Food you eat has to be digested before it can fuel your body. Digestion breaks food down into its separate parts:
Proteins
Fats
Carbohydrates
Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are nutrients because they provide nutrition. Other nutrients are:
Vitamins and minerals
After food is digested, nutrients go into your body through the walls of your intestines. This is called absorption.
Locating the Small Intestine
What is malabsorption?
Malabsorption means you don't properly take in (absorb) nutrients from food. A problem somewhere in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract keeps you from absorbing one or more kinds of nutrients.
Malabsorption can be caused by diseases, surgery on your intestines, or intestinal infections
You'll usually lose weight and have diarrhea and smelly stool (poop)
After a while, you may get vitamin deficiencies, which may give you a low blood count and feel make you feel sick
Doctors often have to do stool and blood tests and sometimes look in your stomach and intestines with a flexible scope (endoscopy)
Different causes of malabsorption need different treatments, but doctors usually try to adjust your diet to relieve your symptoms
What causes malabsorption?
Two main problems cause malabsorption:
Food isn't digested properly
Your intestines can't absorb nutrients
What causes digestion problems?
You won't be able to digest food completely if:
Your pancreas doesn't make enough digestive juices, such as occurs in pancreatitis or cystic fibrosis
You don't have certain digestive enzymes in your intestines, such as in lactose intolerance
Why can't you absorb nutrients?
You have trouble absorbing nutrients if:
The lining of your intestines is damaged, such as in celiac disease, tropical sprue, or Whipple disease
Part of your intestines were removed, called short bowel syndrome
What are the symptoms of malabsorption?
The most common symptom of malabsorption is:
Chronic diarrhea
You'll have lots of loose, oily stools that smell worse than usual.
Other symptoms include:
Feeling gassy and bloated
Losing weight
For women, stopped periods
Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can cause:
Low blood count (anemia)
Easy bruising
Tingling of hands and feet
How do doctors diagnose malabsorption?
Doctors usually do:
Stool tests to look for unabsorbed fat
Blood tests
If these tests show malabsorption, doctors then do tests to look for the cause. They may:
Look down your stomach and intestines with a flexible viewing scope (endoscopy)
Do breath tests
Take x-rays after you swallow a liquid contrast agent
How do doctors treat malabsorption?
Treatment depends on the cause. Some malabsorption diseases have specific treatments. For example, tropical sprue and Whipple disease are treated with antibiotics.
In general, if you have trouble with only certain foods, doctors will have you avoid them. If you are missing certain digestive enzymes, sometimes you can take enzyme supplements. If you have a vitamin deficiency, you'll take extra vitamins.
