Re: Waistline, was: enzymes on an empty stomach?

[Guest guest]

> >[robin]I'm prepared to believe my smaller waist is due to something else but

> > what

> >would that be? I've not had a 26 " waist since I was in grade school. Now,

> >even when I eat something like I did last night (which made me sick and

> >bloat up,) my waist still goes in at the sides.. It sure sticks out in the

> >front though! If it was simply due to a lifetime of inflammation why was

> > the

> >constant " inflammation " all the way around my back -- the so-called

> >love-handles area?

> >~Robin Ann

> [heidi] I can hypothesize a few possibilities, FWIW:

> 1. Diverticulitis. People with that DO store stuff in their intestines, even

> though ordinarily (as said) the intestines are very clean. I've watched

> colonoscopies before, and darn, those intestines are clean and pink and

> scrubbed ... not at all what you'd expect. But folks with diverticulitis

> sometimes do get stuff " stuck " .

[robin] I didn't have diverticulitis but the doctor did say that I had

one of the crookedest colons he'd ever seen. He said it was genetic.

Maybe a little more stuff than usual might have got stuck that way..

> 2. Fat. The so-called " cortisol fat " does store at the sides (in the love

> handles

> area) AND internally around the intestines, and around the kidneys in

> the back. It's the first fat to go on some diets: it's very active fat which

> is why the reserachers don't like it (raises blood lipids?). Going on a

> fast

> reduces the number of things your body reacts to, which makes it easier

> to lose that abdomen fat (and the fat around your neck).

[robin] Very interesting. I definitely had a lot of cortisol running

back then.. I was insane.

> [heidi] 3. Gas and fecal matter. You already addressed this, kind of. But when

> you

> have long-term dysbiosis, you have a HUGE number of bacteria/liquid/gas

> all mixed up ... more water is used in digestion (maybe to keep the bowel

> from getting so irritated?) and the amount of " stuff " is just far bigger

> than normal. Actually the WEIGHT of " output " was at one point used

> as an indicator of celiac. I lost about 5 inches around my waist the

> first week I went GF, probably because of that. I think it's one of those

> things they dont' account for when they talk about " pear shape " vs

> " apple shape " women ... they assume it's all fat, but for some of us

> it isn't.

[robin] Bingo! That's me. I always wondered about that pear vs. apple

shape thing. The members of my family all seem to age like apples --

big busts and bigger stomachs on top of little hips and skinny legs.

It looks painful!! I'm thinking my big waist was a combination of

long-term dysbiosis combined with especially crooked intestines..

More to swell up, maybe.. I am SO glad to have all that gone now! I

don't look like I belong in my family..

> [heidi] 4. Liver bloating. Your liver actually shrinks and expands, depending

> on what it is storing. Mainly it stores glycogen, which takes up

> a fair bit of room. I think it stores fat too. Some conditions make

> it swell more than others ... I don't know anything about it really,

> but maybe fasting empties it out?

[robin] All those years of dysbiosis I also had a bad liver --

elevated liver enzymes -- I had half a dozen liver panels and was

checked for hepatitis 3 or 4 times.. When I was diagnosed in 1988 with

CFS (they called it Epstein Barr back then) the liver was in very

terrible shape. My new G.I. recently said that the CFS I had was

actually celiac syndrome. He thought that's where my gluten

intolerence turned into the full-fledged disease form. Probably a

virus triggered it..) Anyway, now when I have a set-back I can often

feel tightness right under my solar plexus -- my liver feels really

big. It feels like it restricts my lungs even but it's just temporary

and I think it has something to do with how many and what kind of

supplements I'm taking. I'm trying so hard to catch up on nutrition

that I accidentally stress the heck out of my poor liver. I was so

used to that tight feeling before. I didn't know it wasn't supposed to

be that way..

> [heidi] Eating one " off " meal will give some bloating, but not as bad as

> what builds up over years of eating badly. The bacterial mix

> gets really, really off, and it just doesn't get that bad (IMO)

> from one mistake.

[robin] I agree. It's quite different. Thanks Heidi. What you said

makes sense and I think that it applies to my condition.

~Robin Ann

[Guest guest]

> Anyway, now when I have a set-back I can often

>feel tightness right under my solar plexus -- my liver feels really

>big. It feels like it restricts my lungs even but it's just temporary

>and I think it has something to do with how many and what kind of

>supplements I'm taking. I'm trying so hard to catch up on nutrition

>that I accidentally stress the heck out of my poor liver. I was so

>used to that tight feeling before. I didn't know it wasn't supposed to

>be that way..

I agree with everything else you said, but I had to comment on this.

There is something called a " diaphragmatic hernia " which, in adults,

isn't considered a " bad " thing but is quite common. I met a lady

who explained her symptoms in depth to me, and it didn't ring

a bell til later. But basically, if your gut gets " too full " for whatever

reason, part of your stomach pushes up into your lung cavity. It

may or may not be liver related ... mostly it's intestinal gases or fat

that does the pushing ... but it leads to that " tight " feeling. Apparently

it's more or less normal and expected in adults, so the docs don't

even think about it much.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=DS00099

Hiatal hernias are common, occurring in about one-quarter of people older than

50. They're especially likely to occur in women and in people who are

overweight.

Most hiatal hernias cause no signs or symptoms. You may never know you have one

unless it's discovered during a test for another problem. Although small hernias

aren't painful, larger ones may allow food and acid to back up into your

esophagus, which can cause heartburn and chest pain. Self-care measures or

medications can usually help ease these symptoms, although very large hiatal

hernias sometimes need surgical repair.

=================

I THINK I had this problem at one time ... I get really, really bad chest pain

to

the point I thought I was having heart problems. As my waistline

went down, so did the pain. The lady I met though got surgery, which

worked for her (her waistline was till pretty big).

Anyway, with 1/4 of people having it, it's not something the docs

will look out for. But what happens is, the stomach pushes up

thru the diaphragm into the chest cavity. It will go down again,

eventually (or if you kind of push on it). But it feels weird.

Heidi

[Guest guest]

Oooh... thanks for saying that! You've described it perfectly.. Glad to

think it's not necessarily about my liver then. It *does* feel weird, I

agree. It makes my pointy solar plexus stick out in a very strange way.. I

want to push it down..

As I said, my problem has gone away for the most part so I was surprised

(and reminded!) when it came back after that bad meal the other night...

Oddly enough I think my set-back was caused by eating a salad made with my

neighbor's lettuce; he's 85 and grows something that's as close to ice berg

lettuce as you can get -- very watery.. After the meal, for some reason I

decided to try a big teaspoon of vitamin c powder that fizzed up really

good. I was fine until a couple hours later when all hell broke loose: bad

diarrhea and gas that went well into the next day. I'm still recovering. I

felt really dumb... :-)

~Robin Ann

> [heidi] But basically, if your gut gets " too full " for whatever reason,

> part of your stomach pushes up into your lung cavity. It may or may not be

> liver related ... mostly it's intestinal gases or fat that does the pushing

> ... but it leads to that " tight " feeling. Apparently

> it's more or less normal and expected in adults, so the docs don't

> even think about it much.

>

> http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=DS00099

>