Pain while eating greasy foods only

Digestive health
1

Hello all I'm 46 years old. For about 3 years I get a rather nasty upper abdominal pain while eating fatty foods (burgers, Fried chicken some kebabs and fish & chips certain other rather unhealthy foods. The pain is is central and near breastbone area . It is severe enough to make me stop eating and possible go for a short walk until it subsides which will happen within a few minutes. I'm not sure you'd describe it as burning pain or not , it possibly has am element of burning in it.

As far as eating all other foods , roasts lamb, beef , chicken etc , steaks no problem at all.

I will add that as a prelude to these pains for quite a few years leading up to the pains I was binge drinking a couple of times a week. That has all stopped now. Has anyone else experienced this. I just though I'd add that I've tried anti acids without any change.

Has anyone else had the same symptoms?

2

Hi There

First of all I'm sorry for all the pain & discomfort your going through, I really hope you get ans or some tests run by your doctors to give you some ans.

18months ago I experienced the exact same thing your describing, I got pain where you did and often a burning sensation accompanied it in my stomach.

I then had problems with trapped gas, indigestion and constipation.

It took doctors a year to finally investigate,

I had a colonoscopy which resulted in being negative no issues found.

But yet this pain kept happening, they diagnosed me with IBS.

I was pretty angry as I felt it wasn't IBS!

Since then I've changed my diet I have red meat once a week as I use to eat a lot & I only eat Brown bread now.

Have to say it's really helped, but wait still that annoying pain.

I was sent for an ultrasound scan three months ago looking for gallstones, I thought yeah right I'm a female 27 and I've heard about them I'd know if I had gallstones!

So I didn't go, they then found I had an ovarian cyst.

So today I finally went for an ultrasound for abdominal, pelvic area and ovarian check.

They found a small polyp coming off the wall of my gallbladder, I was shocked!

The scan lady said, it doesn't case weight loss which is what I was moaning about.

It causes pain under your rib cage!

Finally I knew what was causing it!!

I'm back at the GP next week to check the size and monitor it if it grows, there very common apparently but 95% are benign but if it is bigger than 1/2inch then it can be cancerous.

So I will be making sure I keep my regular scans in check, the good thing is you don't need your gallbladder if it comes down to removal.

You need to ask your GP for an scan to be carried out and maybe a gastroscopy, it's the only way to find out.

Don't take 18months like me.

Good luck and let us know if they find anything

Zara X

3

Sounds like acid reflux. The valve in your stomach doesn't shut properly so when you eat the acid comes up into your gullet. You need to see Dr as they want to make sure you don't have ulcers, hernia or helicopacti (probably spelt wrong). If it is just acid reflux then they will give you medication in the morning before breakfast. Fatty, spicy and alcohol can make it worse. Also the way you sit. If you slouch whilst eating or just afterwards it can make it worse. Hence probably why it eases whilst walking. Hope it helps.

4

P.s also the function of the gallbladder is produce acids to deal fat break down in your diet, it could explain why fatty foods and also linked Drinking cause discomfort

X

5

Hi there, I am 46 years old, suffering with IBS for last 4 years. The pain that you describe I call indigestion/ gas. I do get often and not from fatty foods, but eating other stuff too. It is really annoying, I know how you feel. If you only get from some foods then surely the best is to avoid it?

6

Hi Zara I'm sorry to hear about your problems. Sorry but I'd like to ask you a few questions. Do you suffer from loose bowels or explosive watery diarrhea . Also have you noticed a difference in the colour of your stools , or shape of stools or texture. I would really appreciate if you would take the time to answer these questions.

I've personally had an abdominal ultrasound which found six heamogeomas on my liver which I was told are benign and not causing problem. I've had extensive blood tests twice which found nothing of note.

7

Hi Susan thanks for taking time to answer . I have been on lansoprazole for acid reflux but then I started getting regular watery Diarrhea so stopped the tablets ( to no avail), it just didn't feel like heart burn. I have done the h-pylori test recent but hospital managed to loose results. Someone else mentioned hernia , I didn't realise hernia could manifest itself in this way?

8

Hi Jimbo1968

No problem ask away, I had a mixture of watery stools to full blown constipation. My stool colour changed a lot it went from a mustard colour to grey once, then a dark brown to black. I also had a lot of mucus in my stool and yellow to pink fleshy substance mixed in with the stool.

I had the colonoscopy at this point to check for Crohns but it was fine.

Once I cut out fatty food, white bread and red meat specially as I'm medium rare steak girl. It went away but it did take 6 months before I noticed a change.

I now suffer with the gas being trapped, which smells awful so I drink every day Peppermint tea it's such a life saver for gas build up.

