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 feature is its inflamed mucous membrane. Read more about this in our article.
Note that this disease is the most common among the digestive organs. It is gastritis that is the disease that most often leads us to doctors. Now let's talk about the types of this disease.
Chronic gastritis
Characterized by its rather long course. If time does not carry out appropriate treatment, then you can suffer from gastritis for almost a lifetime. 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 erosions appear against the background of the inflamed mucosa, then the gastritis turns into erosive.
Acute gastritis
Most often it develops due to the constant impact on the gastric mucosa of certain aggressive substances of chemical origin. To theminclude all kinds of acids, poisons and alkalis, some non-drugs, food, etc. It should be noted that timely and proper treatment will make you forget what acute gastritis is.
What is it 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.
- Sensations of chronic gastritis can be similar to signs of its acute form - pain in the upper abdomen. But despite this, they are more often aching or pressing and occur both on an empty stomach and after eating. In addition, the patient may be disturbed by discomfort, heaviness in the stomach, distension of the abdomen. Some patients begin to suffer from vomiting and impaired appetite. How dangerous this form of the disease is - we will find out further!
Oh, this chronic gastritis
What is it, in terms of its danger? The fact is that the chronic manifestation of gastritis is dangerous for the development of atrophy of the gastric mucosa, which goes unnoticed by a person. 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, the most dangerous problem! The fact is that atrophic gastritis is a precancerous condition, which significantly increases the risk that stomach cancer will develop.
In closing
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 paid to those who suffer from the atrophic form of this disease, especially if any relatives suffered from stomach cancer.
Any examination begins with a consultation with a gastroenterologist or general practitioner. Then a gastroscopy should be performed, which will allow the examination of samples of the gastric mucosa and the development of an individual treatment.
