Anybody with functional dyspepsia

Training
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Hey There

I was recently diagnosed with functional dyspepsia. I would like to hear anybody with the same diagnosis and see how you have been able to continue to train but at the same time manage your health

According with my doctor stress could make my problem worse, and I know training is a form of stress. I heard people say that the brain can’t tell the difference on the different type of stress. could I be making my problem worse by training?. However my doctor did say that was OK for me to continue to train.

In case is relevant. I am new to structured training. This is my third year training. I have seen consistent improvements using trainerroad. I went from 2.72 w/kg to 3.5 w/kg over the course of 2 years (2017-2018). Also during that same time I manage to lose 45 pounds. At some point I was 190 pounds, today I am about 134 pounds. This year I havent been able to make improvements on my FTP because lack of consistency in my training due to my health.

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Hey I don’t have functional dyspepsia but do have bad reflux and recently had it kick up for a month and got some esophagitis which was real frustrating and made me feel horrible. Does your doc have you on any medications ?

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Yes, medication for the pain and medication for the acid reflux.

I am so frustrated because I want to train but my health at times wont let me

I was able to handle a medium volume plan. But I feel that as a result of my issue I am not recovering and lately i’ve been bailing out workouts because my legs cant handle the load. I think i am going to try low volume

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It depends how much training you’re doing and how much your doctor understood of it before he said to continue. The kind of stress reactions likely to be relevant are in the VO2 max and above intervals, or any session where you’re falling off the bike at the end.

Only you know how bad your condition is, but reducing - not stopping - your training sounds like it could be worth considering. That might mean a Low Vol plan, or some time just on Maintainance

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What meds are you taking? When does it come on - is during/after workout? How long does it last after?

You notice any particular workouts that flare it up? You tried pretreating with antacids prior to workout?

What else causes symptoms besides exercise? What have you tried while exercising to help with symptoms?

(I’m actually a sports med doc - happy to do a lit search and see what I can come up with for you)

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Mainly I am taking Nortryptyline for the abdominal pain. I’ve been on this for almost 2 months, and the pain is almost gone, about 80% gone. The doctor said that this would happen. that this type of medication would take several weeks to take effect. I used to have Severe pain on daily basis, and even more severe at night, but consistent every day for the last 7 months. For the acid reflux, I am taking lansoprazole. Prior to this problem, I didn’t have problems with acid reflux

A couple of weeks ago I raced and had no stomach issues. Had some good PRs. the following day did a ride about.90 IF, and a soon I finished my ride had severe abdominal pain. then it went away by itself. I was very confuse because the day before I raced with no issues. I haven’t had another episode like that since then. But now my acid reflux seems to be getting worse. I think my body is all out of wack

lately, what I try to do is not eat before my workouts because that triggers acid reflux pretty badly. then I finish my workout, take my medication for the acid reflux, wait 30 minutes and then I have my dinner. that seems to work

I think part of my problem is that my body isn’t recovering well or my body isn’t absorbing all the nutrients. To that effect, they put me on fodmap. it’s hard to tell if that helped with the pain because at the same time that I started with this diet I also started with the medication for the pain.

Last month I was on a low volume plan and I was finishing the workouts fine. doing outdoor rides fine as well, with a bit of abdominal pain. Because of the medication for the pain started to work I went back to Medium volume plan but I don’t seem to be able to handle that. Today I bailed out my workout, my legs were super spent. So I am thinking that maybe I should go back to a low volume plan or maintenance until I figure out a way to increase TSS without affecting my health

to make matters worse I went I got a second opinion, and the second doctor thinks I have Functional GI disorder.

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I suffer from gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GORD) which is caused by too much stomach acid.
Whilst I don’t have all the same symptoms they are closely related so I’ll share my experience, maybe there is some benefit.
I had a scope of my stomach and biopsy of done years ago. The biopsy was of small areas of tissue in my stomach to rule out the bacterial infection that causes ulcers.

I take 10mg of omeprazole daily which mostly keeps everything in check, I haven’t had to increase the dosage since I started taking it, probably close on 20 years.

In terms of training I found that some drinks just don’t agree with me, anything too concentrated gives me the runs and often anything too sweet gives me heartburn. At the moment I use SiS no problem and have used Gu and Vitargo before.
I can’t say my training has made things worse but choice of supplements definitely has.
I still ride with a bottle of water or electrolyte along side a carb drink

Diet wise I know certain things set me off, one of which is bananas, a favourite of endurance athletes everywhere. I can’t eat a banana if I’m hungry or I suffer badly.
Mints, mince and white bread are others that spring to mind. Chillis if I over do it but I still enjoy spicy food.
Needless to say after a night on beer and curry/chilli I need to increase my meds and often take an over the counter remedy.
Oh an too much yoghurt causes a lot of grumbling and resultant gas.

