WLS Patients Report Frequent Dizziness – What Causes It
Many gastric bypass patients report frequent spells of dizziness. In general they are using the word dizzy to describe everything from feeling faint or lightheaded to feeling weak or unsteady.
Research indicates a state of chemical imbalance can lead to temporary bouts of dizziness. When a bariatric patient feels dizzy it could very well be related to the restricted diet. Most commonly going too long between meals or not drinking enough water causes bariatric patients to become dizzy or have a mild electrolyte imbalance. Many patients self-treat dizziness by drinking water or little sips of a sports drink such as Gatorade.
Dizziness may occur when too much time passes between meals, or as an early warning sign of dehydration. Lack of food or loss of bodily fluid interrupts the body?s physiological process; the electrolytes get out of balance.
Potassium, sodium and chlorine are the three dominant electrolytes in the human body. Beneath our conscious awareness the electrolytes are very busy jumping in and out of cells making it possible for nerve impulses to travel from one nerve cell to the next. When we are eating correctly, staying hydrated and pursuing a healthy lifestyle it is likely the electrolytes will stay balanced and we can enjoy a dizzy-free existence.
It is extremely dangerous when electrolytes become severely imbalanced. Infants suffering from dehydration have died from electrolyte imbalance. So have sufferers of anorexia.
If flu symptoms cause dehydration to the point of extreme dizziness and disorientation one must seek medical help. Dehydration will force a greater loss of potassium, which raises the sodium level in all muscle tissues. At greatest risk is the heart muscle where an increase of sodium may cause arrhythmia and death.
The sports and nutrition industry?s guideline for water consumption is one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight. Carefully monitoring fluid intake will help weight loss surgery patients avoid chronic dizziness.
? 2005 Kaye Bailey – All Rights Reserved
Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of http://www.livingafterwls.com and http://www.livingafterwls.blogspot.com
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WLS Patients Feeling Gassy & Bloated Sugar Alcohol May Be To Blame
Sugar intake is a real concern for people who?ve had gastric bypass, in fact most patients fear sugar. The foremost fear isn?t weight gain, it?s dumping. Foods containing sugar pass too quickly through the small pouch, they are rapidly absorbed and cause insulin levels to drop resulting in dumping.
Very unpleasant. Instead of taking chances with sugar many of us reach for ?sugar free? sweets or diabetic candy to satisfy our sweet tooth. Many of these products contain sugar alcohol, a natural sweetener derived from fruits and berries. Unlike artificial sweeteners that contain no calories, sugar alcohol has about half the calories of sugar. Diabetics are able to have food with sugar alcohol because it?s converted more slowly to glucose and require very little insulin to be metabolized.
While sugar alcohols are low in calories and slow to convert to glucose, the down side is they can cause gas, bloating and diarrhea. I learned this the hard way. One day that devil we call temptation seduced me into buying a bag of sugar-free jelly beans. Jelly beans are dangerous because they are little bites of soft food which means a gastric bypass patient can eat too much volume. I ate the entire bag in about an hour (true confessions of the closet snacker). I soon became uncomfortable with a small tummy ache. The tummy ache turned to bloating, cramping and gas. Extreme cases of all three symptoms. Painful ?take me to the hospital I think I?m gonna explode? symptoms. It took a couple of days for my body to return to normal, a couple of stressful and uncomfortable days.
The jelly beans I ate contained Mannitol, a common sugar alcohol extracted from seaweed. I know they contained Mannitol because I read the package mid-way through the crisis. The package contained this warning, ?Warning: excessive consumption can cause a laxative effect? Fine time to be reading labels I told myself! Mannitol is found naturally in pineapples, olives, asparagus, sweet potatoes and carrots. It?s about 60% as sweet as sugar, so more product is needed to replicate the sweetness of sugar. ?Mannitol lingers in the intestines for a long time and therefore causes bloating and diarrhea.? Yup! That?s exactly what happens all right.
What other names are sugar alcohols called?
Sorbitol is found naturally in fruits and vegetables. It is manufactured from corn syrup. Sorbitol has only 50 percent of the relative sweetness of sugar which means twice as much must be used to deliver a similar amount of sweetness to a product. It has less of a tendency to cause diarrhea compared to mannitol. It is often an ingredient in sugar-free gums and candies.
Xylitol is also called ?wood sugar? and occurs naturally in straw, corncobs, fruit, vegetables, cereals, mushrooms and some cereals. Xylitol has the same relative sweetness as sugar. It is found in chewing gums.
