Pain after eating

Pain after eating is usually associated with discomfort in the abdomen, but painful symptoms can be localized not only in the epigastric zone, but also in the interscapular region, in the head, in the heart, in the lower back zone.

Since the pain is associated with eating, the beginning of it, is hidden most often in the organs of the digestive, biliary system, but there are many variants of causes, and only the doctor can accurately diagnose them.

[1], [2], [3]

Causes of pain after eating

In fact, the first factor that provokes a pain symptom is food, more precisely its composition or volume. Banal overeating, excessive craving for sharp or smoked dishes, a sedentary lifestyle, an ineradicable craving for fast foods is far from a complete list of standard causes that can give impetus to the development of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, gall bladder, kidneys and ureters.

IBS is irritable bowel syndrome, which is most often responsible for pain symptoms that occur after eating in relatively healthy people who do not suffer from chronic gastrointestinal diseases. Irritable bowel syndrome is very similar in clinical manifestations with gastroduodenitis, gastritis, but these are different nosological forms for etiological and pathogenetic parameters. Because the symptoms of IBS are non-specific, the diagnosis is carried out by eliminating similar pathological pathologies. The factors stimulating the irritation of the intestine are divided into two categories - food and medicinal. The products cause an increased level of gas formation, which in turn leads to irritation of the intestinal walls, both thin and thick.

List of nutritional factors associated with IBS:

• Fatty meat food.
• Vegetables - pepper, all kinds of cabbage, tomatoes, zucchini, zucchini, cucumbers, radish, eggplant, potatoes, beans.
• Fruit - watermelon, apples, melon, citrus fruits, plums, apricots.
• All products from wholemeal flour, rich in carbohydrates.
• All kinds of nuts.
• Whole-milk products.

The pain appears 40-60 minutes after eating, it is preceded by a feeling of nausea, belching, and possible heartburn. At the same time the stomach swells, develops flatulence, the chair is broken. Most often the pain subsides after a bowel movement, but occurs again after the next eating of food.

Causes of pain after meals can be associated with JAW - peptic ulcer disease. The pain symptom is felt after half an hour after a meal and can be as a blunt, dull character, and sharp, radiating to the left side of the chest, to the back. This is typical for erosive processes in the cardia of the stomach, where the production of hydrochloric acid is activated. When food is transported lower in the intestines, the pain may decrease.

• The ulcer of the proximal (subcardial) stomach is a disease that is characteristic of people aged 45-50 years, who signals a fast developing pain after eating. A painful symptom is reflected in the left side of the chest and is often confused with cardiac manifestations. Such ulcers are difficult to treat, often perforate and cause complications.
• Erosive damage to the body and angle of the stomach is characterized by a pain symptom, which appears just 10 minutes after eating. The pain is localized in the middle of the chest, in the epigastric region, often accompanied by vomiting, which brings temporary relief. These ulcers are dangerous in the sense of frequent relapses and a tendency to malignancy (degeneration into oncoprocess).
• Erosive damage to the color, narrow canal (connection of the stomach and duodenum). Pain can occur spontaneously, at any time of the day, accompanied by nausea and vomiting, often with bleeding, perforation. Eating can have a provocative effect on the aggravation of the erosive process, but rather food is a secondary cause of ulcers.
• Anthrax ulcer. The pain occurs a few hours after the intake (hungry pain), accompanied by severe heartburn, and sometimes vomiting. These ulcers respond well to therapy and cicatrize without complications.

Duodenal ulcer:

• Ulceration of the bulb of the duodenum is characterized by pain after 2-3 hours after eating (hungry). Symptoms can develop at night, accompanied by heartburn. The pain is localized in the middle of the abdomen.
• The extra-ulcer duodenal ulcer manifests itself in the "fasting" pain that quickly passes after eating.

Pancreatitis, which also occupies one of the leading places among the causes of pain after eating. Painful sensations develop 40-60 minutes after the use of fatty, smoked, spicy food, are of a permanent nature, often surrounding when exacerbated.

Pylorospasm is the spastic tension of the gatekeeper (the passage of the stomach into the duodenum). The pain is localized in the epigastric region, accompanied by severe vomiting. The disease is closely related to the state of the nervous system of the patient.

Cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, dyskinesia of the biliary tract, which are characterized by pain in the right abdomen, in the hypochondrium. Symptoms provoke the consumption of fried, fatty foods, as well as sweets rich in fats.

Intestinal ischemia (mesenteric) is a disease associated with an elevated cholesterol level that disrupts normal blood flow in the intestine. The ingestion of food provokes a physiological inflow of blood, which is impossible due to ischemic lesions of the intestinal arteries, respectively, the following symptoms appear:

• Sudden pain in the peritoneum after eating.
• Desires for defecation.
• Nausea, right up to vomiting.
• Temperature increase.
• There may be blood in the feces.
• Food allergies, intolerance to certain types of foods, most often - protein cow's milk, food, which includes gluten (wheat, rye).

If you systematize and group the causes of pain after eating, you will get the following list:

1. Most often - organic and functional abnormalities of the abdominal cavity.
2. Toxic infections, food poisoning.
3. Pathology of the urinary system, kidneys.
4. Diseases associated with a violation of the circulatory system in the abdominal cavity (arterial).
5. Rarely - connective tissue diseases, herpetic diseases, pathologies of the hematopoiesis system (splenomegaly), pathology of the broncho-pulmonary system (diaphragmatic pleurisy), cardiac diseases (pericarditis), diabetes mellitus. The pain symptom, in one way or another, is primarily associated with the digestive system, indirectly with pathologies of other organs.

In order to accurately establish the causes of pain after eating, it is necessary to specify the sensations, clarify the localization of pain manifestations and identify their relationship with certain types of products, in a word to collect all the information, symptoms that describe the clinical picture.

[4], [5]

Symptoms of pain after eating

Food that enters the digestive system is exposed to the acid, neutralizing it. If, after eating, the symptoms of pain subsided, this may indicate an evolving ulcer, but such a phenomenon is not considered a characteristic sign of erosive processes. Pain may appear a few hours after eating, but such pain is provoked not by the food itself, but by intense stomach contraction and active gas production. The most dangerous and unpleasant night pain, which can be a real sign of a stomach ulcer, duodenal ulcer.

In addition, the symptoms of pain after eating can be as follows:

• The pain that develops immediately after eating (after 30-40 minutes) is a sign of erosive processes in the stomach. If the food is still transported to the intestine, the production of hydrochloric acid decreases, the pain symptom decreases, usually after 1.5-2 hours. The pain is localized to the peritoneal pole, shifting to the left, since the upper part is affected - the cardia of the stomach.
• The pain localized on the right, slightly deeper behind the sternum, reflected, radiating in the back, can be evidence of duodenal ulcer.
• Symptoms of pain after eating, appearing after 1-1,5 hours, are typical for the ulcer process in the canal's channel. These pains are accompanied by nausea and vomiting.
• With gastritis, the pain appears 20-30 minutes after eating, especially if the dishes are sharp, peppery, acidic. A person feels heartburn, nausea, belching, flatulence, often diarrhea.
• Pain in the pit of stomach, closer to the navel can be a signal of gastroduodenitis, especially if accompanied by an unpleasant burp with a feeling of "rotten" smell.
• The pain on the right, often surrounding, strong, associated with the consumption of fatty, sweet or fried foods, indicates a malfunction in the gallbladder, bile ducts.
• Dull, acute, persistent, recurrent pains, shrouding, sometimes causing painful shock, is a symptom of pancreatitis, chronic or acute.
• Chronic colitis can worsen due to the consumption of raw, raw food - raw vegetables, fruits. The pain is diffuse, diffuse, most often in the lower abdomen, it is accompanied by bloating, flatulence, a feeling of fullness of the stomach, heaviness.

Abdominal pain after eating

Pain in the stomach after eating is associated with poor-quality food or with a gross violation of diet, overeating. Most often, the cause provoking pain symptoms is the nutritional factor, but the culprit can be considered the person himself, especially if the pain appears with an enviable periodicity. Many doctors are convinced that if the rules of rational and healthy nutrition, active lifestyle and regular dispensary examinations are observed, abdominal pain after eating in the worst case can be quickly cured, finding out the cause, at best - to prevent the disease itself.

