I've been suffering with severe aches and pains for the past 2 years, and doctors can't seem to find anything physically wrong with me. I am starting to wonder if these strange symptoms could be weight related? And that if any of you have experienced the same symptoms? When I lay down to go to sleep at night, my heart starts pounding (or sometimes racing). During the day I experience sharp pains in my chest (around the heart/stomach area) and around my pancreas and liver. I often have trouble breathing (feeling constricted) and the list goes on and on. I was diagnosed with an insulin resistant pancreas and polysystic ovarian syndrome last year. I used to weigh 300 pounds, and since then have lost 40 pounds. I'm at 260 now, but I feel just as bad as I used to at 300. I'm at my wits end! Doctors say I'm fine and that this is all in my head and won't further look into my health problems. So, I'm starting to investigate for myself. I need to find answers. I feel sick when I eat, and I feel sick when I don't eat. Do any of you feel the same way or use to? Or have different symptoms? Could these symptoms be related to a hormonal imbalance? (I haven't had my period in 3 years)? High cholesterol? I'm 20 years old, and 5'10''

Well it all sounds like stuff that very much COULD be weight related. But also ... what do you eat? How much and when? What kind of exercise do you do? I think with more details we might be able to make some suggestions!

There are some serious threads here - if not an entire sub-forum - dedicated to POS. I'd check those out too.

I walk 30 minutes to an hour each night (not faithfully). I monitor my calories, but a majority of my food is high in carbs, fat, and sugar. (Some fast food too). I don't have a specific time I eat my meals. And how much? It depends. I've been cutting my food's in half. I used to eat 2 sandwiches, and now I eat 1. Sorry I'm not being really specific on the foods I eat, I don't eat the same things everyday.

Well, I can't actually diagnose anything ... but I'd say that's probably a big part of your problem.

I'll be honest .. you can make a choice to be healthy or you can make a choice to not be healthy. If you continue on the way you are, you're choosing the "not healthy" option.

Choosing to be healthy means paying more attention to what you eat and making a conscious decision to cut back on the sugars, the fats, the junk, the processed food. It means rethinking how you eat and what you eat - not just for the short term, but for the rest of your life.

I look at my eating choices kind of the same way I look at my money choices. I can choose to use my money wisely and pay my bills and put money aside in savings and retirement. That's not always "fun" and it sometimes requires me to do things I don't want to do or to not do things I do want to do. But it's the right and responsible thing to do. Or I can spend all my money on junk, going out to eat, booze and food, and then when the time comes to pay my bills I'm hurting and wondering if I'll make the mortgage this month.

I know a lot of people who do the 2nd thing - and then at the end of every month they wonder why they can't pay the rent or don't have savings for when their car breaks down. They have a lot of nice things in their homes, but they can't afford to take 2 weeks off of work to go on vacation, and they're shelling out $800 a month to credit card companies at exorbitant interest rates.

IMO, your chose of eating healthily is the same way. You can choose to "spend" your food on junk and sugar, or you can choose to be responsible and put some thought into your eating.

I would bet serious money that if you spent 6-8 weeks eating healthily, really thinking about what you put in your body, and making good solid choices, you'd feel a whole lot better at the end of it.

But ultimately it's your choice. No one here can make the choice for you.

I know this seems somewhat off the wall, but maybe you have some sort of worm or parasite??? I'm not Dr. Gregory House, but...I'm trying?

Eh, I'd bet the POD or the insulin issue well before a parasite. I googled POD as a result of a thread here, and it is some nasty stuff.

You're right...POD is some nasty stuff. They suck.