Prevention Of Gastritis

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

Prevention of gastritis

Prevention of gastritis is a set of measures aimed at preventing inflammatory changes in the gastric mucosa. It includes the fight against all types and forms of this disease. Some specificity and separation of preventive measures occurs in two types of gastritis: acute and chronic. This is due to fundamentally different pathogenetic mechanisms of their occurrence.

General preventive measures for all types of gastritis

The prevention of acute and chronic inflammatory processes in the gastric mucosa is based on their suddenness, wave-like course and occurrence only when exposed to harmful environmental factors. Therefore, all preventive measures are aimed at eliminating or limiting the body's contact with them. This means that if certain factors do not affect the body, then acute gastritis or exacerbation of a chronic one will never occur.

Since the gastric mucosa is in direct contact only with air and food, the prevention of its inflammation is to control their quality. All preventive measures can be divided into: social and individual prevention.

Public prevention of acute gastritis is controlled at the state level, by authorized structures of the sanitary and epidemiological station. They must maintain the strictest control over catering establishments and the quality of distributed food products, the state of drinking water and the disinfection of wastewater. This is especially important to prevent the massive incidence of acute gastritis of an infectious-toxic nature.

Individual preventive measures to prevent gastritis imply that each person follows certain rules. First of all, they relate to the characteristics of food products, correctness and nutritional culture.

Prevention of gastritis includes:

• Correct diet. It means refusing to eat fast food, fried and semi-raw meat and fish dishes, and excess spices. Despite their excellent taste, they can cause instant irritation of the gastric mucosa, followed by inflammation. Be sure to adhere to a combination or alternation of liquid and dry foods in the diet;

• The quality of the products. It is best to consume only freshly prepared meals. It is unacceptable to use food with questionable signs of its good quality. When visiting catering establishments, the choice should be given only to the proven ones, whose appearance meets the established standards. Any suspicion of a violation of the cooking technology or its unsuitability should be a reason for refusing to use it;
• Diet. In the prevention of acute gastritis, an important role belongs to the regularity of meals. They must be organized at a set time, which will initially normalize the level of gastric secretion. In such conditions, the risk of gastritis is minimized, even when poor-quality food enters the stomach cavity;
• The amount of food. It is unacceptable to consume large amounts of food at once (overeating), especially after fasting and in the evening before bedtime;
• The process of eating. In order not to provoke the development of gastritis, you need to eat in a calm atmosphere, do not rush, chew food well;

• Alcoholic drinks and smoking. Low-quality alcohol and its substitutes can cause not only inflammation of the gastric mucosa, but also its chemical burn. Abuse of any alcoholic beverages, sooner or later, will cause gastritis. Tobacco smoke is not able to directly provoke inflammatory changes in the stomach cavity, but it significantly aggravates the negative effect of alcohol and other harmful factors;
• Chemical compounds. Working with chemicals and poisons, inhalation of vapors, intentional or accidental use of them often result in acute erosive and ulcerative gastritis. To prevent gastritis of chemical origin, it is necessary to limit contact with chemicals as much as possible and use personal protective equipment;
• Prevention of purulent gastritis and stomach phlegmon. It consists in the timely and adequate treatment of purulent-infectious processes, adherence to the rules of asepsis and antiseptics during any medical procedures.

Details about the diet: what can and can not be eaten with gastritis?

Additional features of the prevention of chronic gastritis

Despite the fact that acute and chronic inflammation of the stomach differs in the mechanisms of its development, some of the measures for their prevention are of a general nature. But there are those that can be attributed to the specific prevention of chronic gastritis. These include:

• Physical activity. Its deficiency or excess equally negatively affects the course of chronic gastritis, provoking its exacerbation. Therefore, physical activity should be moderate and correspond to the physical capabilities of a particular person;
• Psycho-emotional activities. Patients with chronic gastritis need to avoid nervous overstrain and mental shock. They disrupt the secretory processes in the stomach and its motility, which leads to an exacerbation of the inflammatory process;
• Limiting the intake of drugs that irritate the gastric mucosa. These are, first of all, derivatives of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin, ascard), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and antibiotics. If they cannot be replaced by anything, such treatment should be covered with gastroprotective drugs (famotidine, omeprazole, almagel, venter);
• Periodic preventive and timely treatment of exacerbations of chronic gastritis. People suffering from this disease should know that twice a year (spring, autumn) they must undergo a course of anti-relapse treatment. During these seasons, gastritis is prone to exacerbation. If it does occur, treatment should begin as soon as possible;
• Dispensary supervision by a gastroenterologist, general practitioner or family doctor. Every patient with chronic gastritis should have a qualified specialist whom he trusts. All issues related to treatment, lifestyle, nutrition and necessary examinations should be discussed with him.

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.