YANMD. Did chia seeds and heavy weights do this to me, abdomen edition.

September 19, 2022 7:19 AM

Who doesn't love a trip to the ER? Did I do this to myself with eating chia seeds and lifting a lot of 40 lb bags?

7 month post-bariatric and hiatal hernia surgery, lost more than 1/3 body weight, able to eat most foods except tomatoes and spicy things. Eating more protein, fewer carbs and in order to up my fiber, 1 week ago, I made chia-steel cut oats overnight pudding and ate at least 1 cup of it daily. There were A LOT of chia seeds in there.

36 hours ago I developed appendix-like stabbing pain (but I have no appendix) in lower-right quadrant which were around a 6-8 on the pain scale.

Went to the ER in the morning, CT scan showed dilated bile duct (I've always had this) and everything else looked fine except for a lot of stool (which was odd because I poop 2x daily like a champion).

CT also showed the hernia is back (which was to be expected since they do fail).

Bloodwork totally fine. Pain is slowly fading and now it feels like I'm recuperating from a bad stomach bug--crampy stomach, achy, a little queasy.

I'm about to get an MRI to get a better look and to rule out lots of things--including gallstones--which can become a problem after bariatric surgery, but I have literally zero gallbladder symptoms.

I'm pondering this and just wondering--could this have been a suddenly influx of chia seeds followed by lifting many 40 lb bags?

posted by yes I said yes I will Yes to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

Best answer: Chia makes me wonder about diverticulosis where your colon might have little tiny pockets that small seeds can get stuck in, maybe worth investigating.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 7:33 AM on September 19, 2022 [10 favorites]

Best answer: Not sure about the weights being a factor but I experienced the same kind of pain after having Chia seeds. It was terrible. I was bent over in pain. It sounds like you soaked them which is supposed to prevent that sort of thing from happening. I didn't have as much as you did. Oat milk also caused a similar pain. Not at the same scale though. Not sure if it is too much fiber or an intolerance but I avoid both now. Steel cut oats can also cause issues despite their good reputation.

I don't want to link to anything questionable but there are several articles and anecdotal comments when I googled "chia seeds stomach pain".
posted by mokeydraws at 7:35 AM on September 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Chia makes me wonder about diverticulosis where your colon might have little tiny pockets that small seeds can get stuck in, maybe worth investigating.

I was diagnosed with diverticulosis about 11 years ago. Jeez--was that it?
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 7:38 AM on September 19, 2022

Best answer: So I have diverticulosis (pouches in my intestines), have had diverticulitis flare-ups, and also lift. Obviously IANYD but FYI the old "people with diverticulosis shouldn't eat seeds and nuts" advice is very out of date. So it's likely your chia seeds didn't *cause* the pain you're feeling. However, when someone is having a diverticulitis episode, seeds/nuts/high fiber in general *can* cause a lot of pain. So it may be that you were on the verge of a flare-up and ingesting those seeds pushed you over. (But in my experience, this is one of those "we'll never know" categories.)

The MRI is gonna tell you what you need to know, but my flare-up strategy is usually antibiotics + very low-fiber diet for a few days, then slowly ramping up the fiber. And then once you're healed, you actually want a very high fiber diet with plenty of nuts, seeds and the like on a daily basis. My gastro has me at 25-30 grams of fiber per day, which is a lot but it is doable. Haven't had a flare-up since starting that, knock wood.
posted by BlahLaLa at 7:56 AM on September 19, 2022 [6 favorites]

Best answer: I haven't had this happen with chia seeds but fairly recently I decided to start taking Metamucil to help with fiber intake and also hopefully quell some IBS-like symptoms I have as a side effect from a medication I take. I apparently overdid it on the Metamucil day 2 and spent the whole day in utter agony, couldn't sit stand or lie down without pain. I figured maybe it was the Metamucil causing some sort of... clog? so I drank as much water as possible to try to loosen and flush it out. I was praying for a bowel movement. I planned to go to the ER if I was still in misery by bedtime.

TMI-filter: apparently the water worked and before bed I had an epic bowel movement. My pain went away immediately.

So, I see that you have diverticulosis and perhaps the chia seeds got stuck. But I'm thinking that maybe a week of oatmeal with tons of chia seeds just... caused things to slow down way too much? The fact that they found a lot of stool in you seems to support this theory. I don't think the heavy lifting had anything to do with it.

I am terrified of Metamucil now. It's odd, about ten years ago I used to take a tablespoon of it twice a day and never had these issues. I wonder if restarting randomly at the same dose meant my body needed time to reacclimate?

IANAD so listen to your doctors. Just wanted to share my anecdote.
posted by nayantara at 8:30 AM on September 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Chia seeds need to be eaten with a LOT of water (or pre soaked like in a pudding) otherwise they absorb water while in your bowels and become a clog. For reference I never eat more that 2tsp of seeds three days in a row or it’s disaster. (And I do it always pre soaked. )
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:39 AM on September 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I asked the Marginalia search engine about "eat fiber drink water" and one of its first results was this page about chia seeds which is relevant to this question.
posted by aniola at 8:55 AM on September 19, 2022 [2 favorites]