<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Hi Everyone,

Recently in a posting regarding a racing heartbeat, one individual talked
about the "dumping syndrome" and her symptoms were a racing heart and a
feeling of stress. I  looked in my old diet therapy book, Food, Nutrition and
Diet Therapy by Krause and Mahan, and it said it is common among people who
have had stomach surgery and is caused by undigested food in the jejunum.
About 10 to 15 minutes after eating, the food is "dumped" into the jejunum
instead of being released in gradual amounts and it does not have the benefit
of the stomach's digestive process so this also creates problems.

The symptoms can include fullness, nausea, crampy abdominal pain followed by
diarrhea, a feeling of warmness, dizziness, weakness and fainting.  Others
break into a cold sweat and their pulse races.  Lying down will help this as
it will keep the food in the stomach longer.  Oddly enough, these were my only
intestinal symptoms before being diagnosed.  I was originally diagnosed with
DH (dermatitis herpetiformis).

Because the food entering the intestine is not diluted properly, this can
cause a sharp decrease in total blood volume as fluid is drawn from the plasma
in order to dilute it.  The total decrease in blood volume leads to a
"decrease in cardiac output and perhaps dilatation of the jejunum" leading "to
a sympathetic vasomotor response producing sweating, tachycardia,
electrocardiographic changes and weakness.  Serotonin,a vasoconstrictor, and
vasoactive kinins, histamine and prostaglandins are thought to be released
because of the hyperosmolarity of the jejunal chyme.  These substances cause
the cramping, hypermotility and diarrhea of the dumping syndrome."

Why these symptoms can occur in undiagnosed and untreated Celiacs is probably
because of the improperly digested food entering the intestine and my own
theory is since there is damage to the duodenum (the first part of the
intestine), there is a problem with bile being released to emulsify fats and
the abnormally large fat molecules could possibly give the same symptoms.

If anyone else had similar symptoms prior to diagnosis you can write me back
and I'll summarize later.

Thanks for listening,

Barb from NE Ohio