Dietary and Nutritional Recommendations for Patients with Dumping Syndrome (Rapid Gastric Emptying)

Dietary and Nutritional Recommendations for Patients with Dumping Syndrome (Rapid Gastric Emptying)

By: Carol Rees Parrish, R.D., M.S., Nutrition Support Specialist, University of Virginia Health System; Henry C. Lin, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Southern California; and Henry Parkman, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine

Dumping syndrome describes a collection of symptoms that occurs when food is emptied too quickly from the stomach, filling the small intestine with undigested food that is not adequately prepared to permit efficient absorption of nutrients in the small intestine.

It is most commonly seen after a gastrectomy -- the surgical removal of all or part of the stomach, usually for ulcer disease. It is now recognized that other types of patients, including those with symptoms suggestive of functional dyspepsia, may have rapid gastric emptying. The symptoms of dumping syndrome include nausea, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, dizzy spells, weakness and cold sweats either with or after eating . . .

Health Reporting in the Media: What to Believe?By: W. Grant Thompson, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Most people learn of medical progress through the media. Whether through short clips on radio or TV or detailed articles in the press, scarcely a day passes without a report of a health development, and how it might affect you.

Yet this news is often unhelpful. Exaggerated cures, contradictions, and plainly misleading information can do harm. While health care policy is a public issue and freedom of the press mandates the free dissemination of health news, misinformation may be expensive, personally harmful, and detract from issues that are more important. This essay aims to help readers make sense of health news . . .