It is very important that you consult your health team to ensure proper diagnosis and treatment is planned.  at times microbes maybe responsible for your concerns and an anti-microbial maybe implemented in your program.

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Gastritis:

which is an inflammation of the lining of the stomach, and has many possible causes. the main acute causes are excessive alcoholnonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs consumption or prolonged use of (also known as NSAIDs) such as aspirin or ibuprofen. Sometimes gastritis develops after major surgery, traumatic injury, burns, or severe infections. Gastritis may also occur in those who have had weight loss surgery resulting in the banding or reconstruction of the digestive tract. Chronic causes are infection with bacteria, primarily Helicobacter pylori.pernicious anemia, chronic bile reflux, stress and certain autoimmune disorders Certain diseases, such as can cause gastritis as well. the most common symptom is abdominal upset or pain. Other symptoms are indigestion, abdominal bloating, nausea, and vomiting. Some may have a feeling of fullness or burning in the upper abdomen. a gastroscopy, blood test, complete blood count test, or a stool test may be used to diagnose gastritis.

Heartburn

Heartburn, also known as  acid indigestion is a burning sensation[3] in the chest, just behind the breastbone or in the epigastrium. the pain often rises in the chest and may radiate to the neck, throat, or angle of the jaw.

Heartburn is usually associated with regurgitation of gastric acid (gastric reflux) which is the major symptom of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). it however may also be a symptom of ischemic heart disease so concluding that it is heartburn prematurely may lead to misdiagnosis.

Leaky Bowl/Gut Syndrome

Normally the digestive lining has a nice mucosal barrier that allows optimal digestion of foods and absoprtion of nutrients. With irritants such as chemicals, additives & preservatives in foods, excess sugar, caffeine, birth control pill use and long term stress this lining can become irritated .  in this state the mucosa becomes inflamed in some areas and worn away in others to the point where there may even be leaks or “holes” .

Leaky Gut Syndrome ( LGS) is  a functional disorder when these “holes” reduce the ability of the intestinal wall to keep out large and undesirable molecules that normally would flow through and be eliminated from the body. These large molecules are considered “antigens” or “foreign substances,” that the body recognizes as allergens & foreign. This process causes the spaces between the cells of the intestinal wall to become enlarged.  Inflammation of the gut mucosa can also facilitate this activity. Inflammation can be caused by a bowel ecology that is imbalanced and has greater number of potentially threatening disease-causing organisms known as pathogens.

As illustrated in the diagrams below, when the gut flora is altered, inflammation and Leaky Gut can result. LGS is seldom tested for, or diagnosed by, doctors in general practice, but there is a vast amount of implicating altered permeability of the intestinal wall in a large number of illnesses such as autism and others described below.

What happens when you have a Leaky Gut?

A leaky gut results in many problems and symptoms that affect the whole body:

Gastrointestinal Symptoms – the most obvious problems resulting from a leaky gut are digestive symptoms like bloating, flatulence and abdominal discomfort.

Chron’s Disease

Crohn’s disease, also known as inflammatory bowel disease, regional enteritis, and Granulomatous ileocolitis disease is an inflammatory disease of the intestines that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus, causing a wide variety of symptoms. it primarily causes abdominal pain, diarrhea (which may be bloody if inflammation is at its worst), vomiting, or weight loss, but may also cause complications outside of the gastrointestinal tract such as skin rashes, arthritis, inflammation of the eye, tiredness, and lack of concentration.

Crohn’s disease is thought to be an autoimmune disease, in which the body’s immune system attacks the gastrointestinal tract, causing inflammation; it is classified as a type of inflammatory bowel disease. there has been evidence of a genetic link to Crohn’s disease, putting individuals with siblings afflicted with the disease at higher risk. it is understood to have a large environmental component as evidenced by the higher number of cases in western industrialized nations. Males and females are equally affected. Smokers are two times more likely to develop Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s disease affects between 400,000 and 600,000 people in North America. Prevalence estimates for Northern Europe have ranged from 27–48 per 100,000.Crohn’s disease tends to present initially in the teens and twenties, with another peak incidence in the fifties to seventies, although the disease can occur at any age.

There is no known pharmaceutical or surgical cure for Crohn’s disease.Treatment options are restricted to controlling symptoms, maintaining remission, and preventing relapse.the three most common sites of intestinal involvement in Crohn’s disease are ileal, ileocolic and colonic

Collitis

In medicine, colitis (pl. colitides) refers to an inflammation of the colon and is often used to describe an inflammation of the large intestine (colon, caecum and rectum).

Symptom of colitis may include: abdominal pain, loss of appetite, fatigue, diarrhoea, cramping, urgency (tenesmus) and bloating.

Signs may include: abdominal tenderness, weight loss, changes in bowel habits (increased frequency), fever, bleeding (overt or occult)/bloody stools, diarrhea and distension.

Diagnosis is made by combining :Symptoms suggestive of colitis are worked-up by obtaining the medical history, a physical examination and laboratory tests (CBC, electrolytes, stool culture and sensitivity, stool ova and parasites et cetera). Additional tests may include medical imaging (e.g. abdominal computed tomography, abdominal X-rays) and an examination with a camera inserted into the rectum (sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy).

Irritable Bowl

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS or spastic colon) is a diagnosis of exclusion. it is a functional bowel disorder characterized by chronic abdominal pain, discomfort, bloating, and alteration of bowel habits in the absence of any detectable organic cause.[1] in some cases, the symptoms are relieved by bowel movements.[2] Diarrhea or constipation may predominate, or they may alternate (classified as IBS-D, IBS-C or IBS-A, respectively). IBS may begin after an infection (post-infectious, IBS-PI), a stressful life event, or onset of maturity without any other medical indicators.

Several conditions may present as IBS including celiac disease, fructose malabsorption, mild infections, parasitic infections like giardiasis,several inflammatory bowel diseases, functional chronic constipation, and chronic functional abdominal pain

Celiac

Celiac Disease is an autoimmune reaction to the protein content ( gluten) of the grains wheat, rye, barley, and tritcale that results in destruction of the villi lining the small intestine.   Celiac disease is diagnosed by three requirements:

1. demonstration that the patient has an autoimmune disorder- positive Immunoglobulin a tissue Transglutaminase antibody blood test ( IgA tTG)

2. demonstration tha the gut is damaged as a result of the autoimmune reaction- positive endoscopic biopsy of the small intestine.

3. recovery on a gluten free diet

Symptoms include chronic diarrhoea, failure to thrive (in children), and fatigue, but these may be absent, and symptoms in other organ systems have been described. a growing portion of diagnoses are being made in asymptomatic persons as a result of increased screening, and is thought to affect between 1 in 1,750 to 1 in 105 people in the United States. Coeliac disease is caused by a reaction to gliadin, a prolamin (gluten protein) found in wheat, and similar proteins found in the crops of the tribe Triticeae (which includes other common grains such as barley and rye). upon exposure to gliadin, and specifically to three peptides found in prolamins, the enzyme tissue transglutaminase modifies the protein, and the immune system cross-reacts with the small-bowel tissue, causing an inflammatory reaction. that leads to a truncating of the villi lining the small intestine (called villous atrophy). This interferes with the absorption of nutrients, because the intestinal villi are responsible for absorption. the only known effective treatment is a lifelong gluten-free diet.[5] While the disease is caused by a reaction to wheat proteins, it is not the same as wheat allergy.

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