GI Symptoms in recovering eating disorder patient

[Allie1355]

Hi.  So I am trying to get a grasp on what is going on with me.  I am 22 and recovering from bulimia that I had for 8 years.  I have been in recovery for a while, but while I stay on my plan my GI symptoms seem to worsen.  I've been at a normal weight the entire time with, but vary to high end of range and low end of range.  I have NEVER used laxatives.  I had a mallory-weiss tear about a year ago and about a year and a half ago I had an upper GI that showed that what I take in is automatically reguritated, I also had a gastric emptying study which showed delayed emptying.  I have very painful bowel spasms, I lose control of my bowels, I am constantly nauseous, tired, and my stomach spasms happen everyday and as I call them "attacks" occur about twice a week, and that is when I lose control of my GI system.  I have taken reglan, symax, levsin, so many things and nothing seems to help.  Could this be something else like a food allergy?  The more I eat the worse I feel.  I am not engaged in my eating disorder and I find it hard for doctors to not just chalk everything up to it.    Any ideas on next steps or tests that may be helpful?

[CalGal]

Although becky's post was crossed out (possibly because she mentioned another website by 'name), I'd also suggest you get checked for food intolerance issues, and celiac is one of the 'biggies.' It can produce some rather strange symptoms in some people, so it's often hard to diagnose. Blood tests can be inaccurate and produce a fair amount of false negatives, so if you go that route and it come back negative, give an exclusion diet a try - work with whomever you're working with to take gluten out of your diet in a healthy way.

A more accurate test, IMO, is the fecal antibody test. You can read about it at enterolab.

If you're considering getting tested, either way you go, also consider the genetic (allele) test which will tell you if you're carrying the genes that could predispose you to the condition. If you do have the genes but aren't showing true signs of celiac, you should highly consider following a gluten-free diet.