24/10/2023
💥 What is stomach pain?
Stomach pain is a condition in which lesions appear in the stomach, the stomach lining becomes inflamed, or more seriously, deep ulcers directly affect the contraction activity, causing discomfort and pain for the patient.
-Symptoms of stomach pain
Typical symptoms of stomach pain are often obvious, but in some cases they do not manifest as specific signs but only have dull abdominal pain. Below are 5 main symptoms that stomach pain patients often experience:
Epigastric pain
This is a common sign in people with stomach pain and duodenal disease. Accordingly, patients often feel dull pain, pressure in the abdomen, pain, burning, and extreme discomfort.
However, when experiencing epigastric pain, the patient does not feel severe abdominal pain. Instead, stomach pain can only spread from the abdomen to the chest or spread to the back. This painful symptom only appears in the first 1-2 weeks or recurs repeatedly. Every time the season changes or the weather changes rapidly, the pain reappears.
Epigastric pain is also divided into the following cases:
Epigastric pain is related to meals and is cyclical and often occurs in people with duodenal pain.
Cyclic epigastric pain occurs in patients with duodenal ulcers.
Abdominal pain that is not cyclical but lasts continuously is the case of people with stomach cancer.
When the pain appears when hungry, the patient has a duodenal ulcer.
When eating food, you will feel epigastric pain, and when you are hungry, there will be no pain, which is the case of patients with stomach ulcers.
Eat poorly
People with stomach pain often show signs of poor appetite, or reduced food consumption or loss of appetite.
Epigastric pain
This is a common sign in people with stomach pain and duodenal disease. reactive, patients often feel dull pain, pressure in the abdomen, pain, burning, and extreme discomfort.
However, when experiencing epigastric pain, the patient does not feel severe abdominal pain. Instead, stomach pain can only spread from the abdomen to the chest or spread to the back. This painful symptom only appears in the first 1-2 weeks or recurs repeatedly. Every time the season changes or the weather changes rapidly, the pain reappears.
Epigastric pain is also divided into the following cases:
Epigastric pain is related to meals and is cyclical and often occurs in people with duodenal pain.
Cyclic epigastric pain occurs in patients with duodenal ulcers.
Abdominal pain that is not cyclical but lasts continuously is the case of people with stomach cancer.
When the pain appears when hungry, the patient has a duodenal ulcer.
When eating food, you will feel epigastric pain, and when you are hungry, there will be no pain, which is the case of patients with stomach ulcers.
Eat poorly
People with stomach pain often show signs of poor appetite, or reduced food consumption or loss of appetite.
In addition, vomiting too much causes the patient to lose water and electrolytes in the stomach fluid. More dangerous is low blood pressure and cardiovascular collapse.
Gastrointestinal bleeding
Gastrointestinal bleeding is understood as blood flowing out of the vessel wall into the gastrointestinal tract. This sign, once it occurs, can threaten the patient's life. Therefore, patients need to be taken to a medical facility for timely treatment.
In addition, it also comes with other symptoms such as vomiting fresh blood, black blood, and blood in the stool. Patients feel headaches, dizziness and low blood pressure due to acute blood loss.
This symptom may signal diseases such as acute gastritis due to medication, duodenal ulcers, ruptured esophageal veins due to liver disease, etc.
-Causes of stomach pain
There are many causes of stomach pain, and each cause will correspond to a different severity of the disease. Determining the correct cause of the disease will help make the treatment process more effective and optimal. And below are the common causes of stomach pain:
HP infection: According to statistics in Vietnam, about 70% of the population suffers from stomach pain due to HP infection (Helicobacter Pylori). This type of bacteria has the ability to live in the stomach lining and withstand the acidic environment there.
Smoking: Smoking is the main cause of erosion of the stomach lining. Because ci******es contain substances that destroy the stomach lining. In addition, it also negatively affects other organs in the body.
Using stimulant drinks, alcohol, coffee, etc. too much: Excessive use over a long period of time will cause damage to the stomach lining, affecting the stomach's contraction function.
Unscientific diet: Eating too much, eating dinner late, eating greasy foods, spicy foods often, skipping meals, chewing and swallowing fast food, etc. are also the reasons why stomach pain appears.
Prolonged stress: A person who is always tired and stressed will also cause the stomach to contract easily, stimulating continuous bowel movements, causing stomach pain.
In addition, the cause of stomach pain is also influenced by the side effects of drugs, especially over-the-counter pain relievers, antibiotics, cholesterol drugs, cancer treatment drugs, etc.
Some other causes that can be mistaken for stomach pain that patients need to pay attention to include food poisoning, acute pancreatitis, intestinal obstruction, gallstones, pancreatic tumors, biliary tract tumors, etc.
-Dangerous complications
In the case of stomach pain in the acute stage, if detected and treated early, it can be cured in just a few weeks. However, in the case of chronic stomach pain, pain appears frequently and the disease progresses more seriously. Some complications are dangerous to the health and life of patients such as gastric bleeding, gastric perforation, pyloric stenosis, and stomach cancer.
-How to diagnose stomach pain
To diagnose stomach pain, the doctor will discuss and ask a number of questions related to (history, medical history, physical symptoms of the patient, daily diet, etc.). After that, the patient is instructed to examine the abdomen by pressing for pain in the epigastric area.
To reach an accurate conclusion, the doctor may prescribe a number of tests and diagnostic imaging including:
-Blood tests to evaluate general health;
Urea breath test or saliva sample test to check for the presence of HP bacteria in the stomach;
gastroscopy
Biopsy of stomach tissue
General abdominal ultrasound or X-ray.
Stomach pain treatment methods you should know
Depending on the severity of the disease progression as well as the cause of stomach pain, the doctor will prescribe appropriate treatment methods. Specifically:
For gastric ulcer causes, patients need to be treated with Proton Pump Inhibitors that reduce acid secretion (Proton Pump Inhibitors - PPIs): Omeprazole, Pantoprazole, Lansoprazole, Rabeprazole, Esomeprazole. This medicine has the effect of quickly healing ulcers and relieving stomach pain symptoms of the disease.
In case of duodenal ulcer caused by Helicobacter Pylori, the patient needs to use antibiotics in combination with PP combined with a healthy diet and lifestyle.
Using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory pain relievers or aspirin causes stomach pain. Besides. Patients can use additional PPIs.
For indigestion, patients can simply use PPIs alone or combine them with functional products to support the digestive tract.
-Treat stomach pain at home
Drink enough water every day
Divide meals into smaller portions throughout the day, don't overeat.
Chew food slowly.
Exercise every day.
Stay away from foods that contain a lot of fat, hot spicy foods, etc.
Restricting lying down will make the pain worse and even create more opportunities for heartburn to occur.
To reduce symptoms of stomach pain, patients can drink ginger tea.
Do not smoke, drink alcoholic or carbonated drinks, etc.
Drink lemon juice mixed with baking soda to reduce stomach acid levels, thereby reducing symptoms of heartburn and indigestion.
However, if the stomach pain still does not improve, the patient should proactively contact a doctor immediately for the best treatment solution to prevent complications of the disease.
Above is a summary of all information related to stomach pain. If you experience the above symptoms, proactively go to the nearest medical facility for examination, diagnosis, disease detection and timely treatment.