Near Fainting, Loose Stools, and Extreme Fatigue

[ali2010570]

Some background info on me: I'm a 32 year-old female and had a baby 21 months ago.  I lost about 40-45 pounds last year, in a period of 5 months.  I've been vegan (no animal products) for the last year, and before that I was regular vegetarian.  

Three months ago I had a near-fainting spell, followed by the need to have a bowel movement.  I was fine for the next two months, with a couple of minor dizzy spells here and there.  Then, about 5 weeks ago I had two more near fainting/diarrhea spells three days apart, which were quite scary.  Over the next two weeks I was still weak and still having diarrhea/loose stool a few times a day, but eventually felt 100% for about three days.  All Cardio tests (EKG, Echo, Holter moniter) were normal.  The symptoms got very bad a few days later.  Since then (about three weeks ago now), I've had diarrhea or (loose stool, really) on and off, dizziness, and extreme fatigue.  Sometimes it's debilitating.  I ended up in the ER one on occasion (they didn't treat me because I was stable by the time they treated me) and called the parametics on another.  
All blood and stool tests, and colonoscopy were normal; my gastroenterologist "diagnosed" me with IBS and thought the fainting might be the vaso-vagal response.  However, typically the fainting has preceded the BMs.

Other symptoms include obvious hair loss over the last couple of weeks, slight rash on fingers/hands, and bloating/water retention.  I feel like these might be clues, but am not sure how.

I'm not sure at this point whether the fainting is the culprit or the gastro issues are.  The extreme fatigue comes and goes; one day I'll be nearly 100% and the next not feel well.  But when the fatigue hits, I feel like my brain is in a fog and it's very hard to work and function.  Please let me know if you have any advice, as this is very scary and frustrating.  

[mammo]

I would see an Endocrinologist for an evaluation.  Our endocrine system impacts every major organ in the body and if one thing is "off" it will have a domino affect on the body.  Hairloss is often relative to a thyroid problem or lack of vitamins/minerals.  Also, you have symptoms of being dehydrated, and with the loose stools and diarrhea I can see this happening. Keep yourself well hydrated not only with water but orange juice, Gatorade (low sugar type) and eat bananas.  We lose electrolytes when we have diarrhea and the above will replenish these for you.  Also, you've probably lost all the good bacteria in your intestine that aides in proper digestion of our food, so eat yogurt every day enriched with probiotics to replenish this as well. I hope you get some relief. Good luck and take care.

[33333]

Sounds like gluten intolerance might be a factor in all those scary symptoms: hair loss, rash, bloating, diarrhea. Also, definitely have your thyroid checked as it is often related.

Also, keep in mind: It is important to see an M.D. who is familiar with natural medicine and operates using holistic common sense, not just brainlessly following the "medical model," which sends you running in circles from doc to doc with no improvement in your condition.

For example, in Atlanta, Progressive Medical Center operates very successfully with several M.D.s that are educated in all medicine and get to the ROOT CAUSE of the symptoms (with blood, urine, saliva, stool, hair tests) instead of just automatically covering up the symptoms with meds (like anti-depressants, PPIs, etc.), leaving the underlying symtoms to grow silently causing much worse problems later. The only negative with these places is that sometimes insurance doesn't cover them fully. My dad is a cardiologist and tried in vain for years to "fix" me. Yet, it was only when I ventured out on my own and used my God-given common sense  that I found helpful, life-changing answers to my problems.

Also, I've heard many unsuccessful vegs and vegans say that they eventually found out they had O blood which can in some folks demand animal protein for maintaining a regular feeling of well-being, as opposed to A blood which has very low animal protein demands. Interesting stuff.

I pray that God leads you to discover your body's unique needs and that you are successful in improving your heath to your satisfaction.

[Heiferly]

I have a few thoughts on possible things that you might want to have ruled out.  I'm not a doctor, so they may all be wrong, but I can point you in the direction of some reading material to see if any of this "clicks" for you.

One of the things I thought of immediately was mastocytosis or MCAD.  This can manifest in various ways, and different patients have differing constellations of the symptoms ... hopefully you can get the gist of that from reading these links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/magazine/07wwln-diagnosis-t.html

http://www.tmsforacure.org/mastocytosis.shtml



I think defecation syncope is unlikely, particularly if as you say, the fainting is often preceding the bowel movements.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9312



It sounds like you've had some cardiology workup, but not a full workup for the syncope/pre-syncope (fainting/almost-fainting).  A tilt table test might give more insight into this.  It could reveal a number of different causes for your dizziness, fatigue, and fainting (sometimes GI sometimes are even related).  These disorders (including vasovagal syncope) are under the umbrella of "dysautonomia" and you may want to post in the dysautonomia forum here on MedHelp to find out more about testing for autonomic disorders as well as the types of conditions that could possibly cause the symptoms you're describing.  Here's the link to our forum if you're interested in posting over there as well:

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Dysautonomia-Autonomic-Dysfunction/show/266



Here's an article that's often helpful in helping people understand the difference between cardiac and autonomic causes of fainting:

http://knol.google.com/k/syncope-fainting#


I hope you get some answers soon!  
-Heiferly.