Everyone has pain or discomfort in their gut occasionally. Maybe you ate something that didn’t agree with you. Or you had an infection that made you sick to your stomach for a few days.
But if pain and other gut symptoms go on for weeks or longer, something more serious might be wrong. Digestive system diseases and disorders are very common. Around 60 to 70 million people in the U.S. live with a digestive disease.
It’s important not to ignore symptoms in your gut. Many digestive disorders are easiest to treat when they first develop.
Potential Causes
One of the most serious gut disorders is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), although it’s not very common. IBD occurs when immune system cells in the gut overreact to a perceived threat to your body. Often, that “threat” is the normal bugs that make up the microbiome—the microscopic creatures like bacteria, fungi, and viruses—that live in your gut. This overreaction can damage the digestive (gastrointestinal or GI) tract….