Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Complications
By Mayo Clinic staffA blind loop can trigger an escalating series of problems, including:
- Poor absorption of fats. Because bacteria in your small intestine break down (deconjugate) the bile salts needed to emulsify and digest fats, the fat in food as well as the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K aren't well absorbed. This leads to diarrhea and often to steatorrhea — fatty, foul-smelling stools — as well as to weight loss and vitamin deficiency disorders. A lack of vitamin A can cause night blindness, for example, and low levels of vitamin D affect your body's ability to absorb calcium, which can lead to weakened bones.
- Damage to the intestinal lining. Bacterial overgrowth harms the mucous lining (mucosa) of the small intestine both directly and indirectly. Toxic byproducts that are released when bacteria break down stagnant food damage the mucosa, as do bacterial enzymes themselves. This damage means that most nutrients, including carbohydrates and proteins, are poorly absorbed, leading to serious nutritional deficiencies.
- Vitamin B-12 deficiency. Vitamin B-12, which is essential for the normal functioning of your nervous system and the production of blood cells and DNA, is absorbed in your small intestine. But proliferating bacteria actually use up the vitamin, reducing the amount that's available to your body. A severe deficiency can lead to weakness, fatigue, tingling and numbness in your hands and feet, and, in advanced cases, to mental confusion. Damage to your central nervous system resulting from a B-12 deficiency may be irreversible.
- Brittle bones (osteoporosis). Both calcium and vitamin D, which aids in calcium absorption, are metabolized in your small intestine. Damage to your intestine from abnormal bacterial growth causes poor calcium absorption and eventually may lead to bone diseases such as osteoporosis.
