Pain in the stomach: causes, characteristics, treatment

Every person felt pain in the stomach - they do not necessarily represent a serious pathology.Many experience unpleasant pain in the stomach due to overeating or drinking too much liquid.But it is worthwhile to know that even minor discomfort can become a symptom of a pathological process that requires the provision of emergency care.Therefore, one must be able to independently differentiate the pain in the stomach and understand what states imply an immediate call to the doctor.

Table of contents Causes of stomach pain Treatment tests for stomach pain Treatment of stomach pains Stomach pains that require emergency care

Causes of stomach pain

Causes of stomach pain can be various pathological and physiological conditions.As a rule, this syndrome is not of a permanent nature and therefore people ignore it - an error leading to the development of severe complications.

Causes of pain in the stomach of a pathological nature:

1. Gastritis - inflammation of the gastric mucosa.With gastritis, the pain syndrome will be unstable, unintentional and always associated with eating - most often unpleasant sensations appear immediately after using "wrong" products.
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   Note : The acute form of gastritis is characterized by sudden strong wrinkles in the epigastric region, they quickly disappear, but can be troubling every time after eating.If it is a chronic form of the inflammatory process of the gastric mucosa, the patient notes aching pains, accompanied by a feeling of bursting and swelling.
2. Dyspepsia( a nervous stomach).The pain syndrome in this condition will have a spastic character, it is accompanied by nausea, a feeling of excessive fullness and loss of appetite.Despite the fact that the pain is localized precisely in the area of ​​the anatomical location of the stomach, the "culprit" of dyspepsia is the pancreas, so even taking anesthetic drugs with an antispasmodic effect does not have the desired effect.
3. Stomach ulcer.This condition usually develops as a complication of chronic gastritis, so the pain in the stomach will be familiar to the patient.But with the formation of ulcers, the character of the pains in the stomach will change - they become more abrupt, intense, come immediately after eating.
4. Benign neoplasms, including polyps.It is noteworthy that such pathologies do not threaten the life of the patient, but patients experience severe discomfort: when eating( when food enters the stomach, nerve endings that are in the neoplasm are irritated), when overeating.The nature of the pains - unstable, aching, pulling, is accompanied by a feeling of fullness of the stomach, even with a small amount of food.The patient's fear of experiencing an attack of pain after eating food causes him to starve.

Medicine classifies and physiological pains in the stomach. They, of course, appear due to violations in various organs and systems:

1. Viral diseases, including tonsillitis and pneumonia.Usually, pains in the stomach with such infectious pathologies are present only in the first three days of the disease, are aching and non-intensive, accompanied by nausea and diarrhea( diarrhea).
2. Pathological processes of infectious etiology, developing in the bladder, pancreas, gall bladder and other organs of the gastrointestinal tract.The patient describes the pain in the stomach as spastic, unstable.
3. Allergy to certain products.The pain in the stomach can occur immediately when the allergen enters the body and continues as long as the product is being digested.The nature of the syndrome is variable - from spasms to practically indistinguishable pain.

Very often pains in the stomach of a spastic character appear with stress, nervous experiences, protracted depression.And recently doctors have isolated the phobia in the stomach in a separate category - they are associated with a sense of fear: for example, when entering a new job, before performing among a large number of listeners and so on.

Note : the causes of pain in the stomach can become, in principle, any internal disease.But in some cases, we will only talk about the irradiation of the pain syndrome - for example, with gastrilagic myocardial infarction, gallbladder inflammation and even pyelonephritis.

As a separate item, doctors consider hungry stomach aches , night - they are caused by the formation of a large amount of hydrochloric acid in an empty stomach. The causes of stomach hunger are as follows:

• presence on the walls of a hollow organ of pathogenic bacteria;
• The presence of gastrinoma is a benign neoplasm localized in the gastric pyloric and self-releasing gastric juice with a high content of hydrochloric acid;
• regular disruption of the meal schedule, overeating at night;
• progressively developing malignant tumors - their growth is especially active at night.

