One should take into consideration, that Dyspepsia is not a disease - it represents a group of symptoms which gives signal to a doctor to consider upper-abdominal disease. In short, Indigestion is a discomfort or pain centered in the upper abdomen. Discomfort or pain in other areas of your body, will help you to exclude dyspepsia, because, once again, it's closely related to upper abdomen.
There are two general types of dyspepsia:
- functional dyspepsia
- non-functional dyspepsia
Functional dyspepsia takes place, when there is no pathological cause in the upper-abdominal part. In contrast, non-functional dyspepsia is a condition, where there is evidence of structural or biochemical abnormalities.
If you do not have pathologies within gastrointestinal tract (in that case, you should immediately contact your physician), then causes of non-functional indigestion might be the following:
- large or fatty meals
- eating before lying down
- alcohol and smoking
- some medications
The symptoms which closely relate to indigestion might be experienced anywhere and anytime. If persistent vomiting takes place, you have difficulties when swallowing and you start to lose weight unintentionally - you have dyspepsia. Also reflux like symptoms must be taken into account.
Usually, these symptoms are experienced after a meal, and discomfort at upper abdominal part is often relieved after taking antacids.
There are several ways, to prevent dyspepsia to occur and it's worth taking them into consideration:
- you should stop receiving drugs, which could, in principle, cause indigestion and provoke discomfort.
- you should change your lifestyle - do not eat before lying down, reduce daily share of fatty meals, stop smoking, drinking and receiving vague drugs.
Commonly related issue to indigestion is heartburn, which is due to acidity. During process of digestion our stomach secretes acid, that is crucial for digestion. Sometimes there is excess production of acid, and that is when you feel the heartburn and irritating sensation in the esophagus. Intake of more vegetables rich with vitamins (especially vitamin B and E) is proved to be effective during heartburn.
Approximately 50% of patients diagnosed as having functional dyspepsia also have helicobacter pylori-gastritis. Treatment for these patients remains controversial. Until it is established that this organism is responsible for symptoms and until a safe and effective therapy is available for eradication, it is generally not appropriate to treat patients for this infection.
Even if you have dyspeptic symptoms, don't worry - it's very common among people. Nearly 40% of population have experienced some of them in the last six months. Although treatment methods remain very controversial, dyspepsia can not be found in the list of deadly diseases.
