Stomach Flu

Q: I have Crohn’s disease and cannot tolerate fruits, vegetables, or vitamins. I would like some advice on eating right when I am not able to eat a lot healthy things.
— Nanette, Reisterstown, MD
 
A: I’m glad you’ve brought this up because there is a lot you can do. Crohn’s disease is an inflammation that can […]

Have you ever had a “gut-wrenching” experience? Do certain situations “make you nauseous”? We use these expressions to describe emotional reactions because emotions often trigger symptoms in the gastrointestinal tract. Nerves, stresses, mental problems, and other psychological factors can wreak havoc in the gut . That’s because the brain and the gastrointestinal system are intimately […]

Most everyone has had a bout of the runs from eating tainted food or drinking unclean water. But some people experience the frequent, runny bowel movements of diarrhea for no apparent reason. Although diarrhea can accompany a number of GI disorders, both functional and organic, it may occur on its own, intermittently or constantly, for […]

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common intestinal disorder associated with a myriad of unpleasant symptoms. IBS affects millions of people, but has no known cause and no effective remedy. It’s probably the number one reason people see gastroenterologists, and accounts for as many as 3.5 million physician visits and 2.2 million prescriptions per year. […]

You enjoyed the meal … but now you’re paying for it, big time. You’ve got heartburn — an uncomfortable burning sensation radiating up the middle of your chest. Heartburn, the most common gastrointestinal malady, can hit after you eat spicy foods, when you lie down to take a nap, or perhaps at bedtime. Many women […]

If the esophagus is a conduit with a valve at each end, the stomach can be likened to a storage and processing facility, where the food is prepared for digestion.
This food warehouse can accommodate anything from a light afternoon snack to a five-course meal. Without this large storage capacity, people would have to eat small, […]

Persistent GI distress is no trivial matter, and knowing that the problem is a functional disorder, with no structural abnormality or organic cause, only makes it more frustrating. Usually, there’s no one thing you can do, no one pill to take, no operation to undergo, that will make the problem go away.
As a result, it’s […]