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@Smurf

Thanks for sharing. that helps. what supplements are you taking? I take Fish Oil, L-Glutamine, Probiotics.

My problems that at times I am too tired for certain workouts. This week supposed to be a big week in terms of TSS (504) and last week I managed to do (488). Yesterday I was unable to finish the workout. it almost seems like I am not recovering well. I sleep 8-9 hours. But the quality of my sleep I am sure is very low. I used to be able to handle 400-500 TSSs weeks.

I also found that Sis Gels work well for me. they dont seem to trigger Abdominal pain and Acid Reflux. But again that could be because the meds are doing what they supposed to.

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Fish oil seems to ferment into a gassy cloud when burped up is horrendous and makes me just about lose my stomach contents, sorry to be graphic but it really doesn’t work for me.
I do aim to eat tuna or salmon at least once per week, I enjoy them, just get lazy preparing them.

Supplements are a tricky one a some people swear by them and other don’t.
L-Glutamine I tried and noticed no difference at all.
HMB works for me in aiding recovery but only if I am fairly unfit.

Probiotics I’ve only started on the last few years and have paid much attention until the last few months.
They do work short term for me but I feel uncomfortable longer than about a week so I use them for a few days when my stomach flares up a bit and stop as soon as it calms down. I use the yoghurt type ones as I read a study that the dairy ones help more of the bacteria reach your guy intact.
With reference to my last post saying yoghurt gives me the grumbles and gas, I think its more related to the gut bacteria, I know I’m not lactose intolerant as I had that checked back when I consulted with a specialist.
I’ve also found they help if I have been riding a lot and eating more energy bars, gels, carb drinks etc and less whole food.

I’m also a big fan of low GI foods, porridge/oatmeal (depending on what side of the pond you are on) for breakfast is my staple most days and always on race/event days - around 2 hours before the start.
I’ll usually choose rice over pasta but I can’t stand the sight of brown rice or wild rice anymore. Years of racing eating loads of the stuff, I just can’t do it anymore :zipper_mouth_face:, even though I know is better.
Have you tried breaking meals down so you are eating less more often instead of 3 meals a day?

My meds are daily and I can’t miss more than one day without symptoms returning. For me popping a pill each day is far better than suffering.

Sleeping on you right hand side seems to make things worse and on your left better, lots of research on it but not fully understood last time I read anything.

Recovery for me is just as big a part of training as sessions are. Training blocks are tiring! I use a soluble multivitamin (one of those fizzy ones) when I feel really flat and whether its the B vitamin boost or purely placebo it works for me.

If the meds are working but you are still drained it may be worth chatting to a good sports nutritionist. I’ve luckily not had to go that far so can’t comment personally but I know plenty of people who have benefited from planned nutrition.

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Yes, I started to do that about couple months ago. I was having indigestion problems and other GI issues but also because I was losing weight because part of my symptoms are the sensation of fullness . I typically eat 4-5 times a day.

I am going to try multi-vitamins

I am might see an sport nutrition because I am struggling with getting my abdominal pain under control . My acid reflux is under control with diet and medication.

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Hi @Bigvern777

Posted some details. Any help you can provide I will appreciate. I am very frustrated. At this point my goal is to keep my abdominal pain under control and figure out a way to do my workouts without being to tired. Like I said in a earlier post, I think I am not recovering well

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2 things. First, when I started trainer harder I wasn’t yet using cycling bibs, rather some compression shorts. I found that the tighter waist band was really constricting my abdomen and causing reflux/burping type issues while riding.

Second, I’m going to go completely unconventional here and suggest the issue with reflux is NOT the acid per-se… I was diagnosed with dysphagia and silent-reflux 4 or 5 years ago. I had an EGD w/ dialation and promptly put on omeprazole. The more I looked into it, the less I liked the idea of suppressing stomach acid production. It mucks with everything (like, nutrient absorption & susceptibility to infection); sure you feel better, but are you actually better? I eventually went on a low-carb diet and poof, stomach acid issues are gone. This is very commonly reported. Just watch out for the rebound-reflux if you stop a PPI drug… a careful taper is critical. I’m a broken record on this topic, but GI issues are largely a diet problem, and the standard dietary advice is the culprit.

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You are so right, been thinking about that for quite a while now. As I said in a earlier post, I dont seem to be recovering well, my legs are very tired all the time. I think is because I am not absorbing nutrients like I used before taking lanzoprazole. Yes, the acid reflux is gone but as a result of suppressing acid I feel more bloated, my legs more tired. I’ll talk to my doctor about possibly stopping the medication with lanzoprazole.

