The Good Gut Guide: Help for IBS, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease, Diverticulitis, Food Allergies and Other Gut Problems. Stephanie Zinser
the anus. Other causes of mucus include proctitis, polyps, anal fistulas, rectal prolapses, ulcerative colitis, bowel and anal cancer. Intussusception – a problem seen in young infants – causes red, jelly-like stools or bloodstained mucus. Even IBS can stimulate areas of the gut to produce more mucus. (It is interesting to note that IBS often used to be called ‘mucous colitis’.)
Self-Help for Excess Mucus
How do you describe abdominal pain? There are lots of words because there are lots of different types of abdominal pain: there are dull aches, dragging sensations, sharp stabbing pains, intermittent ones – most of us have had ‘tummy ache’ at one time or another since childhood and we become pretty good at describing the various types. Of course, some tummy aches are minor – the results of eating too many chocolate eggs at Easter, for instance – but others can be agonizing pains that literally floor us. They often feel worse when we don’t know what is causing them: fear is a highly aggravating factor in our perception of pain.
Pain in the abdomen is like pain in any other part of our bodies, warning us that something is not quite right. Our expectations of a pain-free life often lead us to view pain itself as the problem – we imagine that if we can get rid of the pain, the problem is automatically resolved. Not so. Pain is an alarm device that lets us know our bodies are not functioning properly. Pain should be listened to.
Fear, worry, stress and anxiety can subtly alter our perception of pain and can, in some cases, make us feel pain where, medically, there isn’t any. It’s what lies behind so-called ‘psychosomatic’ illnesses – diseases that our minds can trick us into believing we have. The mind is a very complex organ that scientists still do not understand and it can change our perception of pain in both negative and positive ways. One little girl I know quite happily had several dental fillings done with no anaesthetic, simply because she had overheard her father saying that he never used any anaesthetic when he visited the dentist. The motivating force – her father’s approval – was enough to make her cope with the pain. When we are strongly motivated, we feel pain less intensely.
The fact that emotional states can affect our perception of pain makes it notoriously difficult to assess. And to compound this further, scientists have found that people have different pain thresholds, making one person’s ‘agony’ another’s ‘discomfort’.
An Important Word about Pain and Pregnancy
It is quite common for abdominal pain to occur mid to late pregnancy (especially if it’s a first pregnancy), as the ligaments and muscles of the abdomen stretch to accommodate the quickly growing baby. However, if you experience any abdominal pain during any stage of pregnancy, always see your doctor. Self-diagnosis is not advisable during pregnancy and can be dangerous.
What Causes It?
Abdominal pain is probably the one symptom that has the widest range of possible causes. These include period pains, excess alcohol, stress, overuse of aspirin and food intolerance. Abdominal pain can also be caused by problems that aren’t related to the gut – like the sexually-transmitted disease chlamydia, or by ovarian cysts or ovarian cancer, or even by adhesions. Abdominal pain is a common symptom of gut infections and infestations such as viral gastroenteritis, parasitic infections, food poisoning, gastritis, typhoid and paratyphoid. It can also be caused by inflammatory conditions including proctitis, Crohn’s disease, diverticulitis, appendicitis and peritonitis. And various other problems may lead to abdominal pain of varying degrees and locations – anal abscesses, hernias, peptic ulcers, malabsorption, IBS, bowel and gastric cancer, and intestinal obstruction.
Pain sensations are caused when pain receptors (special nerve endings found throughout the body) are activated. They are usually triggered by pressure on the nerve endings – for example, the sharp pressure of an injury or the dull pressure of an increase in blood flow or fluid retention. The receptors then send electrical impulses travelling along our nerves to the brain, where they are interpreted as pain. Because the distribution of pain receptors is highly uneven throughout the body, certain pains are felt more distinctly than others. For example, there are probably more pain receptors on the tongue alone than there are throughout the rest of the digestive tract combined.
When to Seek Help
Any abdominal pain that is severe or lasts for longer than a couple of hours should be referred to a doctor, especially in children and infants, and urgently if there is also abdominal distension, the belly is rigid or swollen, if there is any bleeding or bloody vomit, or there is a fever.
Self-Help for Abdominal Pain