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Alcohol, stomach discomfort and long term health problems
I hope someone can help me with my strange permanent symptoms that i have had for the past 3 years.
I am a 33 year old male. From 18 to 30 years of age i would describe myself as a reasonably heavy social drinker, probably around 50 units a week. Despite this i always found that i rarely suffered from hangovers and it was not uncommon for me to go jogging the morning following a night on the booze to run off any slight hangover i may have had. I was actually quite fit, and when i was 30 ran two half marathons.
3 years ago i joined the police service. The training for this meant spending 15 weeks at a residential camp. There was little to do there, and everyone's routine was to spend the evening in the onsite bar. It was also extremely stressful. The food during the 15 weeks was terrible, poor quality canteen grub and not much of it. Every evening to relieve the boredom i would get fairly drunk, probably drinking around 6-7 pints of lager. Every morning was an early start, and i was frequently tired from spending so much time in the bar the night before that most days meant i drank around 5-6 cans of diet coke to keep me alert. Weekends we came home, but this meant seeing friends and socialising so i would go out drinking at weekends also. This meant over the 15 weeks, i probably did not miss an evening where i wasn't fairly drunk, ate rubbish food , drunk countless diet coke. Despite this i kept my fitness levels up and jogged every day.
This is where my problems started. Towards the end of this 15 weeks i woke up one morning and felt terrible. I was strangely out of breath doing simple things, just getting out of bed. I felt really rough, like i was really over exerted. It was the same sort of feeling i would get after a really long 2 hour jog or something, the same sense of exertion - but i hadn't done anything. I had a strange uncomfortable full fulling in my upper stomach. I was also having ectopic heart beats.
I went to a doctor that day i felt so bad, and he sent me for an immediate heart echo cardiogram at the hospital. This came back normal.
As i was leaving the camp a few days later to go home, my doctor recommended seeing my home gp.
Before i went home for good the last day of the training course meant a fitness test. I went to bed that evening and for the first time didn't go to the bar as i still felt rough. I thought in the morning i would feel ok. However, when i woke up i didn't. I felt exactly the same, easily out of breath, totally exerted and generally feeling under the weather.
I tried jogging this day, and it was bizarre. I just couldn't do it. I was out of breath bending down to put my trainers on.
Basically i returned home and over the course of the next year i must have been back to my GP around 20 times about the above problems. My ectopic beats settled down after a few weeks. My tests have involved an ultrasound on my stomach, ECG's, blood tests for everything as far as i know, i have been referred to the infectious diseases clinic, been put on Prozac (they thought it was all in my head).
I eventually gave up going to my GP, as he basically said there was nothing else they could test me for.
Three years on my symptoms are as follows:
1) I am not breathless anymore. I do jog now regularly but find it far more tiring than i ever did. Half an hour is my limit.
2) I have a permanent upper abdomen 'raw' feeling and always feel below par. I know this is vague but i find it difficult to be more specific.
3) if i drink alcohol now, i feel absolutely TERRIBLE for days after. Even if i drink small amounts i will feel rough for a couple of days, nauseous and totally drained of energy.
4) Some days my upper stomach pain feels much worse than offers. However it never seems to be related to hunger/no hunger, or what i have eaten.
My question is really, did my alcohol consumption cause permanent damage to some area of my body? Could it also have been related to my lifestyle at the time? Is it impossible to detect?
The reason i am posting this is because even 3 years on i remember that i used to feel a lot better than i do know in general day to day life. It's incredibly frustrating. I drink rarely now as i feel too ill when i do.
I have a very healthy diet with plenty of fruit and veg. I have tried vitamins, milk thistle, various supplements, all to seemingly no affect.
Can anyone shed any light or what i might have done to myself and how on earth i could go forward?
I am a 33 year old male. From 18 to 30 years of age i would describe myself as a reasonably heavy social drinker, probably around 50 units a week. Despite this i always found that i rarely suffered from hangovers and it was not uncommon for me to go jogging the morning following a night on the booze to run off any slight hangover i may have had. I was actually quite fit, and when i was 30 ran two half marathons.
3 years ago i joined the police service. The training for this meant spending 15 weeks at a residential camp. There was little to do there, and everyone's routine was to spend the evening in the onsite bar. It was also extremely stressful. The food during the 15 weeks was terrible, poor quality canteen grub and not much of it. Every evening to relieve the boredom i would get fairly drunk, probably drinking around 6-7 pints of lager. Every morning was an early start, and i was frequently tired from spending so much time in the bar the night before that most days meant i drank around 5-6 cans of diet coke to keep me alert. Weekends we came home, but this meant seeing friends and socialising so i would go out drinking at weekends also. This meant over the 15 weeks, i probably did not miss an evening where i wasn't fairly drunk, ate rubbish food , drunk countless diet coke. Despite this i kept my fitness levels up and jogged every day.
