We delved into an intriguing question: how do low vitamin D levels affect nausea in people experiencing gastroparesis, a condition that slows gastric emptying? By measuring the vitamin D levels of patients from the Gastroparesis Clinical Consortium Registry, we aimed to uncover the relationships between vitamin D, nausea, and gastric function.
Our findings revealed that over half of the patients had low vitamin D levels, specifically 56.1% of the 513 individuals studied. We observed a clear association between these low levels of vitamin D and increased experiences of nausea and vomiting. This was particularly notable in patients with delayed gastric emptying, where those with low vitamin D levels reported significantly more nausea.
While the study showed a correlation, it did not address whether supplementing with vitamin D could directly alleviate these symptoms. Instead, we found that lower vitamin D levels also related to a greater retention of food in the stomach after meals, which hints at a connection to gastric neuromuscular dysfunction. Overall, our study emphasized a noteworthy link between vitamin D and nausea but stopped short of confirming any direct treatment benefits.