Question:
What happens when you have the dumping syndrome?

Is it basically the same as experienced after gall bladder surgery with fats?...sweating, weakness, loose stools, gas?    — [Anonymous] (posted on February 28, 2001)

February 28, 2001
This is the best answer I've seen to address dumping: Chattanooga Times / Chattanooga Free Press, 2001 January 3, 2001, Wednesday HEADLINE: If stomach suddenly dumps food into intestine, trouble follows BYLINE: Paul G. Donohue M.D. DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Please explain dumping syndrome. What can be done for it? -- C.J. A: A normal stomach holds on to food for three or four hours. During that time,it digests and grinds food into molecules that the small intestine can absorb. With dumping syndrome, the stomach dumps a load of undigested food quickly and unceremoniously into the small intestine. The small intestine tries to dissolve and dilute the thick slurry of only partially digested food. One way it tries to achieve those goals is by drawing fluid from the circulatory system. That promotes a drop in blood pressure. The person sweats, feels faint and becomes tremulous. These are early manifestations of dumping syndrome, occurring 15 to 30 minutes after eating. In about two hours, the late signs of dumping syndrome appear. That's when there is a second outpouring of sweat, another siege of weakness and sometimes mental confusion. High loads of carbohydrates, especially sugar, cause a rise in blood sugar. The rise prods the pancreas to release insulin. So exuberant is the pancreas's insulin release that blood sugar falls to low levels, creating the late symptoms of dumping syndrome. Dumping syndrome is often the undesirable legacy of stomach surgery. Sometimes a few changes in eating can combat dumping syndrome. Eating six or light small meals instead of three large meals does not result in a huge load of food suddenly being dumped into the intestine. Eat fewer carbohydrates and sweets, especially table sugar. Limit fluids, especially at meals. Sip only enough to help swallow food. Lying down immediately after eating stops gravity from drawing food as quickly into the small intestine.
   — Kristy J.