This is where my problems started. Towards the end of this 15 weeks i woke up one morning and felt terrible. I was strangely out of breath doing simple things, just getting out of bed. I felt really rough, like i was really over exerted. It was the same sort of feeling i would get after a really long 2 hour jog or something, the same sense of exertion - but i hadn't done anything. I had a strange uncomfortable full fulling in my upper stomach. I was also having ectopic heart beats.
I went to a doctor that day i felt so bad, and he sent me for an immediate heart echo cardiogram at the hospital. This came back normal.
As i was leaving the camp a few days later to go home, my doctor recommended seeing my home gp.
Before i went home for good the last day of the training course meant a fitness test. I went to bed that evening and for the first time didn't go to the bar as i still felt rough. I thought in the morning i would feel ok. However, when i woke up i didn't. I felt exactly the same, easily out of breath, totally exerted and generally feeling under the weather.
I tried jogging this day, and it was bizarre. I just couldn't do it. I was out of breath bending down to put my trainers on.
Basically i returned home and over the course of the next year i must have been back to my GP around 20 times about the above problems. My ectopic beats settled down after a few weeks. My tests have involved an ultrasound on my stomach, ECG's, blood tests for everything as far as i know, i have been referred to the infectious diseases clinic, been put on Prozac (they thought it was all in my head).
I eventually gave up going to my GP, as he basically said there was nothing else they could test me for.
Three years on my symptoms are as follows:
1) I am not breathless anymore. I do jog now regularly but find it far more tiring than i ever did. Half an hour is my limit.
2) I have a permanent upper abdomen 'raw' feeling and always feel below par. I know this is vague but i find it difficult to be more specific.
3) if i drink alcohol now, i feel absolutely TERRIBLE for days after. Even if i drink small amounts i will feel rough for a couple of days, nauseous and totally drained of energy.
4) Some days my upper stomach pain feels much worse than offers. However it never seems to be related to hunger/no hunger, or what i have eaten.
My question is really, did my alcohol consumption cause permanent damage to some area of my body? Could it also have been related to my lifestyle at the time? Is it impossible to detect?
The reason i am posting this is because even 3 years on i remember that i used to feel a lot better than i do know in general day to day life. It's incredibly frustrating. I drink rarely now as i feel too ill when i do.
I have a very healthy diet with plenty of fruit and veg. I have tried vitamins, milk thistle, various supplements, all to seemingly no affect.
Can anyone shed any light or what i might have done to myself and how on earth i could go forward?
okay, I am now 47, female and I have had all of the same symptoms. Here is what i have learned and what i do:
As you age, i.e. anything over 25 years counts, your stomach and digestive system cannot handle some things that it used to easily.
Things like raw onion, dairy and alcohol are but some of a long and
(as you age) ever growing list. Your body is not static and you have to adjust periodically. You will have to adjust and discover what you can still consume.
Tricks & tips:
1. Beano - excellent product. For first bite of beans, broccoli, eggs or any gas causing foods.
2. Lact-Aid (generic available)- for gas, constipation or diarrhea from consuming dairy of any kind.
3. Phazyme- for immediate relief of the bloated stomach and intestinal gas. This is often the culprit for the breathlessness and raw stomach sensation. Your stomach can press upwards on your diaphram and also you should cosider haiatal hernia as a possible problem.
4. Acidophilus caplets- restore beneficial microflora (bacteria) in the digestive tract. I found that after going to the ER last summer convinced that I was having a heart attack ( and $10k in tests later finding out my heart was great) that my panic attack (that was what it was) that was brought on by an overactive imagination, stress and worry because I had all the above symptoms our original author cited; that my digestive system was out of balance. I had an endoscopy, nuclear heart ct and other things- nothing wrong. I remembered my daughter's acidophilus for her irritable bowel syndrome and took it regularly for a 2-4 week period plus ate Activia for 4weeks and did a 2 week round of OTC prilosec. Zapped ALL the probs.
