By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2011-06-01 12:26:50 | Word Count: 664
Gastritis affects the digestive system significantly. Gastritis is something that affects thousands of people. When your stomach lining is inflamed, you are classified as having gastritis. Inflammation of the stomach lining may not seem significant to you if you don’t understand how crucial a healthy stomach lining is. Stomach lining is what helps you to digest the foods you eat. The lining is where the cells that produce gastric acid are located. If there is inflammation, the cells in the lining do not produce acid at the same rate. Inflammation causes the production of acid and enzymes to decreases, thus making the digestive process strained and difficult.
To fully digest food, the stomach needs to produce enough acid to break the food down into smaller particles. The breakdown of food allows the large and small intestine to extract and utilize the nutrients, proteins and minerals that are found in the food you eat. Without breaking down the food, the digestive process is interrupted. This can cause you to be unhealthy.
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Causes
The cause of gastritis varies from person to person. Some people are more susceptible to developing gastritis than others. Causes may include: illegal drug abuse, taking non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and aspirin, excessive alcohol consumption, stress, eating or drinking poison, infections, disorders, surgery, burns and injuries.
Symptoms
Some people experience symptoms of gastritis while others do not. To make sure that you don’t have gastritis, you need to consult with your doctor. Through blood and stool testing, you may be able to find out if you have it. Some symptoms of gastritis include: bleeding, ulcers, erosions, upper abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, blood in vomit, dark or bloody stool, loss of appetite and indigestion.
Each meal that you eat will be more painful if you don’t get treatment. Treatment for gastritis could be based on the symptoms that you are having and the type of gastritis that you have. Acute gastritis is severe and happens suddenly. Chronic gastritis is more constant. This can take place over an expansive period of time, even for your whole life in some cases. Erosive gastritis causes the least inflammation but possibly the most damage to the stomach lining. It allows stomach acid to erode the lining.
To treat gastritis you should:
- Avoiding taking non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, naproxen and ibuprofen. These drugs are found in several over the counter medications like Advil.
- Take Antacids. Since gastritis reduces the protective mucus between the lining and the acid, you may need an antacid to neutralize the acid. This can also reduce nausea and vomiting.
- Take Histamine 2 Blockers or Antagonist like Zantac and Pepsid.
- Take Proton Pump Inhibitors or PPIs.
Before you make a decision about a treatment plan, make sure to consult with your doctor to discuss the pros and cons of each type of medication. For more information on treatment for gastritis, review The Reflux Remedy Report to get all of your questions answered.
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