Vagus Nerve: What helped you?

Hi @erin123 - sounds like you have a lot going on medically. I was diagnosed with gastroparesis and had to limit my diet which was a challenge since I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian so I also experienced a significant loss in food variety.
Dr Weil has a great article on gastroparesis explaining a possible cause is damage to the vagus nerve. I followed a link on his site to a 2020 paper on pubmed on acupuncture "A Clinical Randomized Controlled Trial of Acupuncture Treatment of Gastroparesis Using Different Acupoints" concluding the following:
(1) Acupuncture is an effective method for the treatment of gastroparesis.
(2) The combination of Zhongwan (CV 12) with Zusanli (ST 36) showed the most promising effect on relief of the symptoms in patients with gastroparesis.
(3) "Selecting acupoints by site" is the key factor affecting the synergy effect of "acupoint compatibility."
So it appears that appropriate selection of the acupuncture sites can impact the effectiveness of the acupuncture to help with gastroparesis as they found CV12 and ST36 sites more helpful than PC 6 and ST 36.
link to the paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32399130/
Did you find that acupuncture helped with gastroparesis?
Which sites did they use?
Hope you find some relief.

Jesa, I'm very glad to know you've had some relief from neuromodulation and medication. But can you really be on rifaximin continuously? Setting aside the expense, isn't that a dangerous set up for antibiotic resistance?

Annabelle, thank you so much for this incredible research. I will definitely read the article that you shared, and discuss it with my acupuncturist. Are you having success with it? I'm eager to hear.

To answer your question, I have had only modest relief from acupuncture for my GI symptoms, though it has been more effective for muscle tension in the pelvic floor and laryngeal areas. My acupuncturist mostly works along the liver meridian. She is from Shandong in China and is very good, but her English is modest. I'm not sure whether she'll be able to engage with the research, but I'll try.

Fwiw, my GI issues appear to be more accelerated gastric emptying than gastroparesis. I had a gastric emptying study last summer that showed the opposite of what was expected, faster movement through the digestive tract rather than paralysis. Gastric dumping is a diagnosis of accelerated gastric emptying that is usually associated with gastric bypass surgery, which I have not had. But even in that case, the root cause is nerve damage or irritation, so this makes sense to me.

So I assume that some combination of nerve damage, compression, or irritation is causing my stomach to release its contents prematurely into the digestive tract, before it's fully digested, fueling the massive gas, bloating, and increasing food intolerances that have followed. The stomach does important work I should not be bypassed! So I assume that dumping these poorly digested foods into my intestines has caused much of my GI damage.

After 3 years, I'm still hoping to make some progress, but I'm not sure what to expect because there appears to be some physical changes as a result of all this, though potentially recoverable. An endoscopy showed flattening of the duodenum (?), the lining of the small intestine, which is a hallmark of celiac disease. I did not have celiac symptoms before all this began, but I have the gene and the disease has clearly now been triggered by all this. And the fissures in the intestinal lining caused by celiac allowed lactose protein irritants where they do not belong, causing the massive intolerance that I now have to all milk, cheese, and even butter, even if I take 10 lactase tablets. (And over the same period, developing intolerances to cucumbers, salmon, and other previously tolerated foods.) I'd be very grateful to know if others have had success reversing this kind of progression.

The last thing I'll note is that I did try CBD in the last week, and found it moderately helpful. I had a minor surgery on my vocal cords to try and make it easier to project, which did not help terribly, but did aggravate my other vagus nerve irritation points, including GI. In desperation, I tried a variety of CBD products for help. I got no benefit from those with THC and did not like the headache it gave, but I did find some benefit from CBG. So far, it did not help the GI symptoms directly, but it makes it easier for me to fall back asleep even when I am awakened by them or have to take medication in the middle of the night to relieve them. More sleep at night makes it easier to bear the other symptoms during the day.

Apologies for having written a short novel... I'm just so grateful to be able to share experiences with others of you fighting the same battles. I hope that by sharing all this information we can help each other move forward!