I still like my wine and if I get twinges, I snarf the acidophilus or Activia and all returns to normal. One other thing- you should drink an 8oz glass of water for every alcoholic beverage to counteract the dehydration (main cause of the hangover, BTW). Drink the water before and during the imbibing not all at once after. Too much water can kill you too, no kidding. The water will also help you slow down and keep the calories down, too. Now, that advice won't work for those who only want a buzz and aren't interested in their health but I am assuming that those reading this want to solve health issues so 'nuff said. My theory is that the alcohol kills off the beneficial bacteria needed for digestive tract balance. Just as some people can eat dairy, some can't. Some people will be more sensitive to alcohol's effects and others not. You can restore that balance inexpensively and harmlessly with activated yogurt cultures or the acidophilus (in with vitamins),
In a nutshell...you can really screw up that balance and your body is possibly telling you that you did so this is a suggestion made assuming that you are relatively sure that you are NOT having heart issues. An EKG can tell you whether you have had a heart attack and is not one of the more expensive or time consuming tests. DO NOT ASSUME that what I have said IS your problem...it was mine and I am now a happy camper.
Also, once a panic attack, more likely to have more and those people suffer 50% more real coronarys due to the extreme stress panic attacks cause so be aware. You can imagine yourself into a heart attack. Hope all this helps.
As you age, i.e. anything over 25 years counts, your stomach and digestive system cannot handle some things that it used to easily.
Things like raw onion, dairy and alcohol are but some of a long and
(as you age) ever growing list. Your body is not static and you have to adjust periodically. You will have to adjust and discover what you can still consume.
Tricks & tips:
1. Beano - excellent product. For first bite of beans, broccoli, eggs or any gas causing foods.
2. Lact-Aid (generic available)- for gas, constipation or diarrhea from consuming dairy of any kind.
3. Phazyme- for immediate relief of the bloated stomach and intestinal gas. This is often the culprit for the breathlessness and raw stomach sensation. Your stomach can press upwards on your diaphram and also you should cosider haiatal hernia as a possible problem.
4. Acidophilus caplets- restore beneficial microflora (bacteria) in the digestive tract. I found that after going to the ER last summer convinced that I was having a heart attack ( and $10k in tests later finding out my heart was great) that my panic attack (that was what it was) that was brought on by an overactive imagination, stress and worry because I had all the above symptoms our original author cited; that my digestive system was out of balance. I had an endoscopy, nuclear heart ct and other things- nothing wrong. I remembered my daughter's acidophilus for her irritable bowel syndrome and took it regularly for a 2-4 week period plus ate Activia for 4weeks and did a 2 week round of OTC prilosec. Zapped ALL the probs.
I still like my wine and if I get twinges, I snarf the acidophilus or Activia and all returns to normal. One other thing- you should drink an 8oz glass of water for every alcoholic beverage to counteract the dehydration (main cause of the hangover, BTW). Drink the water before and during the imbibing not all at once after. Too much water can kill you too, no kidding. The water will also help you slow down and keep the calories down, too. Now, that advice won't work for those who only want a buzz and aren't interested in their health but I am assuming that those reading this want to solve health issues so 'nuff said. My theory is that the alcohol kills off the beneficial bacteria needed for digestive tract balance. Just as some people can eat dairy, some can't. Some people will be more sensitive to alcohol's effects and others not. You can restore that balance inexpensively and harmlessly with activated yogurt cultures or the acidophilus (in with vitamins),
In a nutshell...you can really screw up that balance and your body is possibly telling you that you did so this is a suggestion made assuming that you are relatively sure that you are NOT having heart issues. An EKG can tell you whether you have had a heart attack and is not one of the more expensive or time consuming tests. DO NOT ASSUME that what I have said IS your problem...it was mine and I am now a happy camper.
Also, once a panic attack, more likely to have more and those people suffer 50% more real coronarys due to the extreme stress panic attacks cause so be aware. You can imagine yourself into a heart attack. Hope all this helps.
i have the same fullness as you have on your abdomen. Especially after alcohol.
Try going to the chinese doctor for acupunctur, and other chinese massage. It helps for me, and reduced over time. I have the same lifestyle as you were. I am feeling better now with better alcohol tolerance, less side effects in abdomen.
Try that...it works!
Try going to the chinese doctor for acupunctur, and other chinese massage. It helps for me, and reduced over time. I have the same lifestyle as you were. I am feeling better now with better alcohol tolerance, less side effects in abdomen.
Try that...it works!
