Stomach Hurts - What To Do At Home? What To Drink?

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 17:49

Stomach hurts: what to do?

Stomach pain can occur for a variety of reasons. Moreover, they do not always indicate the development of a serious disease. For example, the stomach may feel uncomfortable when eating excessive amounts of food or liquids. But one should not show carelessness in this matter, since sometimes pains signal to a person about the development of a dangerous pathology that needs immediate treatment. Therefore, you need to be able to independently distinguish what exactly caused the unpleasant sensations in the abdomen, and whether a person needs medical help.

Content:

• Why can stomach pain occur?
• Diagnosis of stomach pain
• What to do at home for stomach pain?
• First aid for stomach pain
• Preparations for pain in the stomach
• When does stomach pain require urgent medical attention?

Why can stomach pain occur?

Most often, stomach pain occurs at regular intervals. The person does not experience constant discomfort, therefore, he ignores the signals given by the body. It is this factor that matters in terms of the development of serious diseases.

Stomach pain can occur for the following reasons:

• Development of the inflammatory process in the thickness of the gastric mucosa. This disease is called gastritis. Pain with gastritis is not too intense, is not present on an ongoing basis, but occurs at regular intervals. The stomach always reacts with pain after a person eats foods that irritate the mucous membrane. If gastritis worsens, then this is expressed by strong painful sensations that quickly pass. However, after the next meal, they reappear. The chronic form of the disease is characterized by aching abdominal pain, bloating and a feeling of heaviness.
• Disruption of the normal functioning of the stomach, pain during the digestion of food. This syndrome is called dyspepsia. Pain occurs unexpectedly, they are acute, have a clear localization, and may be accompanied by a feeling of nausea. A person has no desire to eat, there is a feeling that the stomach is full. The pains are localized in the epigastric region, but the cause of their occurrence is the pancreas. For this reason, taking antispasmodics does not relieve pain.
• A stomach ulcer, which is most often the result of untreated gastritis, can cause severe abdominal pain. In this case, the pain intensifies, becomes sharp, and occurs after each meal. read more …

• Tumors of the stomach of a benign nature. These growths are most often polyps. They cannot lead to the death of a person, but they worsen the quality of his life. Pain with polyps of the stomach can be quite intense, since after a meal there is a mechanical effect on the nerve endings that penetrate the tumor. Such pains are especially strong when a person overeats. A feeling of heaviness and fullness of the stomach can occur even then, for a year, the patient has consumed a small portion.

Sometimes painful sensations in the abdomen can occur for reasons not related to the pathology of the stomach:

• Pneumonia and sore throat - these diseases can cause abdominal discomfort. Most often, it disappears after 3 days from the manifestation of the disease. Pains are often accompanied by diarrhea, nausea, and have a pulling and aching character.
• Infection of the bladder, pancreas, gallbladder and other digestive organs. Stomach pain is not always present, it occurs spontaneously and acutely.

• An allergic reaction of the body to eating certain foods. If a person has eaten a product to which he is allergic, then pain can occur almost immediately. It will not completely go away until the stomach has digested the allergen. As for the sensations themselves, they can be both sharp and very weak.

If a person is in a state of nervous tension, then he may also experience pain in the stomach. Previously, experts pointed to stress and depression as the causes of abdominal discomfort, but now phobic pains have been allocated to a separate category. They arise when a person experiences a feeling of fear.

Stomach pain can result from almost any disorder in the body. In this case, it would be incorrect to consider it as a sign of organ disease. After all, it arises as a result of the pathology of other systems. An example of such pain can be pain in the stomach with myocardial infarction, with inflammation of the kidneys, with cholecystitis.

Sometimes stomach pains can occur only while it is empty. They begin to disturb a person at night, since a large amount of hydrochloric acid is formed in an empty stomach.

Causes of hunger pains:

• The walls of the stomach are seeded with pathogenic bacterial flora.
• The person has a gastrinoma. This is a tumor of a benign nature. It is localized in the pylorus of the stomach and produces gastric juice, in which the content of hydrochloric acid will be increased.
• The person does not adhere to the diet, overeats at night.
• The patient develops a malignant neoplasm of the stomach.

Diagnosis of stomach pain

To determine the true cause of stomach pain, you need to seek medical advice. Moreover, even weak and recurrent discomfort should not be ignored.

The doctor will offer the patient to undergo a series of examinations:

• Reception begins with a survey. It is important for the doctor to understand the nature of the pain, how often it occurs, is there any dependence on eating, etc.
• An ultrasound of the stomach and abdominal organs will give information about the presence or absence of any neoplasm.
• EGD is a study, during which a probe equipped with a camera is introduced into the patient's stomach, which makes it possible to assess the condition of the walls of the organ.
• CT is a high-tech study that allows you to get the most complete information about the state of the stomach.

