Stomach upset | Stomach

Stomach upset

If you talk colloquially about having “spoiled your stomach“, this usually means a weak feeling and nausea. This can be accompanied by stomach ache. Nausea then often leads to vomiting and can have various causes.

The following is an overview of the various causes of a “weak stomach“. Most of the time, when people talk about having a “bad stomach”, they mean food poisoning. At first glance, poisoning sounds like a life-threatening situation, but in the cases mentioned here this is not the case.

Most of the time it is simply caused by contaminated food. The pathogen is usually Staphylococcus aureus, a skin germ that can be transferred from the butcher to the meat, for example. It then accumulates on the food and multiplies there, especially after the food has been standing around for a long time.

Long cooking kills the germs, but eating insufficiently cooked food can lead to poisoning. Sometimes the toxins formed by the germs can also survive cooking. Other bacteria that can cause such poisoning are clostridia, molds and bacilli.

The symptoms usually appear shortly after consumption of the food and are quite severe. First of all, one should drink a lot of water to counteract the loss of fluid through vomiting and diarrhoea. A light diet with easily digestible carbohydrates is recommended.These include white bread, rusk and salt sticks.

Flatulent foods such as dairy products, alcohol, raw vegetables and coffee should be avoided. It does no harm to consult a doctor if the symptoms are very severe. Usually such stomach complaints are self-limiting and stop after 1 to 3 days.

Antibiotic therapy is indicated in the case of bacterial infections, such as those caused by salmonella or listeria, which lead to very severe diarrhoea. If symptoms such as impaired vision, swallowing or speech occur, an emergency doctor should be called immediately. This may be an indication of Botox poisoning.

Botulinum toxin, or Botox for short, can be contained in inflated cans. These should be discarded and no longer consumed. A poisoning with botulinum toxin is immediately treated with an antitoxin.

Usually such food poisonings or infections subside after 2 – 3 days, if there is no fever and the diarrhea is not bloody. The symptoms subside spontaneously by themselves and therapy is, if at all, only symptomatic. In more complicated cases, such as those caused by salmonella, antibiotic therapy is indicated.

If the stomach is irritated in the context of infectious diseases such as gastroenteritis, inflammation or food poisoning, this can be very unpleasant for those affected. One is plagued by nausea, may have no appetite and feels unwell. But the opposite can also be the case: One is hungry, but does not really know what the stomach can tolerate in such a sensitive situation.

Here are some ways to calm your stomach: For nausea, so-called antiemetics can help. These are drugs that prevent vomiting. These include, for example, antihistamines or dopamine antagonists.

They act at the nausea center of the brain stem and thus inhibit the nausea stimulus. But there are also natural substances that relieve the nausea. These are chamomile, ginger, peppermint and fennel.

You can drink them as tea and soothe your stomach well. The warmth of the tea is also good for cramping pains. Stomach pain and stomach cramps often occur as part of gastrointestinal disorders, inflammation or when there is a lot of stress.

Heat and bed rest can provide relief. Here too, natural remedies such as camomile, caraway or linseed help to calm the irritated stomach. In addition, one should avoid alcohol, caffeine and nicotine.

Often it also helps to reduce stress through relaxation exercises. Acidic foods and eating too fast or hastily should be avoided. This can only put additional strain on the stomach.

So-called spasmolytics, such as Buscopan, relieve cramps. They can also help against stomach pain. If there is too much acid and a feeling of heartburn, antacids that neutralize the stomach acid help. There are also proton pump inhibitors which inhibit the formation of stomach acid and thus relieve acid-related pain.