Lactitol has about 30-40 percent of sugar’s sweetening power, but its taste and solubility profile resembles sugar so it is often found in sugar-free ice cream, chocolate, hard and soft candies, baked goods, sugar-reduced preserves and chewing gums.
Isomalt is 45 – 65 percent as sweet as sugar and does not tend to lose its sweetness or break down during the heating process. Isomalt absorbs little water, so it is often used in hard candies, toffee, cough drops and lollipops.
Maltitol is 75 percent as sweet as sugar. It is used in sugar-free hard candies, chewing gum, chocolate-flavored desserts, baked goods and ice cream because it gives a creamy texture to foods.
Hydrogenated starch hydrolysates (HSH) are produced by the partial hydrolysis of corn. HSH are nutritive sweeteners that provide 40 – 90 percent of the sweetness of sugar. HSH do not crystallize and are used extensively in confections, baked goods and mouthwashes.
Should Gastric Bypass Patients indulge their sweet tooth with sugar alcohol?
The American Diabetes Association claims that sugar alcohols are acceptable in a moderate amount but should not be eaten in excess. In addition, weight gain has been seen when these products are overeaten. Personally, I?m not dipping my sticky fingers into sugar-free candy again. For gastric bypass patients generally the key, as in all eating, must be moderation, not a full bag of jelly beans. And of course, we can always rely on the old advice of conventional dieters, ?Hungry for something sweet? Reach for a piece of fruit.?
Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of http://www.livingafterwls.com and http://www.livingafterwls.blogspot.com
LivingAfterWLS is a no-nonsense resource for people Living After Weight Loss Surgery. Our community is growing in numbers even as we are shrinking in pounds. Together we support one another in this lifestyle, that it turns out, is NOT the easy way out.
Fresh & insightful content is added daily, check in often. To subscribe to the LivingAfterWLS monthly newsletter “You Have Arrived” click on http://www.livingafterwls.com and enter your details in the subscription box.
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Gastric Bypass Causes Hair Loss – Can It Be Avoided
Surprisingly, hair loss is one of the reasons female pre-operative patients sit on the fence before deciding to have gastric bypass surgery. Obese people, particularly obese women, often have lush gorgeous hair. Of course they do ? it?s well fed and nourished! How many of us have been described as the woman with ?beautiful hair and a pretty face?? What person in their right mind would give up one of their beautiful features?
Hair loss usually occurs in the fourth of fifth month following weight loss surgery. During the phase of rapid weight loss, caloric intake is marginal. This puts the body in a state of panic called starvation. Think about the pictures of prisoners of war. Most victims of this atrocity are without hair because they are literally starving to death. A healthy body normally sheds ten percent of hair follicles at any given time. When a body is starving roughly thirty to forty percent of hair follicles are sacrificed as the body channels nutrition to more vital areas. During this phase hair loss is dramatic, often patients find clumps of hair on the shower floor. Remaining hair becomes drab and lifeless.
I knew hair loss was a potential result of weight loss surgery, but because I?m a ?cup-half-full? person, I didn?t believe that hair loss would happen to me! That just happens to other people, I told myself! Imagine my surprise when my blonde locks were littering the bathroom floor like hair saloon. I shed some tears over that.
The hair loss is a transient effect of your gastric bypass surgery and will be resolved when nutrition and weight stabilize. When my hair began falling out, my husband, who has been a proponent of vitamin supplements all his life, found a vitamin specifically formulated for building strong healthy hair. The vitamin I take for healthy hair and nails is Silica Complex by Puritan?s Pride?. It contains calcium, magnesium, zinc, boron, betaine and horsetail extract. Consumption of this supplement almost immediately retarded my hair loss and renewed my dull lifeless hair. I will continue taking this supplement throughout my life. Three years after surgery my hair is long, full and lustrous ? one would never know I had suffered significant hair loss. In hindsight, I would certainly begin taking this supplement prior to my surgery. In the very least I would begin taking it soon after surgery before the signs of hair loss were apparent.
Copyright ? 2005 Kaye Bailey – All Rights Reserved.
Kaye Bailey is a weight loss surgery success story having maintained her health and goal weight for 5+ years. An award winning journalist, she is the author and webmaster of http://www.livingafterwls.com and http://www.livingafterwls.blogspot.com – Fresh & insightful content is added daily, check in often.
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