Heaviness in the abdomen periodically occurs when overeating, but more often worries about diseases of the stomach (hypoacid gastritis, pyloric stenosis, cancer), intestines (enteritis, colitis, UC and Crohn's disease). The symptom develops with damage to the pancreas, liver, biliary tract. Diagnosis includes ultrasonic, endoscopic and X-ray methods of research, laboratory tests of blood and feces. To relieve painful sensations, prokinetics and enzymes are prescribed. Treatment of the underlying pathology involves taking choleretic, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs, performing surgical interventions.
An unpleasant feeling of heaviness in the abdomen is noted after an abundant intake of fatty and high-calorie foods, abuse of weak alcoholic beverages (beer, champagne). Discomfort develops immediately after a feast or already in the process of eating food. It becomes difficult for a person to take deep breaths, heaviness in the epigastric zone increases with laughter, bending or turning the torso.
Symptoms persist for up to several hours, but not more than a day. Often, overeating provokes nausea, vomiting, and in the next few days, a disorder of the stool is possible. If heaviness in the stomach worries more often, appears even when eating the usual amount of food, it is worth thinking about the state of health. This may be the first sign of diseases of the digestive tract.
Regularly occurring heaviness in the abdomen is observed in pregnant women, especially in the second half of the gestational period. An uncomfortable feeling develops even after a light meal or a glass of water. Women complain that they are "bursting from the inside", the heaviness increases in the prone position, when bending over. The condition is due to the fact that the growing uterus presses on the digestive organs.
Most often, heaviness in the upper abdomen is caused by chronic hypoacid gastritis. Due to the lack of hydrochloric acid, food is digested worse and stagnates in the stomach cavity, which is manifested by constant discomfort. Unpleasant sensations reach their maximum intensity within 30-6 minutes after the end of the meal, subside after a few hours. In a severe variant of gastritis, heaviness constantly worries, combined with rotten belching, nausea and vomiting.
Severity, bursting pains in the abdomen are observed with pyloric stenosis, which complicates the course of gastric ulcer. The intensity of the symptom depends on the stage - during the period of compensation, discomfort occurs only after eating and does not last long, and when the process decompensates, a person constantly feels painful heaviness, fullness of the stomach. Symptoms are supplemented by vomiting, which brings relief.
Heaviness in the abdomen, accompanied by a decrease in appetite and rapid weight loss, are typical signs of stomach cancer at an early stage. The patient experiences early satiety, therefore reduces the number of servings. As a rule, taste preferences change, an aversion to meat food appears. With the progression of the process, heaviness in the abdomen is complemented by dull pains that are not clearly associated with any provoking factors.
Heaviness in the abdomen
In violation of the liver and gallbladder, the patient is almost constantly faced with heaviness in the abdomen. Discomfort is most intense in the projection of the right hypochondrium. For the defeat of the hepatobiliary system, nausea, bitterness in the mouth, belching with air or bitter is characteristic. A feeling of heaviness and overcrowding is accompanied by stool disorders with alternating constipation and diarrhea. A similar clinical picture is manifested:
A decrease in exocrine pancreatic function is the cause of chyme digestion disorders and stagnation in the small intestine, which provokes heaviness in the abdomen. Patients notice a deterioration in the condition half an hour to an hour after the end of the meal. There is moderate pain in the left hypochondrium, which is usually accompanied by discomfort, rumbling in the intestines, a feeling of fullness or fullness. The severity decreases slightly after defecation.
Heaviness in the intestines occurs with chronic constipation, when the act of defecation occurs a couple of times a week or less. The patient is concerned about bloating, overcrowding of the intestine. Discomfort is localized mainly in the left iliac region. Due to the constant heaviness in the abdomen, appetite decreases, general well-being worsens. After a bowel movement, the discomfort decreases or disappears completely.
Heaviness throughout the abdomen is a characteristic manifestation of colitis, enteritis. The symptom often develops in the structure of nonspecific intestinal pathologies: ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease. In children, complaints of heaviness in the abdomen are mainly due to congenital anomalies, which include Hirschsprung's disease, dolichosigma, megacolon.
A feeling of heaviness in the intestines, aggravated after eating, is observed with dysbacteriosis, which occurs as a result of prolonged use of antibiotics, sulfanilamide drugs, and cytostatics. Discomfort appears on average 5-7 days after the start of treatment. Patients report that on a full stomach they have flatulence, rumbling in the abdomen, a feeling of fullness and fullness. Frequent loose stools with a fetid odor are typical.
The doctor-gastroenterologist is engaged in finding out the causes of heaviness in the abdomen. At the reception, the patient is asked how long the symptoms began, what, in the patient’s opinion, they are associated with, whether treatment was carried out at home. The specialist receives valuable information when palpating the anterior abdominal wall and checking for pathognomonic symptoms. Diagnostic search requires the results of instrumental and laboratory studies. Commonly used:
To confirm vascular pathologies, MSCT of the abdominal aorta and angiography are prescribed. To identify early functional disorders that provoke heaviness in the abdomen, scintigraphy is performed. Auxiliary information for diagnosis is provided by the results of clinical and biochemical blood tests, coagulogram data and studies of acute phase parameters.
Capsule endoscopy
To reduce heaviness in the abdomen, it is recommended to normalize the diet. An adult needs to eat 4-5 times a day in small portions (up to 20g), chewing food thoroughly. Fast food, fried and fatty foods, smoked meats are excluded from the diet. As much as possible limit products that increase gas formation - legumes, cabbage, black bread. It is advisable to reduce the consumption of milk and dairy products.
After eating, you can not immediately go to bed or, conversely, engage in physical labor. The best option is to walk at a calm pace. If you experience a single episode of stomach heaviness after overeating, you can use over-the-counter enzyme preparations that speed up the digestion of food. After the holidays, it is worth doing a fasting day so that the digestive system returns to normal.
To eliminate heaviness in the abdomen, prokinetics help well. The drugs normalize intestinal motility, improve the promotion of digested food, and adjust the frequency of stools. After their application, nausea, heaviness in the abdomen and flatulence disappear. For discomfort caused by constipation, laxatives are prescribed. In addition to symptomatic agents, etiopathogenetic therapy is used, which includes:
To restore the microflora of the gastrointestinal tract, probiotics and synbiotics are widely used. Taking into account the etiological factor of severity in the abdomen, therapy may include corticosteroid hormones and cytostatics, lipid-lowering and cardiotropic drugs. Advanced forms of digestive diseases, in which the normal nutrition of the patient is disturbed, require parenteral administration of nutritional mixtures.
The intervention of abdominal surgeons is required for decompensated stages of diseases of the digestive system, when conservative tactics are ineffective. Surgery is the main way to treat calculous cholecystitis, pyloric stenosis, and malignant tumors. In case of pathologies of the vessels of the abdominal cavity, methods of arthroplasty, bypass anastomoses, and stenting are used.