Life, bowels, and shirataki noodles

(KM) #1

So I just spent 4 days in the hospital due to bowel obstruction. I will put this out here as purely my experience, but perhaps a cautionary tale.

I had eaten a full bag of shirataki noodles with my dinner, about 7 oz per night, two nights running. Ordinarily I’ve had no digestive problems with shirataki, but I had rather extreme diarrhea at the same time I was ingesting this. I believe the diarrhea was incidental and caused by something else, but I would have been quite dehydrated.

I woke up on Thursday morning with excruciating gut cramps. Eventually wound up in the emergency room. CT scan revealed obstruction, which in this case was basically a very tight oxbow cutting off blood circulation and making passage of any matter impossible. Surgery and several days later I’ve been released from the hospital and doing just fine.

My surgeon insisted that anything about my diet would have had no impact on this. I asked him if he knew what shirataki noodles were. (Basically a giant mass of indigestible, insoluble fiber, especially if taken with insufficient hydration. A gigantic mass of fiber actually outlawed in some forms in Australia primarily because of bowel issues it can cause.). He said no, but it didn’t matter.

This pretty much lines up with my opinion about big med. If it’s not in the book and they didn’t learn it in med school, it’s irrelevant. Now I’m not saying I didn’t have some sort of obstructive issue to begin with. But honestly, the timing of my intake and the abrupt distress afterward are too coincidental for me to dismiss, personally.

In any event, still love shirataki but will definitely consume in smaller quantities and with great care about hydration in the future. :vulcan_salute:t2:

#2

Gosh that sounds awful but good to hear you’re out and on the mend.

(Edith) #3

Boy! That sounds scary! I’m glad to hear you are recovering. I was wondering… do you eat fairly close to carnivore? If so, maybe it was just too much of an introduction of fiber all at once?

I do find it VERY interesting that those noodles are outlawed in Australia. The US won’t outlaw things that are obviously bad, it would never outlaw something as healthy as a sh*t load of fiber.

Both my brother and I have skin issues with dairy. My dad recently developed a nasty autoimmune skin problem, and he eats A LOT of dairy. I would be willing to bet a lot of money that dairy either causes the problem or at least exacerbates it. When he asked the doctor about dairy, the doctor immediately poo-pooed the idea.

(KM) #4

One of my seminal distrust experiences, all through my teen years I had horrible acne. And I was a sugar junkie. And I asked my doctor if my acne could have been possibly caused by sugar. He said no that’s ridiculous. Believing him, (and being sugar addicted), I decided to do nothing, well except feel humiliated and ignorant for suggesting it.

It wasn’t until my early 30s experiments with Atkins that I discovered my skin to be 100% pimple free and no longer constantly uncomfortable and ready to react, if I simply avoided processed sugar. :rage:. The amount of emotional trauma through high school and college that could have been avoided, not to mention nostrums potions lotions makeup and later life scars, if I’d just listened to myself …

(KM) #5

My biggest issue now is that when they did a CT scan they discovered a lipoma (fatty mass). The attending doctor and those he interviewed felt this was 99% likely benign, and suggested perhaps an ultrasound 6 months from now to see if the size had changed much. Of course it would have been too much bother for the surgeon to shift things around and do a biopsy of the damn thing while he was in there, heaven forbid an extra 3 minutes, so no one actually knows for absolute certain whether it’s cancerous or not.

Removing this thing would basically be as invasive as donating a kidney, and unless it’s malignant or really bothering me at some point, I’m not pursuing that, but I need to know first. So now I am being dragged, kicking and screaming, through the whole must have a pc, must get these cholesterol tests, you need a statin maybe you’d like a colonoscopy and so on and on and ■■■■■■■ on.

It’s like going into a store to buy a hat, being bullied into buying $2,000 worth of new underwear as a prerequisite while you watch some cartwheeling Gen Z fool explain the relationship between hats and undergarments, and then after writing checks and having your panties that were no problem to begin with in a scrutinized micromanaged bunch for 2 months, being told they don’t actually sell hats, that’s across the street.

:face_with_symbols_over_mouth::face_with_symbols_over_mouth::face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

(Cathy) #6

Sorry you are suffering through what must be physical pain and the pain of making decisions for yourself that might be pretty unclear. But so good that you were diagnosed and treated!

I understand your frustration with your medical experts. We who do an alternative way of eating are faced with this regularly. However, doctors are not suppose to affix causes to conditions that haven’t be verified through scientific rigor. And that is a good thing. I would not want my surgeon or oncologist agreeing with me because I ‘might’ be right. My professionals are just that - professionals that give their best advice.

And if you don’t want to follow their advice, that is 100% up to you. Take a statin - don’t take a statin. Have a colonoscopy or don’t. These are things our health care advisors can advise. They can’t advise unproven hypotheses and treatments unless perhaps you are part of a study.

Hope your healing is rapid and as full as possible.

(KM) #7

There’s a difference between saying " my research would suggest otherwise" and “never heard of it, therefore I’m right”. Frankly the whole patriarchal structure can shove it. YMMV.

(Ohio ) #8

Exactly my experience. Exact same thing. My first doctor also recommended Mountain Dew w/ my Adderall, my Freshman year in high school.

Was there back pain you associated w/ this ordeal? Also I feel like we like to aggressively dial in IF, minimize the feeding window. I believe in short feeding windows, just not in all scenarios. Curious your current thoughts on short feeding windows after this. Or if it’s even relevant here.

(KM) #9

Awesome. Maybe a little cocaine, just to make sure those synapses were firing at full speed? Top it off with a couple of ring dings. :roll_eyes:

No, no back pain. Just gut cramps.

For the first few days I was still in the hospital and would order a meal when I felt I could eat something, or spend hours randomly nibbling at a tray. Most of it was not food I ordinarily consume, so I would take a few bites and be nonplussed . So no IF during that period.

I’m doing a modified IF now that I’m home, basically what I ordinarily do. Coffee in the morning, typically no lunch, and then an eating window from about 4:00 to 6:00. I’m supposed to stick with low fiber but I haven’t been vigilant about that. I don’t suppose anyone would be surprised that it seems illogical to me so I’m not following the advice, lol. I want soft bulk with lots of water, that gently moves things through; constipation, straining and hard stool would be exactly what I want to prevent right now. My diet’s never been particularly high fiber and I’m not focusing on it now, but I’m eating my ordinary vegetables and the occasional low carb tortilla.

No one really had any suggestions on how to prevent a recurrence or why this happened in the first place. As I’ve said, I think the shirataki noodles exacerbated it, but I’m not sure they were the sole culprit. My personal prescription is more exercise; strengthen core and keep the gut in motion and maybe that will reduce the chance of adhesions? I won’t push the shirataki, but I will probably have a half portion with plenty of water at some point.