As a gastroenterologist, I am often asked, “I have a bad stomach, what medicine should I take?” “What should I do for my stomach?” For this kind of question, sometimes I will say, go to the hospital to check it out. This is really not perfunctory, stomach disease, really not as simple as everyone imagines. 1, stomach disease, how so complicated? All the diseases that occur in the stomach can be called “stomach disease”, from the common acute and chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer, to the rare gastric cancer, are “stomach disease”. However, the key point is that the symptoms of these gastric diseases are very similar, so just from the symptoms of “stomach pain” and “bloating”, sometimes it is really difficult to determine which kind of gastric disease a patient has.2 Why is this so? First of all, we have to start from the structure and function of the stomach. The stomach is normally like a flat balloon, but after eating, it will slowly grow bigger. The inlet and outlet of the stomach are like the mouth of a balloon, which are usually closed, and only when stimulated by food do they open to allow food to pass through. The stomach grinds large pieces of food into smaller pieces through regular movements, and at the same time digests and breaks down these small pieces into smaller chunks and molecules by producing stomach acid and pepsin, and then sends the chunks into the small intestine through movements. Have you ever wondered why the stomach will not digest itself when it can digest food? That’s because the surface of the mucous membrane of the stomach can produce some substances, these substances gathered on the surface of the mucous membrane can form a layer of protective film, preventing gastric acid from entering the stomach wall, so as to play a protective role. 3, how does the stomach disease come about People lack of exercise or anxiety and depression, the movement of the stomach will be slowed down. Food stays longer in the stomach, stimulating the stomach acid production, destroying the protective layer of the gastric mucosa, causing gastric inflammation, ulcers; if the stomach produces reverse movement, bile reflux may occur, and food can even reflux to the esophagus, this reverse movement and bile stimulation can also cause inflammation of the stomach. The stomach can repair wounds as the skin does when they occur. If adverse stimuli persist, the repair function of the stomach may go wrong, forming gastric polyps, thickening of the stomach wall causing obstruction or even gastric cancer and other adverse consequences. From this, we can see that gastritis, gastric ulcer, gastric cancer and many other gastric diseases can have a common pathogenesis, and naturally, they can have similar symptoms such as stomach pain and bloating. When it comes to symptoms, everyone’s feeling degree is not the same, some patients with gastritis, although the inflammation is not strong, but there may be obvious stomach pain reaction; and some gastric ulcer or even gastric cancer patients, from the beginning to the end of the stomach pain, stomach bloating, and may be due to the emergence of emaciation or stools become black only to the hospital to check to find out the problem. 4, gastric disease is really not that simple. The Red Cross Hospital in Qinghai, Department of Gastroenterology, Dou Wei 5, delayed treatment of the great harm Think they have “stomach disease” of you, it is best not to self-medication, or to go to the hospital to check check better. The significance of the examination is to determine whether or not it is a gastric disease and what kind of gastric disease it is. The doctor will then provide different treatments according to the results of the examination. Self-medication, some patients may have an effect, but some patients, using only temporary relief of symptoms, the condition did not get timely control, resulting in recurrent symptoms or even aggravation, and ultimately delay the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. For example, patients with gastric ulcers, if not timely standardized treatment, some ulcers can lead to complications such as perforation, bleeding and even cancer; some ulcers of the gastric sinus and pyloric ducts, if not handled in a timely manner, can lead to stenosis and obstruction of the pylorus (the junction of the stomach and intestines). It is naturally very unfortunate that these diseases, which could have been cured with medication, are delayed to the point of requiring surgery. Another example is patients with gastric cancer. In the early stage of gastric cancer, some of them can be treated without surgery and only require minimally invasive treatment under gastroscopy, and the five-year survival rate of these patients can reach more than 90%. However, if it is not treated in time, the survival rate will be greatly reduced when stomach cancer develops to middle or late stage.6. Old Stomach Disease Sometimes Needs to be Cured Under the influence of traditional saying “three parts treatment, seven parts nourishment”, many people think that stomach disease can not be cured and can only be nourished. This kind of thinking is not right. Some “old stomach problems” may not be as stubborn as you think. Some functional diseases, such as functional dyspepsia, are difficult to treat because they are greatly influenced by mental and psychological factors. However, many “old stomach problems” can actually be cured. One of the most typical is the gastric disease caused by Helicobacter pylori infection. Most patients with gastric ulcers have H. pylori infection. Without the eradication of H. pylori, more than half of the patients will have recurrent gastric ulcers. After standardized eradication of H. pylori, gastric ulcer symptoms can be relieved and the recurrence rate can be significantly reduced. Some good lifestyle habits, such as regular diet, abstaining from smoking and alcohol, and exercising properly, are certainly very beneficial to the health of the gastrointestinal tract. However, when problems arise, don’t think that “gastric disease depends on nutrition but not treatment”, just blindly nourish the stomach, sometimes still need the standardized diagnosis and treatment of modern medicine!