Peritoneum includes not only digestive organs, but also other, no less important systems, they all can react to the food factor and diet.

The gastrointestinal tract is the esophagus, stomach and intestines (thin and thick), as well as Caecus - the caecum, appendix vermiformis - an appendix. In addition, digestion involved - pancreas (pancreas), liver and gallbladder. The spleen helps immunity, participates in the hematopoiesis system and also reacts to food ingredients, no less acutely than the stomach or biliary system.

The urinary and genitourinary system is also located in the lower part of the peritoneum. These are the kidneys, the ureter-the ureter, the bladder, which indirectly, but indirectly, can react to food stimuli in the form of pain symptoms.

Abdominal pain associated with eating is on the one hand a rather quickly diagnosed symptom, as gastroenterological diseases have been well studied. On the other hand, it is a signal that people often try to neutralize themselves with the help of pharmaceutical products, sometimes losing valuable time and putting themselves at risk of serious complications in the form of perforation of the ulcer or blockage of the bile ducts. Thus, the pain that develops after eating should not be ignored, it is necessary to find out the etiological cause in a timely manner and begin treatment, in the initial stage it is enough only to diet and compliance with certain food restrictions.

[6], [7], [8], [9]

Pain in the stomach after eating

Most often, the pain in the stomach after eating is due to gastritis, which, according to doctors, is in one form or another for every third person. Provoke symptoms of gastritis products of acidic, acute taste, containing coarse fibers, fiber, poorly digestible components. Often, repeated pain immediately after eating provokes a person's refusal to eat, lose weight, fatigue, fatigue, headaches. Gastritis has several types that are different in etiology and are not always due to nutritional reasons:

• Acute gastritis caused by a psychogenic factor or severe trauma.
• Bacterial form of gastritis caused by Helicobacter pylori.
• Erosive form of gastritis - a form that is directly related to the food factor (acute, sour, fried foods, alcohol).
• Eosinophilic form of gastritis - food allergy.
• Gastritis associated with atrophy of the stomach wall, atrophic form.
• Gastritis of fungal or viral etiology, developing against the background of immunodeficiency.

Pain in the stomach after eating, occurring in the time interval from an hour to two, can serve as an indication of the developing ulcer of the pyloric canal, early pains are characteristic of a cardiac ulcer, later symptoms that appear after two hours may indicate a duodenal ulcer. Night, so-called hungry pain, for the erosive process in the stomach is not characteristic, rather, it is a sign of peptic ulcer duodenum (duodenal ulcer) - duodenitis.

List of foods that can cause, speed up or reduce the pain symptom:

• Whole-milk products, boiled meat, all dishes with a high level of alkaline phosphatase (buffer). These foods slow the development of pain, so it manifests itself hours after eating.
• Accelerate the development of pain canned, pickled meals, vegetable food, containing fiber, bread from rye flour, wholemeal flour.
• Neutralize or reduce the intensity of pain can mashed dishes (potato, carrot and others), products containing soda, meat or fish in the form of minced meat, liquid dishes (soups, liquid porridge).

The most often developing ulcer or gastritis is manifested by transient pain, if they become permanent, directly caused by nutritional factors, the clinical picture becomes diagnostically obvious and requires immediate therapeutic measures.

In addition to ulcers, stomach pain associated with a food factor may be provoked by other causes:

• Polyps are epithelial growths on the inner wall of the stomach.
• Stomach cancer.
• Binge eating.
• The psychogenic factor is stress.
• Food intolerance to certain foods, food allergies.

Pain in the intestines after a meal

Pain sensations in the intestines are most often not directly related to food intake, their distinctive feature is that the pain may intensify or subside during defecation. Also, the symptoms are insidious in that they develop spontaneously, at any time of the day, and the characteristics of pain are caused by the types of pathology of the intestine. Thus, pain in the intestines after eating is not a specific symptom, it is not evidence of a particular disease, but it can be associated with such factors:

• Flatulence or excessive accumulation of gases. This phenomenon can be caused by dysbacteriosis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and tumor processes. All factors have a close relationship with the use of certain types of products.
• Adhesive disease of the abdominal cavity, intestines. Most often spikes develop after surgery and are localized between the loops of the intestine, provoking NSAH - acute intestinal obstruction, which in turn is characterized by a violation of the passage, the passage of gastric processed food ingredients.
• Kolika - pain, cramping, caused by a spasm of smooth muscles of the small and large intestine. Such pains indicate a food intoxication, enteritis.

