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Intestinal Sub-Occlusion
Hello everyone.
I was diagnosed with ALS 2 years ago, and my mobility has drastically reduced since then as I have lost most of my muscle mass.
For the past month, I’ve been experiencing an intestinal sub-occlusion. What happens is that I accumulate a lot of gases and cannot evacuate them, leading to acute intestinal pains and an extremely bloated belly.
I was told that it is not typical of ALS – but I am wondering if someone has ever experienced the same symptoms?
Thank you!
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4 Replies
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No, that is not a typical ALS symptom… but I would guess rather a result of your decrease in physical movement. Plus, I would look at changes in your chewing/swallowing or change in what you are eating (additional supplements?) as interfering with your body’s ability to digest food.
Pre-ALS, you probably got lots of general physical movement from going through your day. Bending, twisting, changing body positions and deep breathing all contribute to moving food through our intestines. Sitting all day can slow everything down to sluggish digestion. Try to do daily chair (or bed) exercises that include bending and twisting. Daily deep abdominal breathing helps digestion as well.
Thoroughly chew food and increase your consumption of liquids. Gas and bloating can also be from incomplete digestion – – probiotics can help increase the digestive enzymes in your system. But they can’t do it alone – – don’t forget the importance of physical movement (whether you are initiating the movement or a caregiver is helping you).
Hope this is of help.
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<b>Nicholas: I have experienced very similar symptoms for a couple years since diagnosis. Like you, I was advised it was not a related but it very much is. I suspect I swallow air from my Trilogy. And, with my trunk weakness, i do not bend much at all. My stomach is super distended and painful. I opted to have a peg tube placed and it helps vent my stomach and provides some relief. </b>
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Last Friday the 4th. I had a feeding tube put in. My advice to all don’t wait too long. My breathing has dropped below 50. They did not put me under and it was very painful. Now about gas. I have a lot of gas with the tube. I burb it and it helps. I am on a ventilator and before the tube I had some gas. Take care everyone
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My father experienced something similar when he had ALS. His stomach was extended to the point that my step-mom let out his pants and bought him sweat pants. He was losing weight at the same time. We could not get him to see another doctor so there wasn’t any medical opinion or advice regarding this situation.
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In every person, bloating may be caused by a digestion problem: If your gastrointestinal tract has difficulties to process food containing carbohydrates, then bacteria that colonize the GI tract will process them, and unfortunately they produce gas in doing so [1].
A personal hypothesis (I am not a doctor): May be for pALS using a feeding tube some digestive enzymes from the saliva glands are missing [2], so this new ecological niche was filled with opportunistic bacteria.I am not sure if there is a quick fix to this problem.
[1] https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/gas-digestive-tract/symptoms-causes
[2] lingual lipase, salivary amylase, lysozyme
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