Abdominal Pain

Abdominal Pain

What is abdominal pain?

Abdominal pain may be felt anywhere between the chest and waistline region of your body. The pain may be generalized, localized, or it may feel like cramps in your belly. If you have cramping or discomfort in your stomach, it may be due to gas, bloating, or constipation. It might also be a sign of a more serious medical condition.

What are some misconceptions about abdominal pains?

There are many misconceptions about abdominal pain. These include the following:

Spicy food and stress cause stomach ulcers: Spicy foods may aggravate the symptoms of ulcers but do not cause ulcers. Everyday stress does not cause ulcers but severe shock, blood infections (sepsis) and trauma can. The truth is, most stomach ulcers are caused either by infection with a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) or by use of pain medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen, the so-called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
Eating cold fruits together with hot and spicy foods meals will cause diarrhoea: There is no scientific basis for this assertion.
Moving around during or after eating can cause appendicitis: While scientists know that appendicitis is caused by foreign objects entering the appendix, they are not sure how it comes about.
Drinking cold water after a meal is not healthy: When we asked our parents why not, they would either reply stomach pains stem from a cold stomach or that cold water will solidify fats in the stomach and cause painful indigestion. The temperature of any food or drink would quickly adapt to the body’s internal temperature and cold drinks do not solidify fats.
Smoking reduces heartburn: This can be considered one of the most dangerous myths about digestion. The reason is that if there is any effect that smoking has on heartburn, it is increasing it further and not decreasing it.

What are the types of abdominal pain?

Abdominal pain may be described in many ways:

Acute abdominal pain: Abdominal discomfort that occurs for about less than a week.
Chronic abdominal pain: Pain that’s constant or recurring. It could last for a period of 3 months or longer.
Progressive abdominal pain: A pain that worsens over time. Typically, other symptoms occur as the abdominal pain progresses. Progressive abdominal pain is often a sign of something more serious.
Localized pain: This type of pain is often caused by problems in a particular organ in the abdomen and usually means that you must seek medical attention immediately.
Cramp-like pain: may be associated with diarrhoea, constipation, bloating, or flatulence. For females it is associated with menstruation, miscarriage, or reproductive complications. This pain comes and goes away between different time intervals.

What causes abdominal pain?

The causes of abdominal pain are many and include the following:

Reproductive system-related complications such as menses, ectopic pregnancy and other complications of pregnancy for ladies.
Infections in the throat, intestines, and blood that cause bacteria to enter your digestive tract, resulting in abdominal pain. These infections may also cause changes in digestion, like diarrhoea or constipation.
Acid reflux when stomach contents leak backward into the upper gut (oesophagus) causing heartburn and other symptoms.
Vomiting can cause pain because of the straining.
Diseases that affect the digestive system can also cause chronic abdominal pain. The most common are gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), twisting of your intestines, irritable bowel syndrome or spastic colon (a disorder that causes abdominal pain, cramping, and changes in bowel movements), Crohn’s disease (an inflammatory bowel disease), lactose intolerance (the inability to digest lactose, the sugar found in milk and milk products)
Organ rupture or near-rupture (like a burst appendix, or appendicitis) gallbladder stones (known as gallstones), kidney stones and kidney infection which causes severe abdominal pain.

How is abdominal pain diagnosed?

The cause of abdominal pain can be diagnosed through a series of tests as well as an honest conversation with your doctor or pharmacist about what you are experiencing. Before ordering tests, your doctor will do a physical examination. This includes gently pressing on various areas of your abdomen to check for tenderness and swelling.

Be prepared to answer questions like these when you visit a doctor:

Where exactly are you feeling the pain?
How long have you been experiencing the pain?
How severe is the pain?
What kind of meal did you last eat?
Is the pain constant, or does it come and go in waves?
Is the pain so bad that it’s interfering with your daily life?
What were you doing when the pain began?
Is there anything you do to make the pain less?
Is there a time of day when the pain is the worst?
When was your last bowel movement?
Do you have regular bowel movements?
Have you noticed any changes in your urine?
Have you made any major changes to your diet?
Have you missed your menses? (for ladies)

Test

Your doctor may conduct tests to diagnose the cause of your pain. These may include:

Blood, urine, and stool samples which may be collected to look for evidence of bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections.
Imaging tests, like MRI scans, ultrasounds, and X-rays, are used to view organs, tissues, and other structures in the abdomen in detail. These tests can help diagnose tumors, fractures, ruptures, and inflammation.
Endoscopy to detect inflammation and abnormalities in the oesophagus and stomach.

What are the treatment and remedies for abdominal pain?

The treatment of abdominal pain is highly dependent on the diagnosis. Medication or surgery may be needed if the cause is serious enough. Medications such as antacids (neutralize acids) and proton pump inhibitors (decrease acid production) that reduce inflammation may help with stomach pains resulting from ulcers. A pain-modifying drug such as amitriptyline may be prescribed to address the pain by changing the way the brain processes pain signals.
But other conditions such as kidney stones, may require more intensive treatment, for example, shock wave lithotripsy.

Inflammation of the gall bladder might require gall bladder surgery. If your doctor determines that your abdominal pain is not the result of a serious medical condition, there are some home health remedies that may provide relief such as bedrest, drinking water, use of apple cider vinegar, heating pad or even warm baths.

How can you prevent abdominal pain?

Not all forms of abdominal pain are preventable. But you can minimize the risk of developing abdominal pain by: