Dietary Intervention Reduces Stomach Problems for Diabetes Patients
About 35 per cent of all diabetes patients suffer from gastroparesis, which is a medical condition where the stomach is partly paralysed. As a result of the paralysis, food remains in the stomach for a longer time than normal.
Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, have now shown that dietary modifications can reduce the patients’ symptoms.
In the study, which involved 56 diabetes patients with gastroparesis, the subjects who were put on a small particle diet (smaller than 2 mm in diameter) experienced significantly less severe gastrointestinal symptoms than those who ate a conventional diabetes diet, which tends to focus on large particle foods.
Small particle foods can be defined as food items that fall apart like a boiled potato when mashed with a fork. Examples include boiled, baked and mashed potatoes, fish gratin, meat loaf and thin soups.
Patients who were put on this type of diet for at least 20 weeks experienced considerably fewer gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, regurgitation, inability to finish a meal, bloating and lack of appetite.
‘Eating and the resulting symptoms can be very anxiety producing for gastroparesis patients. The subjects who were put on a small-particle diet experienced reduced anxiety levels,’ says Eva Olausson, who is presenting the study as part of her doctoral thesis at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
The study shows that particle size is directly correlated with the process of gastric emptying: the patients who were put on the small particle diet showed the same rates of gastric emptying as the healthy control group.
They also displayed more normal blood sugar responses than those found for large particle meals.
‘A small particle diet probably leads to fewer hypoglycemic events, and the events that do occur become easier to manage. This is of tremendous value to the patients,’ says Olausson.
Olausson’s thesis also shows that a large particle meal can be used to identify patients with gastroparesis, allowing for faster initiation of treatment.
The scientists have also developed a new method to diagnose gastroparesis, where patients swallow special markers that can be easily followed through the gastrointestinal system by fluoroscopy.
‘These two methods are easily accessible and could help reduce the number of unknown gastroparesis cases, which in turn could help reduce the costs to both patients and society in the form of medical treatments and sick-listings,’ says Olausson.
The thesis titled Diagnosis & Dietary Intervention in Patients with Diabetic Gastroparesis was publicly defended on 20 September.
Contact:
Eva Olausson, doctoral student at the Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg
eva.a.olausson@vgregion.se
Supervisor: Prof. Magnus Simrén, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg; magnus.simren@medicine.gu.se
Weitere Informationen:
https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/32950
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.gu.seAll latest news from the category: Health and Medicine
This subject area encompasses research and studies in the field of human medicine.
Among the wide-ranging list of topics covered here are anesthesiology, anatomy, surgery, human genetics, hygiene and environmental medicine, internal medicine, neurology, pharmacology, physiology, urology and dental medicine.
Newest articles

High BTMPS Levels Found in Fentanyl: What It Means for Safety
A UCLA research team has found that drugs being sold as fentanyl contain high amounts of the industrial chemical bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl) sebacate, or BTMPS. This new substance of concern emerged in…

Gas Adsorption Insights on Platinum and Gold Nanotunnels
Understanding gas diffusion in nanoscale voids key to new gas technologies Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have elucidated how hydrogen and carbon monoxide is adsorbed into solids…

Pandemic Resilience: How Playfulness Boosted Well-Being
Adults with high levels of playfulness showed strong resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to less playful individuals, new research shows. The study led by Xiangyou “Sharon” Shen of Oregon…