To facilitate the diagnosis, a person must listen carefully to their own feelings. The doctor should be told about them in detail.

To do this, you need to pay attention to the following points:

• Time of onset of pain: morning, night, next meal.
• Whether the pain is provoked by the consumption of any particular food, for example, fatty or spicy foods.
• Whether the pain gets worse when you sneeze or when you are in an uncomfortable position.
• When the pain gets worse, does the body temperature rise.
• How can you describe the pain: it is pulling, sharp, spastic, etc.

What to do at home for stomach pain?

If pain in the stomach proceeds as a spasm, then for its urgent relief, you can take an antispasmodic. This medication will help, but only for a short time. The doctor should be engaged in establishing the causes of pain and prescribing medicines.

Diet to follow if you have abdominal pain:

• Meat can only be eaten boiled, choosing low-fat varieties.
• It is allowed to drink warm boiled milk.
• Avoid eating spicy, sour, salty and pickled foods. Even in a completely healthy person, these dishes can irritate the gastric wall, provoking its spasm.
• You can't eat before bed. If it is impossible to cope with the feeling of hunger, then it is allowed to drink a glass of milk, in which you can add a teaspoon of honey.

If the pain is intense, then it can be muted by eating foods that have a soft consistency. It can be steam cutlets, soups in the form of mashed potatoes, boiled porridge, yoghurts.

Since the causes of stomach pain can be quite serious, self-medication is unacceptable. Only a doctor can prescribe therapy, based on the results of diagnostics.

When a person knows his diagnosis, and an exacerbation of inflammation or an infectious disease occurs, you can use the following recommendations:

• Strictly follow the diet, eat only permitted foods.
• Drink 0.3 liters of chamomile and mint decoction every day. The total volume of the herbal decoction should be divided into three equal portions.
• Drink 50 ml of blueberry tea 4 times a day. The drink should not be hot.
• When the pain is very intense, you can take a tablespoon of olive oil every half hour. When it is not at hand, you can use any other vegetable oil.
• You can take 3 times a day, 20 drops of calendula tincture in alcohol.

Regardless of the severity of stomach pains, alcohol is unacceptable. After taking it inside, temporary relief is possible, but at the same time the pathological process itself will only worsen.

You should definitely visit a doctor if the pain tends to intensify, and also if more and more medications are required to relieve them. As a rule, this indicates the development of a serious pathology.

First aid for stomach pain

Pain medication can be used to relieve stomach pain. Also, you should not eat at this time. It is better to replace food products with low-fat broth and warm drinks.

Depending on the situation, the following guidelines may help:

• If a person has an exacerbation of chronic gastritis, then you need to lie on your side and bring your knees to your stomach. You can also lightly massage the epigastric region, apply a cold compress to it. If this does not help, then it is necessary to provoke vomiting by first drinking a sufficient amount of water.
• If a person has a poisoning of the body, then you can take activated charcoal or some other sorbing drug. Be sure to drink water to prevent dehydration.

Preparations for pain in the stomach

Drugs for eliminating stomach pain should be prescribed by a doctor. However, it is not always possible to instantly get an appointment with a specialist.

You can choose a drug yourself based on the symptoms of the disease:

• If the pain is caused by an ulcer, exacerbation of gastritis or increased acidity of gastric juice, and is also accompanied by burning and eructation of acidic contents, then the following drugs can be taken: De-nol, Gastal, Antacid, Almagel, Flakarbin.
• If the pain has arisen due to errors in nutrition, or after overeating, then you can take the following drugs: Mezim, Gastromax, Omeprazole, Cimetidine.
• You can relieve spasm from the gastric wall by taking the following medicines: Besalol, No-shpa, Buscopan.
• If a person has gastritis with low acidity of gastric juice, or indigestion, then you can take Festal, Pancreatin, Panzinorm, Creon or Trienzyme.

When does stomach pain require urgent medical attention?

Sometimes stomach pain is a reason to call an ambulance. For example, this applies to a situation when a person has a perforated stomach ulcer. In this case, the wall of the organ is torn in the affected area.

The person experiences the following symptoms:

• The pain is very sharp, reminiscent of a dagger strike in the stomach. In order to reduce it at least a little, the patient lies on his back and presses his legs to his stomach.
• Weakness increases, loss of consciousness is possible.
• A person sweats a lot, and a cold sweat.
• Blood pressure drops sharply, the pulse slows down. These symptoms indicate the development of internal bleeding.

Even mild stomach pains seriously disrupt a person's quality of life, so they should not be tolerated. It is necessary to seek medical help and receive quality treatment.

The author of the article: Gorshenina Elena Ivanovna | Gastroenterologist

Education: Diploma in the specialty "General Medicine" received at the Russian State Medical University named after N. I. Pirogova (2005). Postgraduate studies in the specialty "Gastroenterology" - educational and scientific medical center.