In addition, intestinal pain after eating, after 1-1, 5 hours, can be indicative of serious conditions requiring emergency care, for example, an inflammation of the appendix. Pain in this case quickly spreads throughout the epigastric region, accompanied by fever, nausea, and often vomiting.

The most common cause of pain, discomfort in the intestines is dysbiosis, that is, a violation of the normal level, the balance of microflora. This condition is pretty well supervised by a special diet and the addition of certain types of lacto and bifidobacteria, which colonize artificially, restoring the normal microbial balance.

Headache after eating

There are circumstances that can provoke a headache after eating, such factors include:

• Malnutrition, too much break between meals can trigger a decrease in blood glucose, hypoglycemia.
• Those who adhere to a strict diet for weight loss or for therapeutic purposes, may experience a tension headache due to changes in diet.
• Constipation can provoke general intoxication of the body and is accompanied by a headache.
• Food poisoning, the use of products containing toxic dyes, flavors, flavor enhancers.

In the diagnostic sense, head pain caused by eating is well understood and described in a special edition - the international classification of headache, where the following criteria for a food headache are located:

• A. Pain in the head that is combined with criteria C and D, and also accompanied by the following manifestations:
  • bilateral headache.
  • localization in the frontotemporal zone.
  • pain that increases with physical activity.
  • throbbing headache.
• B. Headache after eating at the lowest dose.
• C. Headache, which builds up within 12 hours after eating.
• D. Pain in the head that develops after a single intake of a certain product and disappears within 3 days.

As a result of long-term clinical observations and laboratory analytical studies, doctors have proved that most often the headache provokes dishes containing aspartame, tyramine, phenylethylamine.

List of products and ingredients that provoke a headache:

• All products containing sulphites as preservatives - beer, red wine.
• Glutamate sodium, which is often added to products to enhance the taste.
• Tiramin - nuts, hard cheeses.
• Nitrites and nitrates are sausages.
• Aspartame - carbonated drinks.
• Biogenic amines - cheeses, mustard, mayonnaise, smoked products, soy, celery, pineapple, plum.

Headache after eating is divided into typical symptomatic complexes in the clinical sense:

• Hot-dog headache or so-called sausage pain in the head. This is a typical passion for fast food, which becomes a real scourge of the modern world. Hot dogs, hot sandwiches are made from certain types of sausages, containing a lot of preservatives and nitrites. Nitrites provoke a sudden, violent vasodilation, causing a headache.
• "Chinese restaurant syndrome" or frequent eating of foods containing sodium glutamate. This is virtually all canned food, as well as dishes in which the composition of meat or fish is minimized, it is replaced with soy protein, it is from it that wei-ching (glutamate) is prepared. Headache develops after a strong burning sensation in the chest, a sensation of heaviness, pressure that passes into the head region.
• An excess of retinol in food, excessive craving for vitamin A can also provoke headache, nausea, stomach cramps. Painful symptoms quickly subside after the restriction of retinol-containing products.
• Headache associated with cold dishes - ice cream, drinks. The pain develops suddenly, quickly builds up and is caused by the response of the circulatory system to temperature stress.
• The headache caused by alcohol intoxication deserves a separate detailed description, therefore it is short: the pain develops after half an hour or several hours after the use of alcohol, it often appears only in the morning. Pain is associated with damage to the wall of capillaries, blood vessels with alcohol, can be amplified with the slightest movement, can subside during activities aimed at detoxifying the body.
• Pain in the head due to the use of drinks, products containing caffeine. This factor is interesting in that not the presence of caffeine, and just its lack of, provokes a severe headache. This is due to the typical signs of withdrawal syndrome, withdrawal symptoms. The pain is localized in the temples, forehead area, accompanied by a sense of anxiety, irritation, often nausea.
• Pain in the head associated with oxygen starvation or elementary malnutrition. Dysfunction of the diet, irregular intake of food can cause oxygen starvation of the brain, this condition is accompanied by a deficiency of important trace elements (iron, potassium), a decrease in the level of glucose and leads to a strong, constant headache.

Diagnosis of pain after eating

Diagnostic criteria for pain symptoms associated with food are primarily based on the area of pain localization, in addition, there are conditions that are considered urgent, so the rapid diagnosis of pain after eating can literally save a person's life.

Most often, the pain associated with food is localized in the abdominal cavity and in the clinical sense is differentiated into two categories - somatic and visceral.

Visceral pains are caused by reaction to the stimulus from the side of nerve endings in the walls of internal organs. Spastic pain in stretching the walls of the stomach, ischemia of the intestinal arteries, cholelithiasis are typical visceral symptoms in the form of colic, spasms. Pain can be characterized as blunt, diffuse (diffuse), the localization zone is often located outside the pathological focus, that is, the pain is considered irradiating.

Somatic pains are also called peritonality, they develop as a consequence of the pathological process in one or another organ, for example, with perforation of the ulcer. Irritation of the peritoneum is transmitted as an irritating factor to the spinal nerve endings localized in the abdominal cavity. Such pain is of a permanent nature, very accurately localized and accompanied by a typical muscular tension. The pain symptom is very acute, it increases with movement, changes in the posture of the patient, with coughing or breathing

In addition, the criteria that guide the diagnosis of pain after eating, can serve as the timing parameters:

• The so-called "hungry" pain that develops after a rather long period after eating, after 6-8 hours, often in the night after dinner. Pain can subside after a person eats or drinks milk. Such symptoms can speak of developing gastritis, an erosive process in the intestine.
• Late pain symptom, which develops one and a half to two hours after eating. This is a typical sign of pancreatitis in one or another stage of development.
• The night pain symptom is similar to "hungry" pain, but constant nocturnal manifestations testify with a high degree of probability about duodenal ulcer.

Also in the diagnosis is used the quadrant method, which assumes a conditional division of the abdomen and chest area into sectors. In this case, the most typical reasons for the localization of pain may be the following:

• The upper right quadrant is a gallbladder, possibly a liver, and it can also be caused by mononucleosis, viral etiology (hepatitis).
• The upper zone of the abdomen is acute, irradiating pain, the surrounding nature is characteristic of pancreatitis. Pressure, heartburn, irradiation in the depth of the sternum, belching and nausea are signs of a diaphragmatic hernia. Feeling of burning, raspiraniya, spilled pain, difficulty with swallowing food, cough - symptoms of GERD (gastroesophageal reflux).
• Left-sided pain in the abdomen - severe pain, fever, nausea, and defecation are symptoms of diverticulitis.
• Pain localized in the lower abdomen in the middle, characterized by an acute, spastic character, suddenness without nausea and hyperthermia, with a drop in blood pressure, cyanosis of the skin is rarely associated with eating. In women, such signs may indicate an ectopic pregnancy. Pain in the lower part of the peritoneum with diarrhea, the presence of blood in the feces, an increase in temperature may indicate an eating infection, possibly dysentery.
• The pain in the right lower abdomen usually develops rapidly, intensifies and changes into strong, intense, irradiates downward, depends on the change in body posture, this list indicates a possible inflammation of the appendix. In addition to pain, appendicitis is manifested by fever, vomiting. It should be noted that inflammation of the appendix can not be directly related to food intake, rather food is the last, but not the primary trigger, a provoking pain symptom.

Diagnosis of pain after eating, like any other diagnosis includes a standard list of procedures:

• Examination and collection of anamnesis, information on the association of pain symptoms with food intake.
• Palpation of the abdominal cavity, if the pain is localized in this zone.
• UAC (general) and biochemical blood test.
• Studies for the presence of infectious agents, including Helicobacter, analysis for viruses (hepatitis).
• Bacterial sowing on a dysbacteriosis.
• Ultrasound of the abdominal cavity organs.
• Ultrasound of the small pelvis.
• Radiography of the digestive tract.
• FGDS - fibrogastroduodenoscopy.