Erin,
No apologies necessary! I think it is helpful to be able to share our experiences and may lead to sharing ideas that may work for one another or good questions to ask our health care providers.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I had never heard of gastric dumping and can't imagine how the small intestine must feel when it gets undigested food! This is the opposite of gastroparesis that I have in which there is delayed gastric emptying. The article was about decreasing gastric retention times, which is the opposite of what you are experiencing. You may want to look on pubmed for "gastric dumping" and "acupuncture" to see if there are acupuncture sites associated with increased gastric retention times. It sounds like your vagus nerve may be over-stimulated whereas in gastroparesis it is my understanding that the vagus nerve is not working properly to stimulate the stomach to empty at a normal time. You may want to ask your acupuncturist how to calm the nerves to slow things down. It seems like every day I learn something new on this site. My veterinarian showed me how to acupuncture points on my 20 year old dog to calm him down and it works for him. 🙂

Have you asked your healthcare provider about digestive enzymes to help digest the food? I tried them with limited success (for gastroparesis) and then the brand I was using was removed from the market and there wasn't a similar one that I could find.

Fortunately there has been an explosion of gluten-free options. I noticed improvement after removing gluten back in 2009 when the options were limited. Bob's Redmill makes a whole line of GF products that I find delicious (e.g., their GF biscuit mix tastes like real biscuits!).

There was another member who's food sensitivities seemed to disappear after stopping metformin. I don't know how to include a link to the reply but I think it was under the "Gastroparesis & Metformin" thread. My gluten sensitivity started after about 10 years of metformin and about the time I was diagnosed with gastroparesis. I also can't eat cucumbers, high fat and high fiber food.

Hope you find some relief!

There is no control group in this study! Do you have access to the entire study and not just the abstract? Also, there is no agreement among practitioners as to what are appropriate sites.

Hi @debkl - When asking about the study, I assume that you are referring to the one about acupuncture earlier up in the thread. If so, then when you go to the pubmed link and you can find a link to more info:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7201660/
I agree that the studies for most non-pharmaceutical studies are not always very scientific. IMHO most good scientific studies are run by large pharmaceutical companies with the goal of finding a solution that will be profitable for the company and where the benefits to the patient outweigh the risks to the patient. These studies can be very expensive which must be recouped by the price of the drug.
Please post if you find something interesting.
Have a great day!

The study was "scientific" but without a control group, one cannot conclude that acupuncture or specific acupuncture sites is helpful for anything. It's not because it is research for a nonpharmaceutical therapy. There are other sources of funds for medical reseach including alt med. In the US, there is the NCCIH, government funding, patients and disease group/nonprofit, private investor, and, of course, industry. The bigger problem is research being misinterpreted in the media, commercial health sites, and social media.

Nauseated every day. Not nauseated enuf to throw up. Don’t sleep well. I am 80 so not pregnant. Only meds I take are for heartburn. Any suggestions?

To begin with, if you are taking PPIs of any variety (which I am) that medication itself can make you nauseous, when, of course, they are intended to deal with G.E.R.D. while stopping glands in the stomach from producing acid.
I don't know whether or not you have had a cholecystectomy (which I did 10 years ago) but things have never been the same as far as digestion is concerned.
I was never recommended to take ox bile salts after the surgery since I never had unending diarrhea as some other patients have but some doctors recommend it for digestion after gallbladder removal no matter what. I did try digestive enzymes for a short while but since the doctors keep pushing the PPIs on account of diagnosed Barrett's esophagus diagnosis I was almost afraid to compromise the effects of the omeprazole.
I will tell you, however, that I believe and many other people do as well that the reason one gets G.E.R.D. first and foremost is that one's stomach does not have ENOUGH acid and therefore the extra amount of churning etc. that the stomach has to do to digest now causes what acid that one does have to be splashed upward since the food is not being moved along as it did before the surgery. I drink a small amount of Coca cola once in a while and I can tell you that every time I drink it I fell 100% better afterward, This would leave me to believe that the omeprazole I take is working against my self-interest.
I plan to discuss this with my primary and gastro after another EGD and ultimately will become my own guinea pig since none of the doctors I have seen heretofore seem to be able to help me feel better. I have also been diagnosed with eosinophilic asthma which appears to be related to food allergies and digestion.
Do you have any of these problems as well?

Erin - Have you looked into Craniocervical Instability (CCI) or Craniocervical Syndrom (CCS)? Both of these conditions can cause impairment of the vagus nerve. In CCI patients it is due to lax/injured cervical ligaments in the upper cervical region (C0-C1-C2). In CCS patients similar symptoms can be caused by a number other reasons including lax/injured ligaments in the lower cervical region (C3-T1) along with other conditions such as loss of lordosis (that's me) or malrotation of C1 or C2 to name a few. A lot of good information on YouTube from Dr. Centeno and Dr. Hauser who are both providers of injection type therapies for this condition.