Dyspepsia

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Causes and symptoms of dyspepsia

What is dyspepsia?

Dyspepsia is a disorder characterized by indigestion.

Dyspepsia causes

Among the main factors causing dyspepsia, there is a lack of special digestive enzymes, which leads to the syndrome of insufficient absorption. Significant nutritional errors are often the cause of dyspepsia. In this case, we are talking about nutritional dyspepsia.

Symptoms of this disease can be caused by both a lack of diet and an unbalanced diet.

Thus, a disorder of the functions of the gastrointestinal tract without organic damage to organs leads to the occurrence of the so-called functional, or alimentary, dyspepsia. At the same time, an insufficient amount of digestive enzymes is a consequence of damage to organs related to the gastrointestinal tract. In this case, dyspepsia acts only as a symptom of another disease.

As for children, they have dyspepsia when the amount or composition of food does not correspond to the capabilities of the children's gastrointestinal tract. Dyspepsia in infants, whose age is not more than one year, manifests itself due to overfeeding, as well as untimely introduction of new products into the child's diet.

There is also the concept of physiological dyspepsia, which occurs in children at birth and in the first weeks of life. This manifestation of the disease is not treated, as it passes after the maturation of the gastrointestinal tract.

Older children may experience dyspepsia at the onset of a period when the body is growing rapidly. So, in adolescence, dyspepsia can also occur due to an imbalance of hormones. This time is called the critical period of development. In this state, the gastrointestinal tract becomes too susceptible to any, even the slightest, errors in nutrition.

Unfortunately, adolescents often develop dyspepsia, as they eat fast food, consume carbonated sugary drinks, as well as foods that contain easily digestible carbohydrates.

Dyspepsia symptoms

Symptoms of dyspepsia can manifest themselves in different ways, depending on the specific type of disorder, but there are signs that are simultaneously characteristic of all types of the disease.

Different types of dyspepsia have the following common symptoms:

the appearance of unpleasant sensations in the so-called epigastric region, that is, in the upper abdomen. The patient experiences feelings of fullness and heaviness, sometimes there are painful sensations of varying intensity;
belching. Rare isolated cases of belching are not signs of the disease. Dyspepsia is evidenced only by constant frequent belching;
nausea, heartburn. The patient experiences an unpleasant burning sensation in the upper abdomen, as well as in the chest area. This sensation appears when aggressive stomach contents enter the esophagus. Normally, such phenomena should not happen;
flatulence. A feeling of bloating in the abdomen, as well as increased gas separation, can be caused by an increased formation of gases in the intestines;
upset stool. Patients who suffer from dyspepsia have irregular, usually frequent, bowel movements.
Dyspepsia, which is caused by a lack of a digestive enzyme, has the following symptoms: nausea, an unpleasant taste in the mouth, transfusion and rumbling in the abdomen, malaise, and weakness. Sometimes patients experience headaches and insomnia. Feces often contain large amounts of food that is poorly digested.
There is also such a thing as fermentative dyspepsia, it is characterized by a rumbling in the abdomen, severe flatulence, frequent loose stools, which is accompanied by the release of foamy light stool, which has a characteristic sour smell. Patients often experience pain.
Putrid dyspepsia in many ways resembles intoxication: the patient feels weak and general malaise, feels nausea and severe headache. The stool is dark and liquid, has an unpleasant and rather pungent odor, while the stool is frequent.
Fatty dyspepsia, unlike other types of dyspepsia, is not characterized by frequent diarrhea. Patients suffering from fatty dyspepsia experience a feeling of fullness and heaviness in the abdomen, complain of flatulence and belching, as well as severe pain that begins half an hour after eating. The feces have a whitish color and a greasy sheen: these are the remains of fat, which does not have time to be digested. The chair is plentiful.
Small children also suffer from indigestion. In them, it manifests itself in regurgitation and bloating. The stool is frequent, more than six times a day, the feces are green, whitish flakes come across. At the same time, the child is naughty, sleeps and eats poorly.

Dyspepsia treatment

Dyspepsia of alimentary origin is treated by appointing the patient a hunger pause, which should last up to one and a half days. After that, a balanced food is gradually introduced into the patient's diet in compliance with the correct regimen.

Products that often cause illness should be excluded from the patient's diet. It is important that the patient drinks at least one and a half liters of liquid per day.

Dyspepsia that is caused by an enzyme deficiency is treated by correcting the deficiency. For this, substitution therapy is used with drugs that contain the required enzymes in the required amount. The patient must necessarily follow a special diet, which is aimed at unloading the altered part of the gastrointestinal tract. If the patient suffers from this type of dyspepsia, treatment of the underlying disease is necessary.