[10], [11], [12],

Treatment of pain after eating

How to treat pain after eating, this question is asked to yourself by many who suffer from such feelings, most often by taking decisions and choosing ways yourself, without medical advice. Indeed, the treatment of pain after eating is possible and at home, when the pain manifestations are not intense and occur once or very rarely. In such cases, a two or three-day diet is sufficient, excluding provoking food factors and the condition improves. In all other cases, when painful episodes are repeated with enviable constancy, diagnostics and professional recommendations, that is, the presence of a physician, are required.

Moderate, not intense pain, periodically arising as a temporary physiological reaction to the food, is not a sign of serious pathology. The same applies to severe pain, manifested as a consequence of overeating. In cases where mild pain does not subside after a sparing diet for a day, you need to see a doctor to determine the true cause of it.

The treatment of pain after eating in the upper abdomen is associated with its provoking factors. First of all you need to exclude serious pathologies, and this is only possible for a specialist, a doctor. If the pain occurs 5-6 hours after eating, it can be considered "hungry." Before a visit to a medical institution, you can try to remove the pain symptom with a small portion of dietary food, but do not drink milk, as many advise. Milk, like plain water, can not neutralize the increased acidity of the stomach, rather it will act as food filling it. If after a meal the pain does not go away within 5-10 minutes, it is necessary to take the recommended gastroenterologist drug that reduces irritation. In cases where a person has not been examined yet, the first thing to do is to limit the use of provoking products, to eat fractional, often, chopped food and to undergo a comprehensive examination of the abdominal organs as soon as possible. Acute pain with temperature, cyanosis of the skin, syncope requires urgent medical attention.

Pain in the lower abdomen after meals is also not to be taken without prescription drugs. Also, the use of laxatives for constipation accompanied by pain is not recommended, since such actions provoke an exacerbation of the pathologies of the large intestine. Unlike constipation, it is possible to stop diarrhea by "home" means using any fixative, it will prevent dehydration of the body. In addition, abundant drinking and hunger is recommended. Pain and diarrhea after eating, not stopping for 5-6 hours, call for medical attention.

The treatment of pain after eating, associated with a single episode or relatively mild diseases, is most often limited to a diet that is considered to be the right way to regulate the digestive tract. Diets for Pevzner are shown, of which there are 15 variants, today they are the most effective therapeutic dietary methods of eliminating pain symptoms, tested by many decades and thousands of patients.

Prevention of pain after eating

Avoiding pain symptoms associated with eating is quite simple, it is enough to adhere to the rules of healthy, rational nutrition or therapeutic diets in the case of diagnosed diseases. Since the pain is associated with food, respectively, it is on their quality, quantity and composition that the health of the consumer will depend.

Prevention of pain after eating includes the following recommendations:

1. It is strictly forbidden to eat, especially children, everything that belongs to the category of "fast food". World statistics speak of mass obesity, the development of diseases associated with cholesterol, oncological pathologies, many other problems that directly depend on the regular use of "fast" food.
2. Food is preferable to cook at home, from natural products, to minimize the use of semi-finished products that contain in their composition unavoidable preservatives and stabilizers.
3. It is necessary to build a diet so that the food intake is regular in accordance with the digestive tract, ideally if every 2.5-3 hours.
4. The last use of food should be no less than three, and preferably four hours before bedtime.
5. Overeating is the right way to develop pain, constipation, stomach overload. In addition, excessive absorption of food is a signal about neurologic disorders and the possible development of obesity.
6. During the day, you should observe the drinking regime, it is necessary to drink at least 1.5 liters of liquid.

Prevention of pain after meals is a timely appeal to the gastroenterologist, therapist, infectious disease specialist in cases when the pain symptom is of a permanent nature. Early diagnosis, complex therapeutic appointments can stop the disease at an early stage of development and prevent complications.

The best prevention will be a rational diet and a feeling of mild hunger, and not a feeling of satiety or eructation. A.P. Chekhov, a writer who was also a magnificent physician, spoke of food and health as follows: "Getting up from the table hungry - you ate; if you rise, after eating, you have eaten up; if you get up, overdo it, you're poisoned. "