By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-05-31 15:29:04 | Word Count: 664
The digestive process begins as soon as you begin to smell food. Once you start to smell the food you are about to eat, the body starts to get ready. When the food is in your mouth your salivary glands become active and produce saliva so that your food can moisten. This is what people refer to when they say that something is “mouthwatering”. After an adequate amount of chewing, the food is swallowed at the throat after which it travels down the esophagus. To get to the stomach, the food must pass the lower esophageal sphincter of the diaphragm. The food then lands in the stomach where the next step happens.
In the stomach, the food is broken down with stomach acid, also known as gastric acid. This acid is accompanied by enzymes. The acid and enzymes work together to reduce the size of the food particles and soften the food for nutrient extraction. The corrosive nature of the acid easily decomposes food particles. These particles then go to the large and small intestine where the nutrients and proteins in the food are stripped for use in the body. The useless parts of the food are excreted as waste.
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The stomach plays a vital role in the digestive process. Any disruption of stomach function can lead to ongoing health problems. Being unable to digest food properly is a major health concern. Due to several factors, you may develop gastritis. Gastritis occurs when the lining of the stomach becomes inflamed and irritated. The lining of the stomach protects the stomach from corrosive damage from gastric acid and also houses the cells that produce the acid needed for digestion. If the lining of the stomach is inflamed, acid producing cells will be affected. The lining of the stomach also produces its own protective layer of mucus. Inflammation causes mucus production to be interrupted, thereby causing the stomach lining to be irritated by gastric acid.
Causes
Causes of gastritis vary from person to person. One of the major causes of gastritis is alcohol consumption. The corrosiveness of alcohol can eat away at the stomach lining and cause irritation and inflammation. Excessive alcohol consumption is normally what is needed to cause this. Other causes of gastritis include stress, consuming a poisonous substance, surgical operations, disorders, diseases, infections, taking illegal drugs or using non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen on a regular basis.
Symptoms
Symptoms of gastritis also vary from person to person. Some people may not even have any symptoms. Common symptoms are nausea, vomiting "sometimes with the presence of blood, loss of appetite, bleeding, erosion of the stomach lining, ulcers, upper abdominal pain, indigestion, and bloody stool.
Treatment
Healing treatments to cure gastritis should be utilized at the onset of symptoms. Gastritis symptoms that are ignored can lead to chronic gastritis that may last a lifetime. Treatments for gastritis may involve taking antacids, histamine 3 blockers or proton pump inhibitors. By all means you should avoid drinking alcohol and taking medications with ibuprofen, aspirin or naproxen.
To learn more about gastritis healing treatments, review The Reflux Remedy Report today.
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