Why does my stomach hurt after breakfast? Why does my stomach hurt in the morning?

Acid reflux and GERD as a cause of abdominal pain in the morning

Acid reflux is a condition where acid and other stomach contents flow the wrong way, back up into the esophagus. This may cause a burning sensation in the mouth.

The most common symptom of acid reflux is heartburn, which affects about 60 million people at least once a month, according to the American College of Gastroenterology. Those who have more than two episodes per week may have a condition known as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which can cause complications if left untreated.

People with acid reflux may experience abdominal pain.

Classification

Modern medicine classifies morning pain as follows:

1. Somatic
   . As a rule, their localization is a certain area in the lower abdomen. They may be accompanied by nausea and indicate an acute course of the disease.
2. Visceral
   . They appear in the lower abdomen, usually on an empty stomach, and may indicate irritation of the gastrointestinal mucosa and the progression of chronic pathologies. Their location can be any area of ​​the abdominal cavity.

Abdominal adhesions

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 9 out of 10 people who have open abdominal surgery develop adhesions, or scar tissue, that causes organs to stick to each other and to the abdominal wall.

Most people with adhesions do not develop complications, but in those who do, chronic abdominal pain is common. Other symptoms include bloating, constipation and nausea.

What to do if you experience pain in your tummy when you wake up

Visit the appropriate doctor (generalist or gastroenterologist). He will make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment. If you're lucky, you'll just have to stay in bed and drink a lot of water.

In more complex cases, antibiotics and other medications will be required:

1. Gastrointestinal diseases. Treatment consists of diet, nutrition and medications.
2. Constipation. Create a diet of balanced foods. Eliminate unhealthy foods, give up bad habits, and monitor your drinking regime.
3. Poisoning, intestinal infection. As soon as you notice the first signs of these diseases, call an ambulance.
4. Ulcer. It is necessary to undergo examination by a gastroenterologist. He will prescribe treatment.
5. Appendicitis. The disease can only be treated surgically.
6. Muscle pain. It will go away on its own within a couple of days.
7. Menstrual pain. This is a common occurrence and can be treated with a painkiller tablet.
8. Stones in the kidneys. For small stones, maintaining fluid balance and exercises to remove stones from the body will help you. Larger stones are removed by crushing them inside the organ without cutting the tissue.
9. Diarrhea. Take a few tablets of activated charcoal and start eating right.
10. Diseases of the ureters. Seek help from your doctor.

If the pain lasts for two hours, and its intensity increases, a fever develops, and there is no bowel movement, call emergency medical services immediately. Do not take any action until she arrives. Otherwise, your actions will confuse the symptoms and hinder the correct diagnosis.

Pancreatitis

Pancreatitis occurs when the pancreas becomes inflamed, often due to gallstones. Common symptoms include sudden and severe pain in the upper abdomen, nausea and vomiting. Medical assistance is needed.

When should you see a doctor?

Many different health problems can cause morning stomach pain. While some conditions may resolve on their own, others will require immediate treatment. Here's what you need to pay attention to:

• Severity : If the pain is so severe that the person cannot stand, seek medical attention immediately. Early symptoms of appendicitis may include abdominal pain.
• Duration : The longer a person experiences abdominal pain in the morning, the more important it is to seek medical help.
• Age : Severe abdominal pain in young people may indicate appendicitis. In older people, this may indicate problems with the gallbladder. Both of these conditions require immediate medical treatment.
• Rate of onset : Sudden abdominal pain is a potential symptom of appendicitis, especially if the pain gets worse.
• Other symptoms : People with appendicitis may experience fever along with abdominal pain. Abdominal pain along with nausea may indicate a blockage or other serious condition. Bleeding from the rectum is a possible sign of a condition requiring surgery.

Treatment tactics

Seizures can be dulled at home. But at the same time, it is still better to contact a specialist who will help you understand the situation and select effective treatment.

Among dietary products, the best way to combat morning stomach pain is water or milk. It is enough to drink a glass before meals to dull the unpleasant sensations by reducing acidity.

Naturally, it is recommended to adhere to a certain diet, not to overeat at night, and it is forbidden to eat fried, spicy, salty foods. All food should be boiled or steamed, including vegetables. In addition, vegetables contain fiber, which improves gastrointestinal motility. You need to eat often and in small portions. It is forbidden to overload the body with heavy food. It is not recommended to drink tea, coffee and alcohol. It is also worth giving up tobacco products (when smoking on an empty stomach, the mucous membrane is very irritated).

