Q My abdominal pain keeps recurring. Why exactly does it happen?
A Abdominal pain has diverse causes, from inflammation or spasm of the gastrointestinal tract itself to stress and autonomic nervous imbalance. The first step is to distinguish organic causes (ulcer, gallstone, appendicitis) from functional causes (irritable bowel, functional abdominal pain).
Detailed Answer
Causes of abdominal pain are broadly divided into organic causes (actual lesions in organs) and functional causes (no abnormality on tests). Organic causes include gastric/duodenal ulcer, gallstones, enteritis, and appendicitis, while functional causes include IBS, functional abdominal pain, and brain-gut axis abnormalities. When visceral hypersensitivity rises, you feel pain even from normal bowel motility, and stress and anxiety worsen it.
Korean Medicine Clinic Perspective
In Korean medicine, abdominal pain is classified as qi stagnation (氣滞), blood stasis (瘀血), cold invasion (寒冷), food retention (食積), and so on. The more it is functional abdominal pain with no abnormality on tests, the more Korean medicine that restores the stomach and intestine's circulation and motor function shows its strength.
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