Stomachaches are something of an inevitability of the human experience. You might overindulge during holiday gatherings, for example, and wind up feeling some temporary abdominal pain. For most people, the stomachache passes and life continues normally.
It’s a different story if you have abdominal pain that keeps coming back, however. In that case, that discomfort is your body sending a signal that something isn’t right.
Our team can help you figure out what’s going wrong and causing your abdominal pain. You can visit SmartClinic Urgent Care at either of our locations — in Santa Clarita or West Covina, California — to work toward finding a solution to your ongoing discomfort.
When you visit our team, we start by exploring some of the most common causes of this issue. If your abdominal pain keeps coming back or never goes away, you might be dealing with:
If you’re regularly eating something that’s irritating your body, it could be the cause of your persistent discomfort — especially if you have other symptoms, such as bloating, nausea, or diarrhea.
Some of the most common food intolerances are:
FODMaP stands for five classes of sugars: fermentable sugars, oligo-, di-, and mono-saccharides, and polyol sweeteners. Essentially, high-FODMaP foods are fermentable carbohydrates. Apples, bread, milk, and beer are all high-FODMaP foods or drinks.
Passing stomachaches usually fall under this category. But you can have abdominal pain from digestive issues that your body can’t resolve as easily as indigestion. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) can cause ongoing abdominal pain, for example.
People often assume that abdominal pain comes from a stomach problem. But organs elsewhere in the torso could be to blame. You might be having an issue like kidney stones or, if you’re a woman, dysmenorrhea (severe menstrual cramps) or endometriosis.
Clearly, a broad range of issues could be behind your pain. At SmartClinic Urgent Care, our team gets right to finding out what’s causing your discomfort. We talk with you about your symptoms and when you first noticed them. We usually perform a physical exam and order any testing that might help us diagnose you. That could be imaging, blood work, or something else.
Once we know what’s causing your abdominal pain, we work to treat it. That often means guiding you in making lifestyle changes — for example avoiding foods to which you’re intolerant — or prescribing medication.
Our goal is to get you to a point where you can enjoy life without experiencing so much abdominal pain. Don’t put off seeking medical care. Call SmartClinic Urgent Care or walk into the location nearest you today.
