Digestive Disorders Community

I've had this problem for a few years now, but it feels like it's really ramped up in the past year or so. Basically my stomach gets ravenously hungry at odd times. It will grumble incessantly even though I'm eating regular meals (and not overeating), and if I don't respond by eating at least a small snack within about an hour after the grumbling starts, I'll start getting a nagging headache that gets progressively worse until I've digested some food. Even then, the headaches can linger for the rest of the day, and they don't seem to consistently respond to over-the-counter pain medication. The excess gas in my system makes me belch and pass gas a lot more than a normal person would, which is embarrassing. There's generally no pain (only the occasional cramping if it gets really bad) - just that feeling of being full of way too much hot air.

The worst part is that the apparent hunger keeps me awake at night, or I'll get bloated enough that it actually wakes me up at odd times during the early morning. If it's been a long while between dinner and bedtime, I'll sometimes try to head it off with a light snack such as a few crackers before bed, and/or take antacids as needed. But at least once a week I'll have a night where it takes a lot of trial and error - a small snack and then going back to bed again - to get me to sleep through the rest of the night. This severely disrupts my sleep schedule and that probably further messes up my metabolism. It's gotten to the point where I dread having to get up early for anything, because I can never guarantee a good night's sleep, even if I try to be proactive about it and go to bed early. Most maddening is the fact that my stomach will wait to start in with the grumbling until after I'm lying down. (Gravity must be a factor here.) I'd love to ignore it and just drift off to sleep, since on a psychological level I'm not craving food when this happens, but my stomach is like a crying newborn, and I resent needing to eat just to make myself fall asleep.

A little background: I'm a white male in my 30's, a bit overweight though not grossly so. I have a desk job and probably don't get the exercise I should, but even on the weekends when I do get out and take a good long hike or something like that to get the old heart pumping, it doesn't seem to affect the digestive symptoms in any noticeable way. I don't have the world's healthiest diet, but it's not terrible - I try to avoid fried foods and things that would obviously make me gassy (beans, really spicy food, etc.) when I eat out. I like coffee and other caffeinated beverages but limit myself to one a day and no later than lunch. I don't smoke, don't do drugs, and only touch alcohol once in a rare blue moon.

I'm pretty sure this isn't GERD, though I have had chronic bouts with that in the past, and will occasionally get that burning acid sensation when burping. I've asked doctors about it and has blood tests up the wazoo to rule out the obvious suspects such as diabetes (nope) and stomach cancer (definitely not that; I'd be dead by now if it were). A previous doctor suggested Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which I know is hard to test for, but are headaches and hunger so bad you can't sleep actually symptoms of that?

I've been prescribed some drugs such as Librax that helped for a while, but apparently I grew immune because they stopped being helpful after a few months. The last doctor I saw just prescribed over-the-counter antacids. Really? That's just a band-aid. I'm looking for a clearer diagnosis and a solution and modern medicine appears to be failing me, so I'm getting desperate here.

Anyone with similar experiences who can at least give me a better idea of what to suggest to my doctor the next time I see him?