Examinations for stomach pain

Complaints of the patient for stomach pain are not grounds for making any diagnosis.The doctor will have to perform a series of procedures to reveal the true cause of even minor discomfort / pain sensations. Surveys for stomach pains include:

• Survey of the patient - the nature of pain, frequency and intensity, the relationship with food intake, and other features of the syndrome;
• ultrasound examination of the stomach and other organs of the gastrointestinal tract - this will detect neoplasm or pathological changes in the structure of tissues;
• Ezogastroduodenography is a specific study of the stomach with a probe and a miniature video camera;
• computed tomography - all pathological changes can be classified and differentiated.

Note: for easier diagnosis, the patient can independently monitor his own well-being.It takes a week to provide the doctor with a complete description of the clinical picture.

It's worth fixing:

• at what time most often there are pains in the stomach - in the morning on an empty stomach, immediately after a meal or at night;
• which products cause uncomfortable sensations - it can be milk or fatty meat;
• provoking factors - the pain can be significantly increased with deep inspiration, sneezing, uncomfortable body position;
• the presence of hyperthermia( fever) with a fit of pain;
• character of the syndrome - pulling, stitching, aching, spastic and other types of pain.

Treatment of stomach pains

Spastic pains in the epigastric region can be removed with analgesic antispasmodic agents, but this will be emergency help.A full-fledged treatment can be prescribed only by a doctor after examining the patient and finding out the reasons provoking uncomfortable sensations.

Doctors recommend with periodic pains in the stomach to adhere to the following diet:

• give preference to milk and boiled meat of low-fat type;
• to exclude from the ration marinated, sharp, acidic and salty dishes - they act on the walls of the stomach irritatingly and even in healthy people can cause short-term cramps;
• at night to give up eating, and if the feeling of hunger is too strong, then confine yourself to a glass of milk with honey.

Strong pain can be removed with "soft" products - for example, use soups, mashed potatoes, steamed meatballs, steamed, crushed porridges and vegetable purees.

Self-medication is strictly prohibited - the cause of the pain syndrome in the epigastric region can be the pathology of a far-located organ that only a doctor can detect when performing instrumental research.

If the diagnosis was made earlier and a simple exacerbation of a chronic inflammatory / infectious process occurs, the following measures can be taken:

• adhere to a strict diet and control the intake of only the "right" products in the body;
• daily take 300 ml of decoction of chamomile and mint, dividing the total amount of the drug into three doses;
• to drink tea made from blueberries - it is taken cold in 50 ml four times a day;
• with increasing pain in the stomach can be every 30 minutes during the day to drink a tablespoon of normal vegetable oil( optimally - olive);
• Alcohol tincture of calendula should be taken at a dosage of 20 drops three times a day( can be diluted with water).

Note: , with the existing stomach pain of varying intensity, should abandon alcoholic beverages, although many patients consider alcohol to be an excellent means of soothing.Relief can come, but it will be very short-lived, and the consequences of such disorderly condition are generally difficult to predict - alcohol acts destructively on the mucosa of a hollow organ.

If the pains in the stomach are repeated too often and each time to relieve the syndrome requires more anesthetic drugs, then you need to undergo a test - this condition is inherent only in certain serious pathologies.

Stomach pains that require emergency care

Patients usually try to cope with the pain syndrome in their stomachs themselves and in some cases, their actions are really effective.But there are a number of pathologies that require immediate intervention by health professionals.And one of them is the perforation of the ulcer - the rupture of the wall of the hollow organ in place of the already existing wound surface. This condition is accompanied by the following symptoms:

1. Stomach pain - acute, "dagger", sudden.The intensity of the syndrome is such that the patient is forced to take a posture lying on his back with his legs strongly pressed to the stomach.
2. Severe general weakness - in some cases, the patient is confused and even faint.
3. Increased sweating - on the forehead of the patient acts cold sticky sweat, they can be covered and palms.
4. Sudden decrease in blood pressure and a decrease in heart rate - this is provoked by internal bleeding.

Pains in the stomach do not bring joy, they often wear a aching, "exhausting" character and arise absolutely spontaneously.To be frightened them it is not necessary, it is enough to address for the help to experts - having revealed the reason of a considered condition, the doctor will appoint effective and competent treatment.

Tsygankova Yana Aleksandrovna, medical reviewer, therapeutist of the highest qualification category.