Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Location, timing and the link to eating often say more than how strong the pain is.
Also known as: stomach ache · belly pain · abdominal pain
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Abdominal pain is very common and usually harmless — often digestion, gas, an upset stomach or stress. For placing it, where and how it hurts matters: upper abdomen (stomach, gallbladder, pancreas), lower right (incl. appendix), lower left (bowel/diverticula) or crampy and shifting (irritable bowel). Periods, the urinary tract and muscles also play a part. It usually settles on its own. Get checked quickly for warning signs: very severe or sudden pain, a hard, tender belly, blood in the stool or vomit, high fever, or persistent pain with weight loss.
Among all belly pains this one has a particularly clear handwriting: shortly after eating, depending on the amount, with fear of eating and weight loss — and all the usual investigations normal.
Minutes point to stomach and gullet, half an hour to an hour to the small bowel and the blood supply, hours later to the large bowel. This one observation sorts more than any list of suspects.
Mild, short pain usually settles on its own — warmth, rest, light food.
Location, timing (fasting/after meals) and accompanying signs help narrow it down.
With the warning signs above, don’t wait — seek medical help.
Recurring or persistent abdominal pain should be assessed.
In children both belong on the list — they appear in no blood panel and are therefore almost never checked.
In girls and women with lower abdominal pain the cycle belongs written alongside — otherwise the link stays invisible.
It passes from person to person and multiplies in the same gut. In children with belly pain, restlessness and poor appetite a stool sample finds it.
A tapeworm can cause nothing but a pull and changing appetite for years. Anyone who eats raw or briefly cooked beef or pork can pick it up.
Belly pain that starts around the navel and moves to the right lower belly after six to twenty-four hours is the classic pattern of appendicitis. Pain that comes and goes in waves points to a hollow organ; steady pain that worsens with movement points to the peritoneum. In about one in three no cause is found despite investigation — that too is a finding.
Painkillers obscure the picture in acute belly pain less than was long assumed — studies have shown that classification does not get worse under them. Antispasmodics work for colic. What is not given while the cause is open: a laxative with possible obstruction, and antibiotics without a target. With pain lasting more than six hours it is not about a drug but about an examination.
Stomach, gallbladder or pancreas — often after eating.
Persistent, worsening pain there can point to the appendix.
Shifting cramps with bloating suggest irritable bowel.
Very severe/sudden pain, hard belly, blood, high fever → seek help quickly.
Soluble fibres like psyllium and oats bind water and make the stool supple. Wheat bran and a lot of raw vegetables, by contrast, increase bloating and pain in a sensitive gut — this distinction explains most of the failures.
Fibre without water makes the stool harder instead of softer. The two belong together, and the effect only sets in after some days.
Draws water into the bowel and therefore works with a sluggish stool. The belly shows the upper limit: if the stool gets too loose, the dose at once was too high.
Yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut and the like bring living cultures with them. Many tolerate them well; with a strongly bloated belly they can also do the opposite in the first weeks.
For cramping belly pain with no cause found, one of the best-studied plant remedies — 0.2–0.4 ml three times daily over 4 weeks. The enteric coating is decisive, otherwise it comes back as heartburn.
Studied against the accompanying nausea, 1 g a day. It does not act on the pain itself — and belly pain that grows over hours or comes with fever belongs looked at rather than treated.
Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.
This hormone makes the gallbladder contract — strongest after a fatty meal. Where a stone is in the way the pain arises exactly then: 30 to 60 minutes after eating, upper right, in waves.
With endometriosis the belly pain follows the cycle, because the displaced tissue reacts to the same hormones as the womb lining. A pain calendar over three cycles shows this more clearly than any scan.
Two weeks of noting what was eaten and when the pain came shows patterns that get lost in memory. Only then is it worth leaving something out on purpose.
Lactose, fructose and sorbitol explain a large share of recurring belly pain. All three depend on the amount — it is rarely about avoidance, mostly about the portion.
Enteric-coated capsules are among the best-studied plant remedies for irritable bowel complaints — 0.2–0.4 ml three times daily over 4 weeks. With reflux it can worsen heartburn.
Warmth relaxes the smooth muscle and eases cramping pain. With sudden severe belly pain and a rigid abdomen this does not apply — warmth can harm there, and the route leads to the emergency department.