I went to a local herbalist/old school chinese medicine practitioner and he diagnosed me using traditional chinese methods. He arrived at the conclusion that I had a nervous stomach (pretty accurate) and he had only seen a case similar to mine once before. The medicine he gave me worked really well for a time. Of course I went back to the same habits which did not help overcome the problem.
Back to the computer over-exposure issue, it sounds a bit silly at first sight, but it is not without its effects, which I have observed first hand. First of all, it reduces the melatonin production in the body and it can disturb your sleep. If you do not get enough sleep this affects not only your immune system and ability to heal but your stomach as well. I think long hours at the computer may also hinder oyur immune system to an extent as well.
I hope some one gets a little help from my experience.
-john
Back to the computer over-exposure issue, it sounds a bit silly at first sight, but it is not without its effects, which I have observed first hand. First of all, it reduces the melatonin production in the body and it can disturb your sleep. If you do not get enough sleep this affects not only your immune system and ability to heal but your stomach as well. I think long hours at the computer may also hinder oyur immune system to an extent as well.
I hope some one gets a little help from my experience.
-john
Most of those symptoms sound familiar to me. It is somewhat comforting to see others having them, but unfortunate. I too felt out of breath and could hardly even jog for a time, after one particular night of a certain natural excess.
At any rate, one of the things I found problematic was that I ate too many bananas. Believe it or not they can really start to mess up your mineral balance and your digestion if you have too many. I cut them out completely. Do a little research on it.
Also, I believe that being at the computer is a partial culprit. If on too much every day it makes my stomach uncomfortable, or nervous if you will.
You may also wish to cut down on milk products which can be hard to digest for some, like me.
I have gotten to the point where I can drink, but if I do it very often I really start to regret it. And sometimes my stomach still feels ill. My body suffers until it either moves all the way through or I throw up the contents of my stomach.
Research about sour stomach and the role of acids and how some foods break down and "ferment" causing negative acid formations and difficulty.
I, personally, am still having some problems but on the road to sorting them out more. I am an active tennis player. I put on 15-20 pounds after my symptoms got worse, but now I can play for longer durations without getting to exhausted. Before I got really dehydrated-feeling. I hydrate well with spring water and avoid too much caffeine. It may help you to breathe out slowly when you exercise to help keep your respiration calm. I am not sure how or why this is related to breathing, but for some reason it is.
Good luck and take care,
john
At any rate, one of the things I found problematic was that I ate too many bananas. Believe it or not they can really start to mess up your mineral balance and your digestion if you have too many. I cut them out completely. Do a little research on it.
Also, I believe that being at the computer is a partial culprit. If on too much every day it makes my stomach uncomfortable, or nervous if you will.
You may also wish to cut down on milk products which can be hard to digest for some, like me.
I have gotten to the point where I can drink, but if I do it very often I really start to regret it. And sometimes my stomach still feels ill. My body suffers until it either moves all the way through or I throw up the contents of my stomach.
Research about sour stomach and the role of acids and how some foods break down and "ferment" causing negative acid formations and difficulty.
I, personally, am still having some problems but on the road to sorting them out more. I am an active tennis player. I put on 15-20 pounds after my symptoms got worse, but now I can play for longer durations without getting to exhausted. Before I got really dehydrated-feeling. I hydrate well with spring water and avoid too much caffeine. It may help you to breathe out slowly when you exercise to help keep your respiration calm. I am not sure how or why this is related to breathing, but for some reason it is.
Good luck and take care,
john
have had cramps for about 5 months, first loose stools, sometimes more firm, but lots of flatulence and disgusting stools, that almost paint the toilet bowl when flushed. I drink about 5 drinks a day- some days more (consicously trying not to, though). Am 35. Female. This afternoon my stomach craps were so bad I had trouble walking and had to go to the Dr. Tomorrow I'm having a day off work for a CT.
I eat healthy, I run, i drink quite a bit of water.
Will see how CT goes I guess!
I eat healthy, I run, i drink quite a bit of water.
Will see how CT goes I guess!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
With E-coli infections you would also have lose motions or continous intestinal contraction and other symptoms. Go for your stool testing and if required culture and if it is clean then do not worry about E-coli.
Hand washing is very important and hygiene is 2nd most important . If you follow both of these in your day to day life you would limit all these infections.
If it bothers you continuously then you have to go for an examination near a Physician/Gastroenterologist. Take care!
Hand washing is very important and hygiene is 2nd most important . If you follow both of these in your day to day life you would limit all these infections.
If it bothers you continuously then you have to go for an examination near a Physician/Gastroenterologist. Take care!
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