Abdominophrenic dyssenergia - chronic bloating!

danielrosehill

Hi folks,

I came across this forum after finding a thread from another abdominophrenic dyssenergia sufferer here. At @Hannah_Scope 's suggestion I said I would write a short introduction.

Abdominophrenic dyssenergia (or APD for short) is best described as a miscoordination of energy (hence dyssenergia) between the diaphragm and the abdominal wall. It's increasingly being recognized as a cause of chronic and otherwise unexplained bloating.

Mine started about a month after having my gallbladder removed which was about 4 years ago. It manifests (for me) as a feeling of bloating, and visible distension, after eating or drinking. The downside: my condition seems to be caused by eating or drinking pretty much anything - even water - so it's not really nutrient specific.

The bloating is pretty specific and ... ugly. I go from having a reasonably good physique to looking like I have a big beer belly within 15 minutes of eating a meal (another common description is "looking pregnant" although, as a guy, I can relate less well to that haha).

It may not sound like a big deal but ... feeling bloated for hours after any meal is extremely unpleasant. I'm a 34 year old guy and my only prior experience of bloating was after the rare food binge - such as (for example) visiting an all you can eat buffet (ah the memories!). Sadly, I now feel like that after eating just about anything. You feel awful, bending over becomes difficult and ... it has kept me from exercising (mostly just because it makes you feel very unpleasant. I've slowly picked up my aerobic and weights routine over the past year).

A sister diagnosis to APD is functional dyspepsia (FD) - especially the postprandial type. I try to keep on top of the research as best as I can but much of it is very new and there seems to be relatively little consensus out there as to what causes this and what effective treatments might be.

Treatments available at the moment involve neuromodulators (essentially low doses of old tricyclic antidepressants; unfortunately they tend to have lots of side effects) as well as physiotherapy and biofeedback. For the last two ... the tricky part is finding qualified practitioners. I've yet to have much success in that regard but am exploring options.

The antidepressant therapy didn't do much for my condition and it seems to be a problem independent of my mood (yes ... like so many we get the "it must be in your head" treatment whenever our ailment can't be physically explained).

I've learned to live with it as best as I can (smaller portions, not eating and drinking at the same time). But of course I keep one eye out for an effective treatment and scouring the internet for any mentions of APD has been my latest gambit. 

Hope some of this resonates with somebody out there. A couple of further personal details: I'm originally from Ireland but now live in Israel (this username is my real name; I've blogged about this before and am comfortable discussing it!). Medical treatment here is generally very good but unfortunately APD is still such a poorly understood entity that there doesn't seem to be much help or knowledge out there.

If somebody else reading this has APD .... please let me know if anything has worked. In the meantime, nice to be here!

Hannah_Alumni

Thank you so much for sharing @danielrosehill I do hope more treatments become available!