Indigestion: causes, symptoms, and Management
overview
Indigestion, also known as dyspepsia, can be described as an uncomfortable fullness and/or burning sensation in the upper abdomen that may cause heartburn or nausea. The feeling may be mild or severe and may last from a few hours to several days at a time. Indigestion symptoms can affect people of all ages, but they are most common in middle-aged adults and elderly people who may have other medical conditions like hypertension, liver disease or renal disease and medications that increase their risk of indigestion problems.
Generally after eating large meals, People experience indigestion However, several other factors can lead you to develop symptoms of indigestion.
Causes
1. Lifestyle
You can experience indigestion when your body cannot digest food as normal may be due to,
- eating too much
- eating too rapidly
- chewing too briefly
Dietary indulgences like high intake of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, spicy, greasy and fatty foods also increases the chance of indigestion. Lying down too soon after eating can make it harder to digest food.
Other causes of poor digestion includes:
- emotional tension
- malnutrition
- disease
2. Medication
Indigestion can be side effect of taking medicines. When a food affects medication in the body, this is called food-drug interaction. Food can prevent medicine from working the way it should and can cause medicinal side effects to become better or worse and/or cause new side effects to occur.
Indigestion can be due to taking any kind is nonsteroidal drugs.
3. Medical conditions
Several medical conditions can also lead to indigestion these include:
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
- irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Gastritis
- Peptic ulcer
- Lactose intolerance
- gluten intolerance
- Gall bladder diseases
- Any food allergy
Symptoms
Symptoms of dyspepsia may include:
- bloating
- Heart burn
- uncertain abdominal pain
- nausea
- Regurgitation (spitting up of food from stomach)
- Burping (Excess wind in the stomach or upper intestine released from the mouth)
Management of uncomplicated dyspepsia
- Eating slowly
- chewing thoroughly
- eating at regular times and in a relaxed atmosphere
- avoid foods that can trigger heartburn (coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol)
- don’t eat just before lying down
- eat small and frequent meals
Conclusion
Feeling bloated and gassy? You’re probably suffering from indigestion.
Indigestion can occur when the food you eat isn’t fully broken down by stomach acids due to an empty stomach, too much alcohol consumption, excessive stress levels or other health conditions such as acid reflux.
Comment below and tell us what foods tend to give you indigestion.