August is Gastroparesis Awareness Month

Gastroparesis is a condition which affects the muscles of your stomach. Essentially, the muscles stop moving and thus restrict the passage of food. This condition results in symptoms of nausea, vomiting, bloating, and abdominal pain. The muscles in your stomach will change with age. However, paresis is rare and suggests other complications (McCallum et al., 2021). The most common causes are diabetes, may result after surgery, taking certain medications – such as opioid pain relievers, antidepressants, hypertension medications and allergy medications (mayoclinic.org). Management will involve changes to diet to minimize complication risk (McCallum et al., 2021). Complications may include severe dehydration, malnutrition, undigested food which hardens and remains in the stomach, known as bezoars, unpredictable blood sugar changes, and decreased quality of life (mayoclinic.org).

Resources:

mayoclinic.org/disease-conditions/gastroparesis/symptoms-causes/

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30192-7_41