Abdominal pain

One of the commonest complaints is an abdominal pain at some time or the other, but the causes are myriads. It would be useful to identify the usual ones and those that require you to call your healthcare professional.

If the pain is more a sort of pressure in the upper abdomen at the pit of the stomach and gets worse after eating it could be gastritis or an inflammation of the layer of the stomach wall either due to increased secretion of acid or increase in intake of foods that trigger its production.

This could also cause the upper end of the stomach where the oesophagus ends, to be more irritated by the gastric juices.

The oesophagus does not have a protecting layer to face this acid. Robinia, China, Natrum phos are good homoeopathic medicines that neutralise the excess acid, correct the balance and improve motility of the muscle lining of the stomach.

If the abdominal pain is experienced in the pit of the stomach that spreads to the back through the right side along the ribcage it could well be due to formation of some stones in the gall bladder called cholecystitis and homoeopathy has good remedies like Bryonia, Chelidonium and Dioscorea to lower the inflammation of the wall of the gall bladder. It usually gets worse on intake of fatty foods.

If the pain is associated with either constipation or loose bowel movements alternating with each other, Irritable Bowel Syndrome is the cause as the large bowel is not up to the task in retaining the water and making a mess up of the last part of the digestive system. Aloes, Merc sol, Sulph. are the remedies that can correct this imbalance.

If there is blood or mucus in the stool associated with pain in the abdomen and there is loss of weight etc. it can be due to ulcerative colitis. It is an autoimmune disease wherein the lining of the intestine is sloughed off at areas by our own system and pushing the ailment into a stage of inactivity is the challenge which can be achieved by homoeopathic remedies like Merc cor, Colocynth etc.

If the abdominal pain is experienced in the left lower quadrant with fever, diverticulosis is a condition which would be taken care by your physician.
If the pain is in the right lower abdominal quadrant which is excruciating and spreads all over and is associated with nausea and vomiting followed by fever it could be due to a condition like appendicitis and warrants immediate attention.

Abdominal pain could be associated with sallowness and gradually increasing yellowish tinge of the skin with decreased appetite, nausea and vomiting could be due to inflammation of the liver due to various viruses called hepatitis and commonly termed as jaundice. Depending on the intensity and extent of the problem and looking at other parameters medicines like Nux vomica, Lycopodium, Berb vulg are indicated.

Certain foods like milk and wheat trigger allergies in the digestive system and on ingestion of the same the system protests in the form of loose bowel movement and pain which is corrected by remedies like Mag carb, Lac can etc. Malabsorption wherein the requisite nutrition is not assimilated along by the lining of the intestines is similarly corrected with these remedies.

There are certain other causes which can be better identified by your physician from the symptoms and examination like pancreatitis, renal calculi, orchitis etc.