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Chronic Stomach Pain
About IBS Severe Stomach Pain
About chronic stomach pain and IBS. Find stomach pain relief strategies for your Irritable Bowel Syndrome.There’s nothing worse than the stomach ache associated with your IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome is there? How can anyone truly understand the pain that you go through day in, day out and at anytime? If you think this, you are not alone as there are many millions of people who are suffering just like you with this. What’s weird about the pain is how, one minute you can be fine, the next minute it can be really quite severe stomach pain. There’s no rhyme or reason as to why, when or where it might happen either! It’s a mystery to all, but one I am sure you are very familiar with.
I don’t profess to have all the answers to your symptoms, but what I would like to do is discuss a bit more about how the chronic stomach pain occurs, causes of stomach pain that can mimic IBS and thinks you can do to improve these symptoms too. So let’s get started……
What Causes Chronic Stomach Pain In IBS?
No one actually knows the full cause of your stomach pain, but the main recurring issue with all IBS symptoms are the pain symptoms and change in bowel habit. Doctors call this “increased visceral sensitivity”, but what does this really mean? It means your gut is hypersensitive for some reason. One theory is that the gut is intimately linked with the brain and there is good evidence for this. The so called brain-gut axis hypothesis works on the theory that your brain is stimulated by smell, sight, touch, hearing and this creates feelings. We know that when you have feelings of stress, regardless of whether your bowel is “normal” or not, you tend to develop abdominal symptoms such as diarrhea and abdominal pain. This occurs when the brain processes the senses and then sends messages down the spinal cord to the gut. In the case of your Irritable Bowel Syndrome, there are either abnormal increased signals to the gut or the gut has increased sensitivity to them resulting in the gut spasms and chronic stomach pain you experience. This is a two way theory, as foods that can trigger your IBS (see
IBS diet
) can equally have an effect on the gut nerves sending signals to the brain with the resulting cramping pains that you experience. It’s a good theory for stomach pain which holds some weight in my opinion.
Causes of Chronic Stomach Pain That Can Mimic IBS
Its not always IBS that causes stomach pain. IBS can be blamed a lot of the time, but when you see your doctor they do need to consider other causes of your bellyache. Probably the most important of these to is coeliac disease. This condition is caused by gluten which affects your small bowel.
Gluten is a protein in wheat, rye and barley. Sensitivity to gluten is common in IBS as well. When you see your doctor, it is important to let them know if you have been avoiding gluten. Why? Because the blood test for coeliac disease may come back falsely negative if you have been on a gluten free diet. You can read more about coeliac disease by going to the
coeliac disease symptoms
page.
Diverticular disease is a condition that can occur throughout your bowel, although most commonly it is seen in your large bowel. Pockets occur and can cause symptoms of abdominal pain and altered bowel habit in a similar way to IBS. If they become blocked, they can become inflamed and cause
diverticulitis symptoms
which can cause quite severe stomach pain.
Chronic pancreatitis causes chronic stomach pain. It’s a condition that occurs after an acute episode of an inflamed pancreas, the most common causes being alcohol and gallstones. This condition is normally diagnosed from the history of previous pancreatitis and from scanning the pancreas gland.
Peptic ulcer disease, both stomach ulcers and duodenal ulcers, can give rise to chronic stomach pain. These symptoms can occur either with or after food.
Endometriosis can sometimes cause symptoms similar to IBS. The condition, caused by “ectopic womb tissue” occurs when abnormal areas of womb tissue occur outside the womb. This can occur anywhere and includes deposits on the bowel wall.
Inflammatory bowel diseases can sometimes be misdiagnosed as IBS in the early stages. Both Crohns disease and Ulcerative colitis can cause symptoms of abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Ovarian and bowel cancer can give rise to symptoms of bloating, abdominal pain and altered bowel habit. If your symptoms occur later in life, particularly over the age of 50 years, you should be checked for these conditions.
How Is Chronic Stomach Pain Investigated?
There are many investigations that can be done for your chronic stomach pain, but it really depends on the history of your symptoms which your doctor will check. If the symptoms fit with the diagnosis of IBS as defined in the
IBS Rome criteria
, there is usually no need for further investigation. If there are concerns that you may have one of the other conditions outlined above, your doctor may refer you for tests such as an endoscopy or
colonoscopy procedure
, a
CT Colonography
or ultrasound scan, blood tests or a gastroenterologists opinion.
Treatment of Chronic Stomach Pain
So, coming to the most important part, you want to know how to improve the stomach pain associated with your IBS. There is no one answer to this, as no two people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome are really the same. What may work for one sufferer, might not work for you, but it is usually through trial and error that you will find a treatment that works best for you. Keep a diary of everything you try whether this be diet or other treatment to see what works (and what doesn’t work) for you.
Very important areas to concentrate on can be found in the
IBS Diet
section and
IBS lifestyle
sections. These are the basic building blocks for all forms of IBS treatment. If these fail to help your chronic stomach pain and IBS, then other treatment options can be found by going to the
treatment for IBS
section for you to consider.
Other Web Pages On This Site That May Interest You
Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Stomach bloating causes
IBS and diet
Constipation predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome
On line medical advice
Gastric flu symptoms
Chat with a doctor online
Why Not Share Your Chronic Stomach Pain Story With Other IBS Sufferers?
Would you like to share your chronic stomach pain story with other sufferers? Below, you will find a submission form to do just that. This is totally anonymous unless you wish to put your name on it. It is a way of opening up on your symptoms and helping others too. If you are submitting details, you should try to make it at least 300 to 400 words long. Why? Because, when submitting a story to IBS Help Online you are actually creating a web page. We know that search engines expect web pages to be at least 300 to 400 words long otherwise they penalise the website so I won’t be able to publish anything less (yes, don't blame me on this one, but Its always nice to read a story rather than a snippet!). It really is of benefit to you too as a long submission is more likely to gain a response from fellow sufferers. If you really can’t manage that sort of length, I will try to incorporate what you have said in to the main web page, but only if I feel it adds content that others will find of benefit. These obviously can’t be replied to in the same way as a longer submission so I would encourage you to write as much as you can. So......
Share Your IBS Story With Other Sufferers
Share your IBS with other sufferers here as outlined.
To Return From Chronic Stomach Pain To The Irritable Bowel Syndrome Symptoms Page Click Here
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