How to prevent death from bowel loops (increased risk with holiday overeating)!

Did you know that Christmas is high season for intestinal loops?

An intestinal loop is a bowel obstruction which can be a serious condition. It can occur in the large or small bowel. A small bowel obstruction commonly occurs where loops of intestine can easily get blocked or twisted.

Christmas is jam-packed with delicious food, and this is definitely not a raised finger that you should fast or replace roast pork with carrot sticks or other life-draining and unrealistic advice. But it's also high season for hospitalizations with intestinal loops, and there's nothing funny about it if it happens to you or yours.

Intestinal loop is a serious disorder, and the mortality rate is approx. 20% for those where operative intervention becomes necessary! Therefore, the best thing you can do - as with all other diseases - is prevention.

Intestinal loop is a condition where the intestine twists around itself, so that the intestine is pinched off. When this happens, you will very quickly experience massive pain in the stomach because the food accumulates and the intestines are distended. If not treated in time, bacteria from the intestines begin to penetrate the gut lining and cause serious inflammation and potentially deadly blood poisoning.

What are the symptoms of intestinal loop?

- Stomach pain that worsens over a few hours

- Nausea and vomiting

- Bloated stomach

- Lack of defecation/toilet visits

Many of these symptoms frequently occur separately over Christmas, simply because we have eaten too much. But what we need to pay particular attention to is if the symptoms get worse within a few hours, and develop into cramping pains in the stomach - and also if several of the mentioned symptoms are present at the same time.

Far too many with symptoms of intestinal loop have experienced not being taken seriously when they contact the hospital - and this is problematic because it is a disorder that has a high mortality if it is not treated in time.

Who is particularly at risk?

If you have previously had an operation in the stomach, have a hernia or inflammation of the intestine, the risk of intestinal loop is also extra high, which is why you should react quickly if several of the above symptoms are present. An X-ray or CT scan can confirm or deny that it is a intestinal loop.

Blood tests will often only show signs if blood poisoning has occurred, where the bacteria enter the bloodstream.

Therefore, you can NOT rule out intestinal looping simply based on a blood test, even though that may be the message you get. This has happened to one of my patients who had to insist on a scan where it became clear that she had an intestinal loop that needed immediate surgery to prevent potentially life threatening blood poisoning!

What do we know increases the risk of intestinal loops?

- Tobacco

- Alcohol

- Overweight

- Overeating / large meals

- Low physical activity

- Been sitting for hours

- Food low in fiber (white bread, pasta, many gluten-free replacement products)

- Low fluid intake

- Larger amounts of fiber supplements (balance is key as with everything else in life!)

You can absolutely enjoy Christmas food, but eat in such a way that you can also enjoy life between meals.

Here are 9 edible tips for a happy tummy over Christmas

1. Breakfast is actually the most important meal - regardless of the fact that in recent times we have started to hear different opinions on this, the research in the field is clear: what you eat (or don't eat!) in the morning has an influence on a number of biochemical processes during the day. The morning meal is the first thing you eat after the body has fasted at night, and the food signals to the body that now the day begins. Just as light in the morning signals to the body that the day has begun, so does movement to the muscles. Food, light and movement from the morning are key factors in regulating the body's so-called circadian rhythm (internal clock). Therefore, it is also important that what we start with is not difficult to digest, which puts a stop to digestion for the rest of the day. Start the day with a smoothie or e.g. warm porridge that lubricates the bowels and helps the bowel movement to start from the morning. Eat it with added plant protein, seeds, nuts and dried fruit such as figs and prunes to give the intestines (3. and your blood sugar) something to work with.

2. Take 1 tbsp. linseed oil or castor oil, both of which have a laxative effect.

3. Drink warm water instead of ice-cold water - preferably add lemon juice, which stimulates the secretion of digestive enzymes.

4. Drink 1 glass of water with meals and the rest between meals. Too much liquid with meals dilutes your digestive enzymes and impairs your ability to digest food and move it through the intestinal system.

5. Make sure you get up regularly so you don't sit down for hours.

6. Fill your plate half with vegetables, 1/4 with protein (meat/fish) and 1/4 with dense carbohydrates (potatoes, bread, rice).

7. Go for a 15-minute walk after the larger meals.

8. Eat 3 main meals and a few snacks rather than overeating in the evening when the digestive capacity is low, which will negatively affect your blood sugar, hormones, detox capacity, sleep and fat burning ability. Don’t follow trends, follow the science - no one actually educated in nutrition recommends fasting the entire day to eat all your calories late. We like this trend because most of us like overeating at night, but this starvation-binging pattern is just not healthy. Also this eating pattern will increase risk of intestinal loops.

9. Magnesium in the forms of hydroxide, oxide or citrate can alleviate the tendency to constipation and thus the risk of intestinal spasms, but should absolutely NOT be taken AFTER it has already occurred. When an intestinal loop has occurred, it requires hospitalization and the treatment recommended from there - taking magnesium at that point may actually worsen the condition due to the loop already present. Always talk to your doctor treating you when in doubt.