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If 27-year-old Mary Carter had her wish, she would be a food critic. But instead of enjoying lavish meals in fine restaurants, she gets her nutrition through a feeding tube. Mary remembers when her life changed so dramatically. It was August 1, 2006, and she was driving in her car. She began to feel nauseous, her heart raced, and her vision became blurry. From that moment on, everything she put in her mouth she would vomit up.
Last December, Sen. John McCain identified Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) as an illness unworthy of receiving funds for research, citing an earmarked $665,000 for the Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, for equipment and supplies to research the debilitating condition. This triggered the Gastroparesis Patient Association for Cures and Treatment (G-PACT), an organization that raises awareness of gastric mobility disorders, to write a petition to present to Sen. McCain on March 8, 2010. The petition stresses that the money is used to assist in the “funding innovating GI motility research by Cedars Sinai to study the use of various antibiotics to enhance GI mobility and prevent severe bacterial overgrowth in various GI motility disease,” usage deemed worthy by many who suffer from GI disorders.
In the February 1996 issue of the drug newsletter Worst Pills, Best Pills News, a story was published by the Health Research Group of Public Citizen warning that a drug commonly prescribed for heartburn and slow emptying of the stomach contents, a condition known as gastroparesis, could cause a serious movement disorder known as Tardive Dyskinesia. The condition could cause permanent disability in users, according to the report.
However, it took more than a decade for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to place a black box warning on the medication, Reglan. A black box warning is the strongest warning issued by the FDA and is placed on drugs that have potentially harmful or deadly side effects. Meanwhile, the drug was dispensed 6.5 million times in 2008 to an estimated 2 million Americans.
Very low doses of inhaled carbon monoxide has been shown to reverse a serious digestive condition in diabetic mice, a finding that could give hope to millions of sufferers of diabetic gastroparesis. The findings are based on a study conducted by researchers with the Mayo Clinic and presented at last year’s Digestive Disease Week gathering.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has found in favor with a lower court that patients may sue generic drug makers under state law for failing to provide adequate warnings about potential side effects with their drugs. The ruling extends a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling governing makers of name-brand drugs. The issue of whether generic drug companies should be held liable for not adequately warning consumers has divided several district courts, which can increase the odds of a Supreme Court review in the future, according to U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham.
The Gastroparesis Awareness Campaign Organization has released a video to help raise awareness of the seriousness of the condition in which the stomach takes too long to digest food. The video, called The Faces of Gastroparesis 2009, can be seen on YouTube, and here:
People of all ages, shapes and sizes suffer from gastroparesis. The National Institutes of Health estimates as many as 10 million people are living with gastroparesis. Because of the lack of medical education and improper diagnosis, many more may be suffering in silence. Symptoms include abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting and can result in dehydration, electrolyte imbalances and malnutrition.
Treatments include medication, such as Reglan (metoclopramide), and surgery. Those with gastroparesis suffered yet another blow this year when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a black box warning on Reglan after numerous cases of a serious movement disorder known as Tardive Dyskinesia were reported in patients who took Reglan. Long-term users were as much as 20 percent at risk of developing the condition.
Because treatments offer only temporary benefits to patients, activists groups such as the Gastroparesis Awareness Campaign Organization are working to raise awareness in hopes of finding better, safer treatments and, eventually, a cure.
Thirty-two-year-old Shimmi Munshi would get sick up to 50 times a day over a four-year period, but doctors were at a loss as to why. She was put on feeding tubes and medication, but the treatments did little to help her. She became sicker and weaker. It wasn’t until the young woman scoured the Internet that she some answers. She immediately diagnosed herself with gastroparesis, or paralysis of the stomach. And found a treatment that would help her live a normal life.
A new medical center specializing in gastrointestinal disorders is opening in El Paso, Texas, offering hope to patients throughout the country who suffer from debilitating symptoms. The new center is a collaborative effort between the University Medical Center of El Paso and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. Called the Center for Gastrointestinal Motility and Functional Bowel Disorders, the center will diagnose and treat people who have problems digesting food.
Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder that can be disabling. Those who suffer from the condition experience muscle contractions that cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures. The causes are not completely known or understood, but it is believed to be either inherited or caused by factors such as birth-related or physical trauma, infection, poisoning (such as lead poisoning), or reaction to drugs (such as Reglan, also known as metoclopramide, a common medication to treat heartburn, GERD and gastroparesis). For one athletic young woman, the cause was likely due to a seasonal flu shot.
Elizabeth Conte was prescribed Reglan, a brand-name of metoclopramide used to treat gastrointestinal conditions such as heartburn, GERD and gastroparesis. For four years she took the medication, unaware that she was slowly developing a debilitating and incurable movement disorder known as Tardive Dyskinesia. What she soon found out is that her involuntary head jerks and facial twitches were caused by long-term use of metoclopramide.
More and more cases of consumers taking metoclopramide and subsequently developing Tardive Dyskinesia were reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and by early 2009, the agency had ordered a black box warning be placed on the medication. New warnings and precautions were written into the drug’s packaging that included an up to 20 percent risk of patients developing Tardive Dyskinesia during long-term use of the medication.
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