What happens in dumping syndrome?

What happens in dumping syndrome?

Your stomach usually releases digestive contents into your small intestine in a gradual, controlled manner. The way your stomach moves food along through the digestive process is sometimes called your “gastric motility." Many things are involved in gastric motility: muscles, nerves and hormone signals coordinate together to tell your stomach how and when to empty. If any of these things are impaired, it can throw this coordination off.

Uncontrolled gastric emptying means that the valve at the bottom of your stomach, the pyloric valve, simply opens and dumps everything out, before your stomach has finished digesting. When your small intestine receives this mass of under-digested food, it makes adjustments to try and accommodate it. It draws in extra fluid volume and releases extra hormones. These adjustments cause the symptoms that people experience shortly after eating.

Some people may experience another set of symptoms a few hours later. This happens because of blood sugar changes. If your small intestine receives a concentrated serving of sugar content, it may set off alarms in your digestive system. Your small intestine may signal your pancreas to release extra insulin to control your blood sugar. This can cause your blood sugar to drop sharply (reactive hypoglycemia). This drop can cause faintness, shakiness and heart palpitations.