Abdominal Pain - Causes
What do you think was the cause of your abdominal pain?
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What causes abdominal pain?
Abdominal pain is caused by inflammation (for example, appendicitis, diverticulitis, colitis), by stretching or distention of an organ (for example, obstruction of the intestine, blockage of a bile duct by gallstones, swelling of the liver with hepatitis), or by loss of the supply of blood to an organ (for example, ischemic colitis).
To complicate matters, however, abdominal pain also can occur without inflammation, distention or loss of blood supply. An important example of this latter type of pain is the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). It is not clear what causes the abdominal pain in IBS, but it is believed to be due either to abnormal contractions of the intestinal muscles (for example, spasm) or abnormally sensitive nerves within the intestines that give rise to painful sensations inappropriately (visceral hyper-sensitivity). These latter types of pain are often referred to as functional pain because no recognizable (visible) causes for the pain have been found - at least not yet.
See what others are saying
I live in Dubai and have had lower left abdominal pain for the past 3 years. I have done all the tests including, colonoscopy, endoscopy, MRI and CT scan of the abdomen and Barium Enema without any clear diagnosis. The first endoscopy established a duodenal ulcer which was treated but the pain remained. The second colonoscopy and all other tests established nothing wrong until the doctor said I had irritable bowel syndrome. This pain is now persistent and is getting worse as I can feel stabbing pain on my shoulder blade, left leg and lower back. My stomach occasionally makes a lot of noise but there is no tenderness on touching or squeezing any part of it. My back quickly gets tired and painful if I walk or stand or bend for only 30 minutes. I am told the irritable bowel does not get worse but mine is proving not to be one hence I am thinking of starting the test all over again. I wish I could get an answer to my problem.
I was having abdominal pain for 30 years, was told I had IBS, the first test I had was in my 20's, had a sigmoidoscopy, a few years later had a barium enema, colonoscopies, endoscopies. Now that I am in my late 50's I was diagnosed with celiac disease. I have been off gluten for 4 months, I am better, but still having some pain. I think it will take some time for my symptoms to subside, and not sure if I can ever eat any grain again, I've tried gluten-free breads, and flours, (make my own bread now), but I can still have issues. I wonder if my gut can tell the difference between gluten free flour and regular wheat flour. It will be trial and error for a long time. If you are having abdominal pain all of the time and get all the tests and the dr.'s tell you, you have IBS, go gluten free.
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