do limit fat to a certain extent. I have not had to take GERD meds since then, I have not had an attack of heartburn since then. Fat was never an issue for my GERD. i was thrilled to read that other people have the same experience. i could eat steak, eggs, red meat, butter, and never get reflux from it. But a pasta dinner, forget it!
Re: Can eating Saturated fats make your stomach feel better???
Thanks everyone. Well it doesn't look like I'm the only one that response this way. Unfortunatly I can't be gulping down large quanities of fat on a regular basis to control this and it sounds like it may only provide me with temporary relief untill the problem gets much worse.
I guess I need to try some type of medication to lower the acid for a few weeks just to see if the problem is truely related to an over production of acid. Should I use the Protonix samples the doc gave me or possibly one of the OTC products? If lowering the acid helps and then after quiting the meds the problem comes back I'll hit the doc up for some additional testing to see if I'm dealing with an ulcer or if this is reflux. Does this sound like the proper way to procced?
Re: Can eating Saturated fats make your stomach feel better???
Red60 I was very interested in this thread. I am experiencing the same problem. I just started a low-fat diet to lower cholesterol levels. I never have any stomach, heartburn or indigestion issues. But last week it was horrible, to the point where I felt I was having a heart attack. I bought Tagamet took 2 days of it and was fine. Knock on wood I am ok, but still burping every single thing I eat. I joke since I never had a problem eating the bad foods. I hope this passes with you as well. Geez we want to do a good thing and help our bodies but now another problem.
Re: Can eating Saturated fats make your stomach feel better???
It is kinda ironic isn't it. I changed from very poor eating habits; lots of fast food, eating red meat, white bread and potatoes at nearly every meal, gulping down 8-10 diet sodas a day, maybe a green veggy once or twice a week. All this time no problems exept for high cholesterol and adding on about an extra 20- 30 lbs. Started eating what I believed to be a very good and nutritious diet using 5-7 meals per day, lots of greens, only lean meats, whole grains, fruits, nuts ect..Started exercising and lost about 20 lbs. Now it feels like someone turned my stomach inside out.
The first time I had the pain I ended up going to the Emergency Room because I thought it might be a Heart Attack. I had the usual tests run including EKGs, blood work and stress test. Everything seemed to be OKAY with the heart. For a few months the stomach pain was on and off I might feel good for 5 or 6 days and then it would hit and last for a few days. It always seemed to come on after doing something that involved using my upper body, raking the yard or loading some boxes. Thats when I noticed a lump just to the right of the ziophod process which turned out to be a hernia so I figured that must be the problem. I've seen a surgeon and have scheduled surgery but I really don't think that's the problem any longer. But I figured I may as well get it taken care of anyway. I sure wish I had the answer to this riddle. Good luck solving yours.
