We all have stomach issues. Whether it’s a little food poisoning, a nasty bug going around the office or a stressful week that’s caused some tummy trouble, a little rest and some bland food can help us all.
But where is the line drawn that stomach trouble isn’t just the normal ongoing issue but something that requires professional attention? That line can get pretty blurred, especially when you’re in the middle of it, feeling your own symptoms.
The Frequency Factor
We all have an off day or a bad stomach here or there every once in a while. It’s when you find yourself with abdominal pain, bloating or stomach troubles multiple times a month – or even worse – every week, that things feel abnormal.
Chronic stomach woes become chronic matters, not just confined to your middle. They disrupt your sleep because you’re up all night trying to use the toilet. They sap your energy because your body isn’t absorbing nutrients like it should or you’re simply too exhausted from feeling poorly. They even impact your mood when you’re constantly wondering when the next flare-up will occur.
Countless people live this way, thinking this is their new normal because they’ve dealt with it for so long that constant discomfort has become the background noise of their existence. But it shouldn’t be this way, and what’s worse is that very rarely does disease of the digestive kind stay confined to the stomach.
That’s because digestive diseases masquerade as each other. What you think is indigestion could really be gastritis or a stomach ulcer. That bloating you’ve experienced for decades because of dairy could be small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) or a motility disorder. It’s complicated and the internet can only get you so far when symptoms overlap for various diagnoses.
Symptom Patterns that Indicate Serious Trouble
Some signals make people go to the doctor without thinking twice. Blood in the stool or when you vomit sends people rushing to urgent care and rightfully so.
However, other red flags are more insidious and easier to explain away.
Unintentional weight loss is a problem to begin with – but add stomach troubles into the mix and this isn’t something to wait out at home. This is something to check out sooner rather than later.
Dysphagia – or trouble swallowing – is another symptom people underestimate. If they’re eating too quickly or not chewing enough, they brush it off as their fault. But problems like this relative to the oesophagus require something structural or something impacting the oesophagus that won’t go away on its own without intervention.
Constant pain at an extreme level that’s come back time and time again isn’t your body being over dramatic. Pain is how the body communicates that something’s wrong, and when that communication gets loud and persistent, ignoring it does not help.
Your bathroom habits changing excessively mean something has shifted and for more than a few weeks of time. New constipation, diarrhea, or alternating between both manifest as a sign that something has shifted gastrointestinally and needs proper treatment.
Why Your Primary Care Physician Might Not Be Enough
Most stomach issues start with a visit to your PC physician – and rightly so. The PC has seen your history, has basic tests they can run, and they deal with common gastrointestinal complaints on a regular basis.
But PC physicians are generalists for a reason! They deal with everything from sports injuries to high blood pressure to respiratory infections – and gastroenterology is an entirely different expert world dedicated completely to the digestive system – from top to bottom, side to side.
When symptoms persist after initial efforts to treat at the primary care level – or when diagnosis isn’t straightforward – extra focus helps. Gastro experts perform endoscopies and colonoscopies that allow them to see what’s happening from the inside. They can recognize different patterns to digestive disorders that may only crop up from time to time within the generalist world, but exist all too often within the specialized realm. And they stay attuned to newer treatment options that the average doctor might not pay attention to yet.
Most people don’t run to specialists without trying a few alternatives first – and that’s reasonable. You try antacids or dietary changes, you see your general practitioner who tries a similar alternative approach and then medical help once they’re diverted ends up feeling like a fool’s errand at best…until it’s not.
For only in some cases, problems required specialized treatment from the very beginning – but it was too late after countless time wasted and temporary solutions that did nothing beneficial for them in the long run.
Conditions That Really Would Benefit from Specialized Knowledge
Some digestive problems are straightforward enough for any doctor (including gastroenterologists and specialists) to help. Others require someone who’s in the trenches with such specific issues daily.
Two inflammatory bowel diseases – Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis – absolutely require attention from specialists on a regular basis. They’re complicated autoimmune conditions with specific medications and attention needed based on what’s active and what’s gone into remission. With personal experience comes expert treatment.
Chronic liver issues operate on an exclusionary basis here as well. The liver has hundreds of jobs in the body and when it’s not functioning optimally, concern exists outside of just digestion. Only specialists who deal with liver-based complications understand how serious they can be downstream.
Acid reflux sounds benign enough – but when other treatment options don’t work over time, they warrant specialized help. GERD that’s untreated for too long leads to changes in the oesophagus that increase cancer risk; heartburn that’s been ongoing without response deserves further evaluation.
Abdominal pain without explanation is one of the most irritating reasons patients come to a gastroenterologist for help. When symptoms present but no one can figure out what’s going on, sometimes additional assessment or functional disorders can lead them down paths they never expected.
What Waiting Costs You
Here’s where it gets costly – and not just financially – even though that’s true as well.
People try over-the-counter solutions that fail for months. They visit more doctors than they should who’ve gotten their hopes up within weeks but have let them down instead. They miss work and have symptoms flare up and they’re embarrassed. They purchase probiotics or supplements; special diets or faux-food alternatives – which gets expensive too – in an attempt to gain some semblance of temporary relief that ultimately does nothing for their overall condition.
What’s far worse than financial impracticality is health deterioration by not obtaining proper care sooner rather than later. Symptoms fail to help those who ignore symptoms unchanging over time as chronic inflammation causes changes/scarring; untreated disease increases cancer risks in certain populations; untreated conditions can worsen over time where proper care sooner means simpler treatment and better outcomes.
Then there are quality of life implications which are less tangible but nonetheless exist. Chronic digestive troubles change one’s relationship with food; they derail plans out of anxiety of where symptoms might occur; they negatively affect how one presents at work when they’re exhausted or uncomfortable; they wear someone down socially overtime because it’s embarrassing – or boring – to express how these symptoms are occurring all the time.
Knowing When It’s Time to Advocate for Yourself
Nobody wants to feel crazy should symptoms arise seemingly out of nowhere; there’s an element where people could be worrying too much about something miniscule versus unnecessarily downplaying something that’s major but seemingly avoidable – and thankfully, there’s hope in realizing it’s not all-or-nothing.
If you’ve had symptoms that have lasted longer than a month with honest attempts at addressing them passively persisting, you need more than homeopathic remedies. If they’re intruding upon your ability to live day-to-day – skipping meals here and there; avoiding social situations due to anxiety; calling in sick from work – there’s no threshold of symptom severity that warrants further investigation over another.
You know yourself best – how things normally are and what’s now abnormal within your functioning day-to-day means you’ve got a legitimate case on your hands worth investigating further.
Getting real answers via treatments provides peace of mind worth any anxiety related to appointments or diagnostic procedures. Talk to anyone who finally received proper care who’d been suffering with chronic digestive issues and they’ll say they wish they’d gotten help sooner instead of gutting (no pun intended) it out so long.