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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Causes Stomach Bloating And Pain After Quitting Alcohol?

Hello doc, I am 26 M. Since last 6 years I have drinking habit. Initial two years I was having just couple of drinks once in only for two to three weeks. I was getting sufficiently high with 60 - 90 ml of hard liquor back then.. Slowly I needed more n more to get the same effect and I ended up with nearly 3-4 large whiskey or a pitcher full of beer on every fridays and saturdays without fail and sometimes sundays too. This since last 1 year. I was diagnosed with IBS-C one year n a half ago. It never really got cured completely despite lot of medications. Suddenly , out of the blue I wanted to stop or minimizing drinking to negligible levels. Its 20 days now without alcohol. But my stomach seems to be getting worse completely contrary to my expectation. Stomach bloats n cramps, I have somewhat tightness over my liver, stool is fatty and sticky and my original IBS symptoms getting worse. Why is that ? Please help me. I know alcohol may be reason for sluggish liver. But my stomach n stool passing was somewhat alright when I was having alcohol. But now that I have stopped for nearly three weeks ! Help much much appreciated.
Tue, 30 Dec 2014
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Addiction Medicine Specialist 's  Response
Cannot say in your particular case.. because there are a lot of possibilities. Mostly, it would be IBS... (irritable or inflammatory). These are pretty typical except for the fatty stool. Malabsorption due to pancreatitis (ongoing or past) will cause a malabsorption of fat and starch and this would give fatty and abnormal stools. Gallbladder disease could also, but alcohol is not a big risk of that and it IS a huge risk factor for pancratitis.
Irritable bowel is due to abnormal motility fo the colon. Stressors such as acute or chronic alcohol withdrawal syndromes regularly contribute to it.
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What Causes Stomach Bloating And Pain After Quitting Alcohol?

Cannot say in your particular case.. because there are a lot of possibilities. Mostly, it would be IBS... (irritable or inflammatory). These are pretty typical except for the fatty stool. Malabsorption due to pancreatitis (ongoing or past) will cause a malabsorption of fat and starch and this would give fatty and abnormal stools. Gallbladder disease could also, but alcohol is not a big risk of that and it IS a huge risk factor for pancratitis. Irritable bowel is due to abnormal motility fo the colon. Stressors such as acute or chronic alcohol withdrawal syndromes regularly contribute to it.