Gastritis ... What is it? In general, modern medicine means by this term a certain group of chronic and acute diseases of the stomach. Their common symptom is its inflamed mucous membrane. More about this in our article.
Note that this disease is the most common among the digestive organs. It is gastritis - the disease that most often leads us to doctors. Now let's talk about the types of this disease.
Chronic gastritis
It is characterized by its rather long course. If you do not carry out the appropriate treatment on time, then you can suffer from gastritis almost all of your life. In this case, the glands responsible for the reproduction of gastric juice begin to die gradually. The so-called mucosal atrophy appears. In this case, gastritis will be called atrophic. If erosion appears on the background of an inflamed mucosa, then gastritis turns into erosive.
Acute gastritis
Most often, it develops due to the constant exposure to the gastric mucosa of certain aggressive substances of chemical origin. They include all kinds of acids, poisons and alkalis, some non-medications, food, etc. It should be noted that timely and proper treatment will make you forget what acute gastritis is.
What is this in terms of symptoms?
- A sign of an acute form of gastritis is intense pain in the upper abdomen. Often there is diarrhea, nausea, vomiting. It should be noted that timely treatment allows this problem to subside over the coming weeks.
- The sensations of chronic gastritis can be similar to the signs of its acute form - pain in the upper abdomen. But contrary to this, they are often aching or oppressive and occur both on an empty stomach and after eating. In addition, the patient may be disturbed by discomfort, heaviness in the stomach, bursting of the abdomen. Some patients begin to suffer from vomiting and impaired appetite. What is the danger of this form of the disease - we will learn further!
Oh, this chronic gastritis!
What is it, in terms of its danger? The fact is that the chronic manifestation of gastritis is dangerous by the development of atrophy of the gastric mucosa, passing unnoticed by humans. In addition, the production of hydrochloric acid is reduced.
Note that in this case, the violation of traditional digestive processes is not at all the most important, most dangerous problem! The fact is that atrophic gastritis is a precancerous condition, against the background of which the risk of stomach cancer developing significantly increases.
Finally
So, in this article we talked about gastritis: what it is, what forms it has and why it is dangerous. In conclusion, we add that any type of gastritis needs timely and, most importantly, accurate diagnosis. In addition, special attention to this problem should be given to those who suffer from an atrophic form of this disease, especially if any relatives suffered from stomach cancer.
Any examination begins with the consultation of a gastroenterologist or general practitioner. Then, gastroscopy should be performed, which will allow you to examine samples of the gastric mucosa and develop individual treatment.