Symptoms
Among the most frequently mentioned symptoms are the feeling of pressure in the abdomen, as well as diffuse, stabbing abdominal pain in the stomach area, which gets better after a meal but then returns. Sometimes the stomach pain is not perceived in the stomach area, but is projected further up. Due to the “wrong” perception of the pain in the chest area, the stomach pain can also be confused with heart problems.
Therefore, it is important to pay close attention to when the pain begins and how it improves. In addition, gastritis can cause loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, bad breath, bloating, bad taste in the mouth and heartburn. A prolonged inflammation of the mucous membranes of the stomach can also cause bleeding in the stomach.
This manifests itself in tarry stools and coffee grounds breakage. Tarry stools is a term for pitch-black stools and coffee grounds breakage refers to the vomiting of dark stomach contents. The color is caused by the mixture of stomach acid and blood.
However, these two symptoms do not necessarily have to occur with bleeding. Bleeding can also only manifest itself as anemia, which is called anemia in the technical jargon. The signs of anemia are concentration problems, dizziness and pale skin.In some cases, diarrhea can occur in the context of gastritis.
In acute gastritis, in addition to the typical burning pain, loss of appetite, nausea and diarrhea can occur. This can also lead to a so-called “hunger pain”. Despite a strong feeling of hunger, the affected person can only eat a few bites until a feeling of fullness and pressure in the upper abdomen sets in.
This symptom is also accompanied by digestive problems and diarrhoea. Diarrhea is very common in the chronic form of gastritis. The causes of diarrhea can be different.
Severe inflammation causes damage to the mucous membrane, which leads to gastric bleeding. In acute bleeding, the blood is excreted undigested as diarrhea. The color is correspondingly dark because the blood is mostly clotted.
Blood is also often excreted in the stool in the case of an ulcer, which can develop from an inflammation of the stomach lining. By another mechanism, the inflammation can affect the cells of the stomach lining in such a way that important digestive enzymes are no longer secreted. This leads above all to the fact that fatty foods are not split and excreted as fatty diarrhea. The smell is unusually strong. The increased fat excretion can also be recognized by the color and consistency of the stool.
