Is gastritis serious?!

Hello,

I'm sorry the medical profession didn't live up to your expectations, and also kept you waiting such a long time.

Medical words like Gastritis break down into smaller words, put together. "Gastr-" means "of the stomach," it comes from the Latin or Greek or something. "-itis" means "inflammation." You can see how this works in other medical words like Appendicitis, (inflamed appendix), Dermatitis, (inflamed skin), and Hepatitis (inflamed liver). Gastritis (inflamed stomach).

Gastritis means no more than, that the inside lining of your stomach was inflamed. It doesn't tell us *why* it was inflamed. There could be lots of causes. The most likely cause in your case, is that the inside lining of your stomach was inflamed by the irritating effect of alcohol.

Gastritis is serious (1) if there is a serious cause, - like you have a stomach ulcer, or (2) if you lose a lot of blood from the inside stomach lining, - this is just the same idea, as losing lots of blood from a cut or wound, is serious.

If you have bled a cup full of blood, you may notice that your poo is black and tarry for a few days, - this is caused by some of that blood going downwards into the rest of your bowel, (instead of being vomited upwards). By the time the blood has worked its way round to the poo it has been chemically changed to black.

It's worrying and potentially serious to vomit blood, I think you did the right thing going to Hospital.

Anyone can get an inflamed inner stomach lining ("gastritis") by drinking alcohol, the way to prevent it is to "coat" the inside lining of your stomach with a "protective coating." What most people advise is that you drink a glass of milk before you go out for a drink, - the milk kind of curdles or coagulates inside your stomach, and forms a protective coating. You can also do this *after* drinking, if you forget.

Another good thing is to dilute the alcohol already in your stomach, by drinking lots of tap water. Diluted alcohol is less irritating.

If in spite of taking ordinary precautions like these, you find that you still have an irritated stomach, - say with indigestion or with more vomiting, - then you may need a checkup that you don't have an ulcer. That sounds unlikely at your age. If you do there is no big deal, tablets will cause it to heal. For indigestion, anti- acid (antacid) tablets like Rennies are good.

Your GP is the best source of reassurance about ulcers in general.

I hope this is of some help.

Best wishes,

Belliger
retired uk gp