Lovers of baked goods, especially freshly baked ones, should limit their consumption during treatment and switch to eating crackers.

An important factor is maintaining a healthy lifestyle, sleeping at least 8 hours, and avoiding nervous tension.

The use of medications depends on the type of disease and its severity:

• To normalize the motility of the upper gastrointestinal tract, the following are used: Metaproclamide, Motilium, Itopride, Dompiridone, Coordinax.
• To reduce high acidity, antisecretory drugs are used: Pantoprazole, Omeprazole, Rabeprazole, and others or antacids: Almagel, Gasterin-gel, Phosphalugel.
• Very often, for severe pain, antispasmodics (No-Shpa, Drotaverine) are prescribed.

After the examination, it is very important to promptly begin treatment for the disease that causes morning pain.

Therapeutic diets

Many people have been able to get rid of morning abdominal discomfort thanks to therapeutic diets, which are indicated for patients with pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract. In order to prevent pain, you should adhere to the following recommendations :

1. You need to eat on a schedule. No more than 3 hours should pass between each meal. As a result, the number of doses will reach 5-6 times a day.
2. Food should be absorbed slowly, chewing each piece thoroughly.
3. You should exclude from your daily diet all harmful foods that provoke active production of hydrochloric acid and can cause inflammatory processes in the gastric mucosa and other organs of the gastrointestinal tract.
4. It is necessary to give up all bad habits, especially smoking and alcohol. People who abuse alcohol and smoke a lot and on an empty stomach are most often faced with ulcerative pathologies and malignant diseases.
5. During the cooking process, preference should be given to technologies such as steaming, boiling, stewing or baking.
6. Do not use seasonings, spices and various dressings both during cooking and during the absorption of food.
7. The therapeutic diet does not include the consumption of sweet carbonated drinks, packaged juices, or coffee. They should be replaced with homemade compotes, herbal infusions, freshly squeezed juices, fruit drinks and jelly.
8. Patients are strictly forbidden to fast, since at this time the stomach actively produces juice, which, without receiving food, begins to corrode its mucous membrane.
9. To ease the work of the stomach, it is recommended to grind food before eating or during cooking. This can be done using a blender, which can puree any food, or a grater.

Source

In what cases can a healthy person have a tugging sensation in the lower abdomen?

Before menstruation (PMS)

Nagging pain in the abdomen, especially in its lower part, in girls and women of reproductive age every month reminds of the imminent onset of menstruation.

In addition to aching pain in the abdomen and lower back, premenstrual syndrome is often accompanied by headache and psycho-emotional stress:

• irritability,
• tearfulness,
• depressive state.

All this helps women easily determine the beginning of a natural process in their body. Why are so many representatives of the fair sex forced to experience monthly pain in the lower abdomen, sometimes quite intense and prolonged?

Menstruation is evidence that fertilization of the egg has not occurred. The uterus does not need a layer of endometrium covering it, the function of which is to create optimal conditions for the acceptance of the embryo and the course of pregnancy.

The removal of the endometrial mucosa occurs due to the contraction of the smooth muscles of the uterus, the spasms of which cause pain in the abdominal area. Prostaglandin hormones are responsible for uterine contractions during menstrual periods; the level of their concentration in the blood determines the motor activity of the uterus and the intensity of sensations.

During ovulation

During the rest of the menstrual cycle - during the period when there are no periods - processes occur that prepare the woman’s body to become a mother. Therefore, a slight aching pain on the left or right in the groin approximately one and a half to two weeks after menstruation is usually also not a cause for concern.

Minor discomfort for a couple of days in the middle of the cycle indicates ovulation: the maturation and release of the follicle from the ovary, which may be accompanied by minor damage to the blood vessels and slight bleeding from the vagina.

Echoes of this process often cause minor pain: depending on which ovary the egg came from, the pain is localized on the left or right.

In addition, a woman may experience:

• slight increase in body temperature,
• heaviness in the mammary glands,
• nausea,
• copious white discharge of clear mucus (or slightly pink).

These signs are harmless and indicate healthy ovulation. In addition, the listed factors help calculate the optimal timing for successful conception, since a week after ovulation there is practically no chance of a favorable outcome.