Once my gallbladder was scanned today they found a cyst, I guess it's my fault for eating high in fat foods for the past 7 years.

But only now that it's settled I realised two things, I had actual had a blockage in my bowel. When this happens often your stools pass around this block causing it to be watery & loose.

The blockage went after I had intestine stripper medicine & it is indeed IBS.

Obviously the cyst on my gallbladder causes my pain under the rib cage top of the stomach lining area.

My friend Pete whos 41, has the exact problems your describing to a tee he has serve IBS. He goes 5-7 times a day watery stools bless him.

But I would recommend the gallbladder check.

Sorry I can't help much more than that, but if you ever need to ask anything I'm happy to Ans.

Ow I also now have painful heart burn, the joy of it all!

Zara

9

Hello Renata

You are right that avoiding these foods is the solution as I have no trouble with other foods and I do avoid them the majority of the time. However the fact that I'm getting this pain suggests there is something not quite right. .

Are you saying that you get pain with all types of food? Thanks for your reply. Jim

10

Yes, I get that often, most from 'wrong' food , too much food, alcohol. It's really annoying and I find the more I worry/ get streesed about it the pain intensify. So sick of it, you just want things to be 'normal'. It makes you feel down as you think there is definitely more to it. But I am the same line you had billions of tests that showed nothing. My friend gets that a lot too, she gets it too, although hers is too do with surgery ( gastric band) she had. Hope that's helpful as I know myself how lonely it can make you feel with your 'problems '

11

Hi Zara I'm pleased I've come across you on this website . Although I didn't state it I am suffering from weekly explosive watery diarrhea, some weeks it's one day other it's two or it can be 3 days. On those particular days i will go between once and six times usually within an hour of each other. I've had a lot of colour change too, usually on the lighter side, I've had some very light and also yellow looking stools, on top of that the shapes are different the texture is rougher than it used to be, even the size of the stool is different.

I also have a lot of intestinal gurgling (mainly left side) .

It's strange that a much younger person is suffering similar problems , I'm 46 and though I was on the young side for this kind of thing.

Also I've had lower and upper abdominal pains and back pains too. Thank you for taking the time to reply. Jim

12

Forgot to mention diarrhea only started late August this year so hasn't been as long standing as my other problem

13

Lonely and worrying too. Wish I hadn't drunk so much a few years ago. Thank you Renata

14

Hi Jim,

Where were you a year ago I haven't come across many with similar issues as me felt very lost for advice or just someone to compare to!

Yes the shape of mine changed too, it went fluffy with with edges it scared the life out of me. I lost my dad to bladder and he had bowel cancer, so when I started experiencing this I assumed of the worse because of dad.

It's been so fustrating and emotionally draining not to mention Embarrassing due to my age, non of my friends other than my oldest friend Pete has had all this. Hint why I came online, talking about your poohs is a bit of a taboo subject Friday night down the pub.

I really hope it gets sorted have you had a colonoscopy and gastroscopy to rule out any findings.

If you haven't that can give you a big piece of mind

Zara

15

Yes Hernia is also another one that can cause these symptoms but don't be afraid to demand investigations from your GP. That's what there suppose to help with, it's most likely a combination of IBS with something other going on you just need to find the other.

Good luck!

16

Did cutting down alcohol help with your symptoms?

17

Hey, we all done things we would rather forget. The main thing is doing something about it instead of regretting.

18

Yes your right it is initially uncomfortable talking about pooh but if it's going to give me some comfort then I'm beyond embarrassment.

I've had the fluffy ones too. Also had the mucus ones where it looks like I've blown my nose rather than gone for a no2.

I'm sorry about your father and I understand your fear of colon cancer because of it, strangely enough my fear was of pancreatic cancer (forget this one for you, you're way too young, I'm on the young side for this one).

I'm sure you can understand that having something like this is life changing just because of the anticipation that it could be something bad. I've got a gastroentorologist appointment coming up in about two weeks I'll have to see what he says and go from there. Thanks Jim

19

No it made no difference at all, initially I thought it had but I was mistaken. I've also stopped smoking this year and I've ended up with Diarrhea because of it, all this healthy living isn't what it's cracked out to be. I felt a lot better with a sambucca in one hand and a cigarette in the other lol (if I don't laugh I'll cry believe me). Although jokes asside sambucca I'm sure is what done the damage in the 1st place. Thank you Renata

20

There is a complex relationship between the liver , gall bladder and pancreas which helps in the digestion of food. The problem is as a pooh observer, it can be difficult to work out who not pulling their weight. There are untold articles on the Internet about what is called Bile Acid Diarrhea and Bile Acid Malabsorption. I must say from what I've read the most common suspect is the gallbladder. Thanks Zara