The topic of this article is the treatment and symptoms of gastric aerophagia. Many people swallow air while eating, and after a certain period of time it leaves the body in the form of a burp. This phenomenon is called aerophagia. This is not dangerous, but rather unpleasant, because all well-mannered people know that belching is indecent. What are the signs of this disease, we will consider in more detail below.
Aerophagia - what is it
In the ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases), this disease is assigned a code - F 45.3. Aerophagia or pneumatosis of the stomach is considered a disorder, which is characterized by swallowing a large volume of air. Normally, during a meal, with each swallowed portion, about three cubic centimeters of air enters a person. It accumulates in the stomach in the form of an air bubble with a volume of about two hundred milliliters.
Further, the air that enters the body passes into the small intestine, where it is partially absorbed by the intestinal walls, and the rest comes out naturallyway through the anus. The remaining air in the stomach is excreted in the form of belching. When aerophagia occurs, more air is swallowed than usual. The disease can occur in both adults and children. It manifests itself both with food and outside of it.
Gastroenterological disorders or diseases of the internal organs can be the causes of symptoms. In addition, there are a number of completely harmless ailments that can provoke pathology. The likelihood of symptoms of aerophagia is higher in young girls and infants. It is impossible to say exactly how common the disease is, since patients rarely go to the doctor with this problem, considering it not serious enough.
The main signs of aerophagia are: heaviness and bloating in the abdomen, impaired breathing processes, belching with air, changes in heart rate and pain in the heart area. Treatment of the disease is carried out in a conservative way, which consists in the rationalization of nutrition, taking medications and physiotherapy. Surgery is usually not addressed.
Because of what appears
The causes of aerophagia in adults may arise due to a large number of factors that are usually divided into several groups.
The first category is represented by the following diseases:
- Gastritis.
- Stomach ulcer.
- Achalasia cardia.
- Hiatal hernia.
- Dental diseases.
- Decreased tone of gastric muscles.
- Chronic colitis.
- Pyloroduodenal stenosis.
- Aortic aneurysm.
- Insufficiency of cardiac sphincter.
- Violation of circulatory processes.
- Disturbances in the coronary arteries of the heart.
- Allergic reactions to food. The second group includes neurological provocateurs. The most common of them: The habit of talking while eating.
- Hurry eating.
- Eating during a stressful situation.
- Bad chewing of food.
- Smoking.
- Excretion of large amounts of saliva.
The third category is neurotic causes. Symptoms of aerophagia in this case are due to:
- prolonged stress;
- nervous turmoil;
- neuroses;
- hysteria and phobias.
A person can swallow a large amount of air, regardless of the meal. Harmless factors include:
- Prolonged nasal congestion.
- Eating plenty of spicy, fatty, and gas-producing foods (cabbage, legumes, sodas, mushrooms).
In newborns
Aerophagia in infants most often develops due to swallowing air during intense crying, screaming, or during feeding. Prerequisites for such a state may be:
- Incorrect latching on.
- Incomplete nipple latch on artificial feeding.
- Incoming too fast or too slowmilk.
Doctors consider aerophagia in newborns a normal phenomenon and associate it with insufficient formation of the digestive system. It is noted that most often this disorder manifests itself in premature babies.
Classification
Based on the causes, the disorder is divided into the following forms:
- Neurotic aerophagia.
- Neurological aerophagia.
- Somatic aerophagia.
Signs of the disease, depending on when they appear, are divided into those that have arisen in the process of eating, during a conversation, when swallowing saliva.
Below, we will take a closer look at the symptoms and treatment of gastric aerophagia.
Signs
The main symptoms of gastric aerophagia include the following:
- The manifestation of bursting or heaviness in the epigastric zone.
- Burp of odorless air (permanently). It occurs regardless of the food eaten, and in some cases does not go away throughout the day and stops only during sleep.
- Increase in the volume of the abdomen.
- Extrasystole.
- Tachycardia.
- Hiccup.
- Difficulty breathing.
- Heartburn and shortness of breath.
- Nausea without vomiting.
- Meteorism.
- Disorder of the act of defecation.
