What is a Smart Pill and What Does it Mean for Your Gut?

What's a Smart Pill?

A smart pill is a recording device that's taken in the doctor's office alone. You may need to swallow the pill with a prescribed amount of food to move the pill along. You may be asked to avoid other foods for a time while the pill moves through your system, gathering data about where it is and how long it spends in each step of the digestive process.

If your stomach problems are related to poor or inefficient gastric motility, the path of the smart pill and the data it collects will give your physicians a great deal of information without requiring surgery or more invasive tests.

What is Gastric Motility?

Gastric motility refers to the rate of speed and the efficiency at which your food moves from

• swallowing to stomach
• stomach to small intestine
• small intestine to large or lower intestine

Any change or challenge in this process can lead to serious health problems. For example, you may suffer from nausea or vomiting after eating if food doesn't move from stomach to small intestine in a timely fashion, or you may suffer from upper abdominal pain.

Bloating is common for those who suffer from poor motility, as is an uncomfortable sense of fullness after only a little food. Slow or inefficient GI motility can be the result of illness or scarring of the small intestine.

It's also possible to suffer from too high a rate of gastric motility, also known as dumping syndrome. This illness is common among those who've had gastric bypass or esophageal surgery.

The symptoms of this illness can be frightening and dangerous as they can raise your heart rate. If a meal leads to sweating, flushing or a rapid heart rate, tracking your food with a smart pill can lead you toward an answer to your health challenge.

How Does the Smart Pill Help?

The smart pill will track through your body and record the pace at which food moves from mouth, to esophagus, to stomach, to small intestine and beyond. Once it's gone completely through your system, the data will be collected and you and your doctor will have a much better understanding of how your body manages the food you take in. Within a week of taking the pill, you will have data that can lead to an effective treatment for your digestive concerns.

Who Needs the Smart Pill?

People with poor GI motility struggle to process food. This means that they may suffer from a variety of digestive challenges. These experiences can include esophageal spasms when they start to eat, or they may suffer an upset stomach after every meal. Poor motility can feel like many other things, which can put you at risk for a severe health crisis.

For example, esophageal damage can feel like a heart attack, which could mask a real heart attack. The upset stomach from poor GI motility can feel like nausea, which could mask a serious illness, ulcer or an allergic reaction that needs immediate attention.

Those who struggle with gastric dumping may have a reaction that feels like a panic attack at each meal, which could lead to life-threatening conditions such as depression.

The ability to eat and feel good after a meal will add greatly to your quality of life. If eating is a chore, or worse, a dreaded event because you aren't sure how your body will respond, your life rapidly fills with anxiety. You may withdraw from sharing a meal with others and avoid eating. Using the smart pill to help you determine the source of your digestive risk is a tremendous first step in getting a handle on your health challenges.

Are There Any Risks?

If you have a history of small intestinal illness or any known scarring, you're probably not a good candidate as the pill could cause a blockage. Also, if you've got an MRI scheduled for any reason, the smart pill is not a good option at this time. Some smart pill use requires you to go for up to six hours after taking it without eating, so diabetics should carefully monitor their sugars at this time and put together a treatment option with their physician before taking the smart pill. Finally, those with pacemakers should not use the smart pill tracking device.

If your ability to enjoy healthy food is impacted by poor digestion, it's time to talk to your physician about checking your gastric motility. With the right data collection device, you may find that your stomach problems can be better managed with a medication or dietary change. The data gathered could greatly improve your life.