What Is Gastroparesis?

Gastroparesis literally means "stomach paralysis." Normally, coordinated muscle contractions push food from your stomach into the small intestine within a few hours. In gastroparesis, those contractions slow down dramatically, so food sits in the stomach for far longer than it should — sometimes a day or more.

The condition is diagnosed with a gastric emptying study, in which you eat a small radiolabeled meal and a scanner measures how much food remains in your stomach over four hours.

Patients describe persistent nausea, vomiting (often of food eaten hours or even days earlier), early fullness after only a few bites, abdominal pain, bloating, and unexplained weight loss. Symptoms can wax and wane but rarely fully resolve.

The most common known causes are diabetes ("diabetic gastroparesis"), prior abdominal surgery, neurological conditions, and certain medications — particularly opioid pain medications and, more recently, GLP-1 receptor agonists. In a meaningful share of cases, no cause is ever identified.

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound work in part by slowing gastric emptying. That is a feature, not a bug — slower emptying helps blood sugar control and increases satiety.

In some patients, however, the slowing becomes severe, prolonged, or permanent. Published case series describe patients who developed gastroparesis during GLP-1 therapy and continued to have symptoms months or years after stopping the drug.

Treatment is largely supportive: dietary changes (small, low-fat meals; sometimes liquids only), prokinetic drugs like metoclopramide, anti-nausea medication, and in severe cases gastric electrical stimulation or feeding tubes. There is no cure.