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Hi Ecloaiza,

I am in same situation as yours. My doctor thinks that i have Functional dyspepsia and they put on high FODMAP diet.

i have noticed that my digestive symptoms flares up when i do weight liftting.

Have you managed to findout issue. i do not want to leave my workout.

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My n=1 experience. I had this when I was training in my 20s for distance running. I too lost a lot of weight, 72kg down to 60kg. It got so bad, I stopped controlling my diet so much as I found that the only thing that helped the pain was eating plain foods. As my weight increased, the symptoms resolved. I can’t explain why this was, but like others, I wasn’t keen on taking a medication just to allow participation in a leisure activity.

Fast forward 20 years, I’m now much more into cycling. Year before last, I reduced my weight again, and the symptoms started again. Eased off the diet again, weight up a bit, no symptoms.

Large weight loss, while being ‘healthy’ does seem to disrupt some people’s general health - Pete in the podcast has often said he feels better at a certain weight. I have some sympathy with this position YMMV.

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Thanks dredmitchell,

Does that mean not to do any weight lifting or warmup exercise at all and only eat plain food?

How long does it take roughly for symptoms to be disappear?

I am lacto vageterian. Any dietary suggestions?

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My symptoms got better after about a month of dialing back. Again, need to emphasise this is just my experience, I can’t explain it. All I was doing at the time was long runs 10-20 miles, three times a week and maybe the odd season on a treadmill, I just reduced the distances I was running - may be halved them.

I wasn’t competitive, wasn’t part of a club, and wasn’t particularly performance focused other than wanting to be able to do some trail running I was only running for me, so many of the drivers that keep people training at a certain intensity just weren’t there for me.

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No solution yet. it’s been 3 years with the same problem. No doctor has been able to find the problem. I went to see another doctor and she is having me do an MRI next week

I can’t recommend what to do, but only I can say that I did FODMAP, and didn’t work for me. it was awful when I did the FODMAP diet. Workouts were even more difficult, because of nutrition. that Diet is very restrictive. Even some of the doctors I saw agree that even doing the FODMAP diet isn’t very effective

Over the months, I had to learn what makes the problem worse, so I try to mitigate the problem by not doing the things that make the problem worse. but there is no real thing that I can do to make the GI problem go away.

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I have had GERD for 24 years. I used to have issues constantly but now I mostly have it under control. I rarely have an issue where I can’t identify and correct the cause.

My problem started when I was 13. My flap that separated my stomach and esophagus did not close all the way and I had lots of stomach acid coming into my throat.

Steps that I took:

  1. Tried everything with gastrointestinal doctors, including prescription medicines and steroids to help heal my throat. Still, I had stabbing pains in my chest and esophagus was swollen to half it’s normal size.
  2. I had surgery (Laparoscopic Nissen Fundoplication) to wrap stomach around the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) at age 18. This caused it’s own pain due to eating too much food would put pressure on the wrap.
  3. As a result of the surgery, my diet was severely limited (liquid diet). I essentially eliminated most food variety and has to very slowly introduce new foods.

Steps 2 and 3 are what worked. The surgery helped to keep the acid from entering my throat just from normal activity, including sleeping.

However, just as important was the food variety restriction AFTER that. Since I was getting reflux regardless of what I ate, I never would have figured out my problem foods. Once the flap was closing correctly, then I could get actual useful feedback when I ate the wrong foods.

Also, it’s key to think of your digestive tract like skin. If you take a knife to it (eat something you definitely can’t tolerate) it will be damaged immediately. But, if you just mildly abuse it, it might be fine or be painful. You can rub your skin on carpet once and it’s probably fine, but rub your skin in it all the time and eventually you bleed. It’s the same with eating foods that mildly irritate you.

And don’t underestimate the power of time of day that you eat, general stress levels, getting good sleep, etc.

The triggers for me are:

Very bad: Cinnamon, tomato sauce (raw tomatoes are fine), anything spicy, chocolate (“Dutched” or processed with alkali), acidic foods (OJ, lemonade, cranberries), caffeine

Problematic: alcohol, greasy food, eating anything but carbs after 7:30 pm, emotional stress, too little sleep

No issue: physical exercise

Also, various muscles and fascia pull on each other in the body. Make sure you don’t have much tension. I find if my lats are tight I am more prone to heart burn.

I hope this helps. I probably forgot a few of my triggers. It’s a life long process learning what the problem issues are.

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What a same! I think my doctors are trying to do same thing. they are trying find cause using different methods. I have been told by my dietician to start low fodmap diet for 5weeks followed by challange diet to find out food intolerance for next 3months.

i have lost my weight about 7kg in last few months.

I have to given up my weight lifting as even small body movement is giving me fatique and sometime dizziness. Do physical stress has to do anything with this?