Gastroparesis: do you absorb calories at all if you vomit the food after it rots in ur stomach?

Question

I'm trying to figure out if a person whose vagus nerve is damaged and has a hard time getting food past the stomach if they get any calories at all from the food they vomit. Do they have to wait until it gets to the intestines or do they get some of the calories or all of them or any at all?

Answer 1

The trouble caused by vagus nerve damage usually affects the person's ability to swallow, it doesn't necessarily follow they will develop gastroparesis.  Food also doesn't rot in their stomach.  Usually a gastroenterologist will try to help the person with some dietary changes and a workup to make sure there are not any other underlying aggrivations- like obesity or diabetes, that are associated with the disorder.  Patients generally are advised to eat smaller, more frequent meals, low in fat and calorie and nutrition dense.  They also tend to have more luck keeping down pureed or liquid foods, and there are plenty of those around.  Ensure, just to name one.  There are also medications to help control the desire to vomit and to help stimulate the muscles of the stomach.  In a last ditch effort, the gastroenterologist can also install a feeding tube directly into the small intestine,   a jejunostomy tube, which can allow for liquids to bypass the stomach.  There are other more drastic surgical procedures as well, including bypassing the lower portion of the stomach.  For the record, there isn't much absorbed in the stomach.  The majority of your nutrition is absorbed in the duodenum and jejunum portions of the small intestine.  The stomach is responsible for reducing food to a liquid paste called chyme that is delivered to them, and things like sugars and liquids are pretty readily absorbed quickly.  That's why folks who suffer with this disorder do better with the pureed or liquid diet.  The stomach doesn't really have to work much with those before passing them down the line.