My wife gave me a lot of chocolate for Valentine’s Day. That way, she eats some too.
I pigged out on it and have had diarrhea for three days. The Carcinoid Syndrome has a number of well known symptoms:
- Flushing, turning red and feeling hot
- Abdominal pain that comes and goes
- Diarrhea
- Heart palpitations
- Low blood pressure
- Wheezing
and in my case:
- Night sweats
- Chills in the evening
- Itchy, crawly skin that starts at the scalp and works down the whole body (this was accompanied by flushing once).
I have the diarrhea and slight abdominal pain from time to time.
The syndrome and especially diarrhea occurs for many different reasons:
- hard exercise
- extreme heat (hot tub, etc.)
- foods and drugs whose name in “ine” (but not all of them)
- stress
- other dietary reasons
- etc.
Things that end in “ine” includes epinephrine which is used in many anesthetic and drug preparations, caffine and chocolate (contains theobromine.)
So, is three days diarrhea and abdominal discomfort worth the chocolate high? I’ll get back to you on that.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2012 Cyril BallCarcinoid doesn’t like chocolate was last modified: May 16th, 2012 by
Thanks Cy
I think that it would be highly unusual for colon or prostate cancer to be misdiagnosed once surgery is done, since they normally do laboratory biopsies after the surgery. However, I recommend two things if you have not already done them.
1. Check the list of carcinoid specialists on the The National Carcinoid Foundation website for a carinoid specialist near you and talk about your symptoms with that specialist.
2. Join the ACOR carcinoid mailing list and talk about your symptoms there. You will find others who have recurring abdominal discomfort. Also, there are a number of people on the list who are suffering from more than one type of cancer.
I wish the best possible outcomes for you.
Two years ago I had colon cancer surgery, 7 mos later I had a carcinoid tumor, left lung. The entire left lung was removed. Four years prior to the colon cancer I had bladder and prostate surgery. All of these surgeries were done at VA hospitals and they have told me the carcinoid lung cancer did not stem from the colon cancer. I now wonder if all of the cancer is carcinoid related and they misdiagnosed the bladder and colon cancer.
You mentioned hot abdominal discomfort. I have had that from time to time while getting up from my computer chair. This started long before I was diagnosed with cancer. You blog is the first I have heard of anyone complaining of this symptom, has me wondering.