When we eat food, a lot happens when it enters our stomach until it is excreted. The liver, pancreas, stomach, and esophagus play an essential role in digestion, but sometimes digestion may experience changes due to a minor response to a new food, medicine, or anxiety. This may lead to gastrointestinal problems such as stomach pain, diarrhea, bloating, heartburn, and bloody stool. These can cause you discomfort and disrupt your normal functioning. Worry no more since the best GI doctors at GastroDoxs PLLC can offer a wide range of services to cure gastrointestinal issues.
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What causes gastrointestinal issues?
Several bacteria, viruses, and parasites cause gastrointestinal infections. When you are infected, you may experience abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, blood, or mucus in stool. You may be keen on eating clean food and ensuring that you keep healthy, but sometimes you may experience discomfort in your stomach and wonder what might have caused it. It is crucial to visit your doctor to inquire about what might be causing digestive problems. The following are some of the other causes of gastrointestinal conditions:
Low fiber food
Fiber plays a vital role in digestion. It assists in the digestion of particular food and helps you feel full. Fiber combines with essential bacteria in our large intestines, which in turn gives us many health benefits. Food low in fiber causes digestive problems such as constipation and abdominal cramps.
Age
We all cannot avoid aging, and sadly, age predisposes us to several gastrointestinal diseases. As we grow older, digestive glands reduce inactivity, thus making you susceptible to certain digestive issues. The risk of developing digestive cancer also increases with age.
Too much dairy food
Dairy food such as milk and cheese contains fats and proteins that are hard to digest and may lead to inflammation. This explains why consuming too many dairy products leads to abdominal cramps, gas, and constipation.
Inactivity
Exercise also plays a vital role in digestion. Exercise increases blood flow to the muscles in the digestive system, causing them to work more effectively. Lack of physical activity negatively impacts our digestion and general health as it can worsen constipation, heartburn, and reflux.
Not drinking enough water.
Water plays a vital role in digestion. It aids in digestion by mixing with food to make digestion easy; this results in soft stool, preventing constipation. Water also cleans the digestive tract. Lack of enough water in your digestive system contributes to gastrointestinal problems.
How will the doctor diagnose my condition?
When you have a gastrointestinal issue, your doctor will have to perform an accurate diagnosis to establish the right treatment. Your doctor may start with a lab test to check for any abnormalities in your stool. The lab test may also involve breath tests to check digestive disorders that bacteria might cause. The specialist may recommend further tests such as Computed Tomography CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and X-ray scans. The specialist may also conduct endoscopic tests to check for abnormalities in the intestines and the digestive glands.
Various conditions cause gastrointestinal disorders, and usually, the infection will heal in a few days. If the condition persists, book an appointment with a specialist at GastroDoxs PLLC to start leading a life devoid of stomach pain.