Baby symptoms
Newborn babies show the following symptoms of aerophagia:
- Bloating.
- Scream while feeding.
- Frequent regurgitation.
- Weight loss.
- Colic.
- No food.
- Crankiness, tearfulness.
- Worry.
The main problem with the course of the disease in babies is that they cannot describe in words what worries them. Therefore, parents should carefully monitor their child's behavior.
Diagnostic measures
If you experience symptoms of aerophagia, you should contact a gastroenterologist. He will conduct a comprehensive diagnosis, which includes a number of laboratory and instrumental examinations performed by specialists:
- study of the clinical picture of the disease to find the underlying disease;
- listening to a patient with a phonendoscope;
- gathering information about the patient's eating habits;
- percussion and palpation of the anterior abdominal wall;
To draw up a complete picture and clarify the severity of symptoms, a detailed survey of the patient or parents is carried out if a small child is ill. Lab tests include:
- microscopic study of feces;
- general and biochemical blood tests;
- x-ray;
- abdominal ultrasonography;
- FGDS;
- CT;
- gastroscopy;
- MRI;
Additionally, consultation with a cardiologist, pediatrician, dentist, psychiatrist may be required.
Aerophagia: how to get rid of
Airbrush treatment begins after diagnostic tests. It dependsonly from the cause of the disease. That is why it is important to make the correct diagnosis in order to prescribe the appropriate therapy. Often belching appears in patients with a mental disorder. In this case, the treatment will be aimed at correcting behavioral responses.
Patients are trained to determine the frequency of diaphragmatic contraction and help to learn how to control it. Before starting the treatment of aerophagia, the doctor studies the patient's diet: drinks and food that he consumes, the body's reaction to certain types of food. In addition, it is important to understand how the body behaves in the presence of irritants that can cause symptoms of aerophagia.
If the cause of the disease is not food, they resort to a course of behavioral psychiatry. First of all, the psychologist teaches the patient diaphragmatic breathing. Also, the treatment of aerophagia includes the following recommendations that must be observed during meals:
- Eating silently and slowly.
- Reduce soda.
- Select drugs that relieve stress from the gastrointestinal tract.
- When eating too dry food, you can drink it with water.
- It is necessary to follow the rules of fractional nutrition.
- It is advisable to spit excess saliva.
- Recommended to do breathing exercises. This must be done regularly, otherwise there will be no effect from therapy.
- In order to prevent the development of aerophagia, it is necessary to give up bad habits.
- Should stop chewinggum and avoid drinking liquids through a straw, as this contributes to excessive swallowing of air.
- People suffering from various mental illnesses should take antidepressants.
- Eat slowly and calmly, each meal should take about 30 minutes.
- Last dinner should be no later than 2 hours before bedtime.
- If the symptoms of aerophagia interfere with sleep, the patient should lower his head and lie on his left side.
It should be understood that the treatment of the symptoms of this disease must be comprehensive, so each item must be considered seriously.
Traditional medicine
The most popular folk remedies for the treatment of aerophagia are infusions and decoctions of medicinal plants. Drinks made from mint, chamomile, lemon balm, fennel, valerian will help reduce the manifestation of unpleasant signs.
One of the most common recipes: take one tablespoon of valerian, mint and wormwood, three tablespoons of yarrow. Herbs are mixed and poured with boiling water (one liter). The infusion is kept in a dark place for 3-4 hours, then filtered and consumed throughout the day.
Prevention
Aerophagia, like any disease, is easier to prevent than to treat. To do this, you must create the following conditions:
- Give up bad habits.
- Balance nutrition.
- Exclude from yourdiet dry snacks and carbonated drinks.
- Timely treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
- See a doctor for various mental disorders.
In the event that all preventive measures have been observed, but the symptoms of the disease have appeared, the best option would be to contact a specialist.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that aerophagia is not considered a life-threatening disorder, its presence greatly affects the quality of life, a person's self-confidence and the ability to fully communicate. Pathology requires mandatory correction. Moreover, without timely therapy, aerophagia can cause a number of unpleasant complications, which include hiatal hernia and weakening of the esophageal sphincter.
