How Can One Gain Weight Without Being Hard On The Stomach When Diagnosed With MALS?
Tips for weight gaining with MALS
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Gaining weight can help relieve pressure on the celiac arteries in patients diagnosed with MALS who are not good candidates for surgery. However, the pain associated with food intake and associated GERD in your husband's case can make gaining weight difficult task.
The first step is to start a food diary. Keep track of what he is eating for each meal, how many meals he is consuming and symptoms (or no symptoms)he experiences each time after taking food. Keep track of the good diary for atleast a week, which helps identify the foods that trigger his symptoms.
Also, eat small frequent meals rather than 3 larger portions. Make sure that dinner is light and atleast an hour before going to bed.
Include healthy fats in diet like avocado, coconut oil, peanut butter, almonds etc to help gain weight. Fish like salmon, mackerel are also healthy fat sources.
Drik smoothies made with berries and yogurt (as yogurt is more easier on the stomach than whole milk). Avoid carbonated, caffeinated drinks, chocolate, citrus fruits and alcoholic beverages which can worsen GERD. XXXXXXX muffins, granola bars, rice, and potatoes etc. are healthy carbohydrate sources which can be included in the diet.
He can also take 40 mg pantoprazole to help relieve GERD. Raising the head end of bed using blocks underneath bedpost while sleeping can also reduce GERD symptoms.
Hope this answers your questions
Please let me know if you need further clarifications
Regards
Dr.Lekshmi
Thanks for good advice.
Almond, coconut milk vs cow's milk
Detailed Answer:
Hello again,
The almond milk and coconut milk has lower calories than cow's milk. So, cow's milk yogurt is preferable since he is trying to gain weight. That being said, some individuals with GERD do not tolerate dairy products well. If he has issues with dairy products, then Yogurt from almond/coconut milk is the better option. So, he can actually do a trial of cow's milk yogurt and see how well it is tolerated. If there are no issues, switching to whole cow's milk yogurt will help gain weight faster.
Regards
Dr.Lekshmi
2. Patient does sit-up exercise on the end of the bed while anchoring his feet and using 5 lb weights (approximately 100-200 ). Will this cause him to develop more muscle and hinder the build up of more fat to ease the artery/ligament problem
(MALS) ? (He does other exercises using bicycle and bouncer, and stretch bands.)
Cow's milk has higher protein content
Detailed Answer:
Hello again,
Cow's milk has higher protein content than almond and coconut milk. So, yogurt made from Cow's milk is likely to have higher amount of protein.
Exercises he is doing in on moderate amounts and will not affect weight gain and fat build up as long as it is made sure that he is getting more than adequate calories (approximately more than 2500 calories)every day.
Regards
Dr.Lekshmi