Help me identify a chemical

Factual Questions
1

Ok so I know this looks like I’m asking for medical advice, and technically maybe I am…but the doctors are useless with this one.

I get stomachaches. But, I’ve been able to identify what causes them. At least…the certain foods or drinks that cause them. What I want to know is…and this is what the doctors can’t seem to tell me…what chemical or combination of chemicals is my body reacting to?

So the pain is a terrible burning sensation, almost like heartburn, but not in my esophagus. It’s directly in the pit of my stomach. It starts soon after ingesting the bad stuff. It lasts between 20 minutes and 40 minutes, and at times it’s so intense that I can’t do anything but lay down and fight off crying. And like I said, only certain foods or drinks cause it. I’ve been able to manage it so far, and it’s not a big deal. I’m just curious as to what my body is reacting to.

So here’s a sampling of the offending items: I’m hoping that you all may see something that my doctor is too damn lazy to look into. He just says “well then don’t eat those things”.

some fruits. Example: apples, diced fruit in syrup, pears, etc. Raw fruit is a big offender. But in small quantities, and with other food, it’s not too bad.

fruit juices. Any kind of fruit juice…be it fresh squeezed, or from concentrate, or anything with a picture of fruit on the bottle. Strangely…I can have a single glass of orange juice with breakfast…and then it’s bearable. Too much, and pain here I come! Apple juice…I can’t even smell that stuff. Awful pain!

Any kind of fake drink…anything at all that is processed or manufactured or bottled. Like, soda, fake iced tea, SOBE life water, gatorade, etc. It’d be easier to say what I CAN drink: homemade iced tea, water, milk, hot tea, and get this: any kind of drink that I listed which I cannot drink, I can drink the diet version. Coke, bad. Diet Coke, OK. Fake iced tea, bad. Diet fake iced tea, OK. This is where I think the offending chemical can be found. Something is in the regular drinks but not in the diet ones. I’ve tried reading labels, but I know sometimes they change the names of stuff to make it look healthier, or to follow some BS “all natural” motto.

So for a while I thought it was high fructose corn syrup. But I can have syrup on my pancakes! Aunt Jemima is all HFCS.

Then I thought it was citric acid. But then orange juice isn’t too bad. Apple juice, that’s a killer! Burns a hole right through me.
So, can you help me in my chemical scavenger hunt? :confused:

2

Sounds like acid - citric for fruit, phosphoric for coke - might be an issue. And is your doctor sure you haven’t got an ulcer?

But rather than consult a messageboard, I think you should see a different doctor and get a second professional opinion.

3

Do you get follow-on diarrhea? Follow-on in this case means that it comes about 2 hours after you drink the offending stuff.

What about extreme drowsiness in conjunction with the gastric upset?

Have you had gastric surgery in the past, such as a gastric bypass, intestinal resection, or stomach removal?

Does this happen with solid sweet items?

There is a syndrome known as ‘dumping’ that most commonly occurs in people with gastric bypasses, where ingestion of something containing a large amount of sugar causes an osmotic reaction in the small intestine. The intestine fills with water from your bloodstream, causing intense discomfort for about 2 hours, then it subsides. The giveaway is you’ll get sleepy when your belly hurts, then when you wake up you don’t want to be far from a toilet for a while because you’ll swear someone spiked your food with Ex-Lax. A dumping episode lasts about 3 hours total.

If you answer no to most/all of the questions, start looking for an acid problem in conjunction with a budding ulcer.

I’ve had a bypass, and I dump. I tend to avoid sweets as a result.

4

I really do mean no offense, but you would be surprised how many people don’t know where their stomachs are. It sounds like you have GERD, an ulcer, or a stricture.

Go see a gastroenterologist, and get a esophagogastroduodenoscopy (they stick a tube down your throat and see whats going on.) If your symptoms are really bad, they should be able to see erosive changes at the base of your esophagus. If its an ulcer, they should be able to see that too. If they don’t see anything, they will probably hook you up to a 24 hour ph monitor or just give you a PPI and see if that helps.

Your symptoms are far too acute for this to be an allergic reaction. IANAD, go see one, and listen to what they say.

5

I did see a doctor. Repeatedly. I did have an ulcer. However, the ulcer’s symptoms were different. They were isolated, and much more severe, and a different kind of pain altogether. I had an endoscopy, it identified the ulcer, the doc gave me a prescription, the ulcer went away. So did the unique set of symptoms that accompanied it.

However, ever since I was 5 years old I have had a problem associated with certain types of drinks and fruits. The pain is different…and I’ve felt it enough times to know that it’s not acid refluxing into my esophagus, it is quite literally in my stomach. I can go months with no symptoms, but it’s because I’ll consciously avoid all the things which cause the symptoms. But then, one day when i’m really thirsty and there’s no other options around, I’ll down a regular coke and BAM! Stomach pain city. It’s like I accidentally poured mentos into a bottle of coke. They’re both fine separately, but they make a big mess when they get together.

I’m not asking for any medical advice. I don’t want your opinions on what I should do, or which types of doctors I should see. That would be stupid of me to ask strangers for that type of advice.

I want more than one set of eyes looking at the list of offending substances, so that the coinciding chemical can be identified.

It’s a curiosity more than a medical need. My gastro issues are quite well managed and I am in no serious medical danger.

Please refrain from offering advice on how to treat my “condition”. I just want to know which chemicals are present in non-diet processed drinks that are not present in diet versions of those same drinks. Again, the list of ingredients on the back is difficult for me to gain useful info from because of the many different names everything goes by. I’m hoping that someone who knows a bit about chemicals and additives and their uses in different drinks can help out.

Again:

processed drinks: diet versions are ok, non-diet versions are bad.
But! Some of the “diet” versions of processed drinks have CITRIC ACID in them, and I get no symptoms from them. So I don’t think that’s the chemical…unless it’s being negated by something that is present in the diet versions of drinks (totally going out on a limb here: maybe it IS citric acid, but maybe the ASPARTAME in diet drinks cancels it out)

fruit drinks, bad. no matter what.

whole fruits, usually bad, unless eaten with other food.

And that’s about it in a nutshell. More of a chemical identification game rather than medically necessary advice.

6

No follow on diarrhea.

No drowsiness.

No gastric surgery.

Solid sweets are fine. I love candy :slight_smile:

7

Do you know if you have any fruit allergies? If you don’t know it might be worth checking out.

8

The nonvolatile acids typically found in apples are:

malic, quinic, citric, shikimic, and fumaric.

For orange juice the identified nonvolatile acids, besides citric, are:

tartaric, malic, benzoic, and succinic.

Therefore the offending suspects might be the quinic, shikimic or fumaric acids.