When pregnancy occurs

If a woman has a delay (there are no periods at the beginning of a new cycle), and the body gives signals similar to symptoms of premenstrual tension, we are most likely talking about a joyful event: the onset of pregnancy. A delay in menstruation, morning sickness and a nagging pain just above the groin leave no doubt that a small new life has arisen.

At the beginning of pregnancy, the stomach often feels tight, like during menstruation. The fact is that after ovulation, the fertilized egg reaches the uterus only at the end of the cycle - around the time of the onset of the next period - so the process of attaching it to the walls of the uterus is often confused by women with PMS.

The main reproductive organ in girls—the uterus—receiving the invasion of a “foreign body” is forced to adapt its muscle tissue for further peaceful coexistence. Therefore, egg implantation is accompanied by damage to epithelial cells, which explains the pain syndrome and the presence of minor bleeding in the early stages of conception.

In later stages, pain localized below the navel occurs due to:

• increasing the size of the abdomen,
• increasing load on the ligamentous apparatus of the uterus,
• pressure of the uterus on neighboring organs,
• softening of the pelvic bones and ligaments.

For flatulence and stool disorders

Bloating and pain in the lower peritoneum are a common complaint in men and women with flatulence and stool disorders.

By processing food that promotes increased gas formation (legumes, sauerkraut, baked goods, fast food, carbonated drinks, etc.), bacteria in the intestine release gases, which, when accumulated, begin to put pressure on its walls and negatively affect motility.

In pregnant women, additional pressure on the intestines is exerted by the enlarged uterus, aggravating the problem with belching, hiccups and bad breath.

As a result, there may be a delay in bowel movement - constipation, or, conversely, loose stools - diarrhea. The same situation can occur with a lack of intestinal microflora due to taking certain medications and gastrointestinal diseases. In addition, the cause of heaviness in the abdomen and indigestion may be poisoning.

During constipation, pain is caused by a large amount of feces, which creates pressure on the intestinal walls. He, in turn, begins to put pressure on organs located nearby. With diarrhea, pain and heaviness are provoked by stretching of the intestinal walls and spasms of smooth muscles.

Disturbances in the functioning of the kidneys and urinary organs, referred pain

The cause of discomfort in the stomach in the morning is pathology of the kidneys and other organs responsible for removing urine from the body. Pain and heaviness in the abdominal cavity in the morning are regarded as a consequence of the following diseases:

• Urolithiasis disease;
• Diseases of the ureters.

Stones in the kidneys

The presence of kidney stones is accompanied by severe abdominal discomfort: in the stomach area and below. The sensations are accompanied by pain in the back, as well as:

• Increased body temperature;
• Chills;
• Nausea;
• The presence of blood in the urine (sometimes determined only by analysis).

The occurrence of urolithiasis in a person is often a consequence of urinary tract infections, poor diet, drinking poor-quality water, and taking certain medications.

Inflammation in the abdominal tissues and internal organs

An additional cause of morning pain is serious inflammatory and ulcerative diseases of the abdominal cavity itself (its walls) and the internal organs located in it:

• Inflammation of the peritoneum (peritonitis);
• Gastritis;
• Stomach ulcer;
• Duodenal ulcer;
• Acute appendicitis.

Inflammation of the peritoneum

If the problem is inflammation of the peritoneum (peritonitis), the pain is cutting in nature, and it is almost impossible to determine the exact source. The abdomen swells and becomes hard to the touch.

Peritonitis is a common complication of advanced intestinal diseases. It can occur when a festering appendix ruptures (advanced appendicitis) or a perforation of a stomach or intestinal ulcer.

If you suspect peritonitis, you should urgently call an ambulance.

Gastritis

A common stomach disease is gastritis, or inflammation of the mucous membrane. Symptoms: discomfort in the stomach, indigestion, heartburn, nausea and belching do not always occur daily. With this disease, everything is simple: if the acute form is not treated in time, gastritis will become chronic and begin to bother you more and more often. The consequences can cause serious harm to health, resulting in a stomach ulcer or cancer.

Stomach and duodenal ulcers

Gastric ulcers and duodenal ulcers are characterized by hunger pains that occur in the morning and go away after breakfast. The patient not only has a stomach ache. The pain is accompanied by:

• Severe heartburn if you don’t eat on time;
• Nausea;
• Sour vomiting.