What Causes General Abdominal Pain Worse After Meals?

General abdominal pain worse after meals can have various causes, ranging in severity from 'worrying' to 'generally fatal'. Finding the true cause means ruling out or confirming each possibility – in other words, diagnosis.

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Diagnosis is usually a complex process due to the sheer number of possible causes and related symptoms. In order to diagnose general abdominal pain worse after meals, we could:

Research the topic
Find a doctor with the time
Use a diagnostic computer system.

The process is the same, whichever method is used.

Step 1: List all Possible Causes

We begin by identifying the disease conditions which have "general abdominal pain worse after meals" as a symptom. Here are four possibilities:

Atrophic Gastritis
Mesenteric Ischemia
Gastritis
Stomach Cancer

Step 2: Build a Symptom Checklist

We then identify all possible symptoms and risk factors of each possible cause, and check the ones that apply:

acute abdominal pain

history of stomach cancer

mild meal-induced pain

dull epigastric pain after meals

diarrhea for 1-3 months

gastritis

severe hypogastric pain

meal-induced pain for 1-4 weeks

excessive flatulence

partial vegetarian diet

history of occult blood

frequent episodes of diarrhea

... and more than 30 others

Step 3: Rule Out or Confirm each Possible Cause

A differential diagnosis of your symptoms and risk factors finds the likely cause of general abdominal pain worse after meals:

Cause	Probability	Status
Gastritis	95%	Confirm
Mesenteric Ischemia	30%	Unlikely
Stomach Cancer	0%	Ruled out
Atrophic Gastritis	0%	Ruled out

* This is a simple example to illustrate the process

Arriving at a Correct Diagnosis

The Analyst™ is our online diagnosis tool that learns all about you through a straightforward process of multi-level questioning, providing diagnosis at the end.

If you indicate abdominal pain increased by eating, The Analyst™ will ask further questions including this one:

Do you regularly experience general abdominal pain that is present before eating and becomes worse roughly 20 minutes to 3 hours after eating a meal?

Possible responses:

→ No / eating doesn't make it worse / don't know
→ Rarely / a few times a year
→ Yes, it started less than 1 week ago
→ Yes, it started about 1 to 4 weeks ago
→ Yes, I've had it for 1 month or more

Based on your response to this question, which may indicate infrequent meal-related pain, meal-related pain for under a week, meal-related pain for 1-4 weeks or meal-related pain for over a month, The Analyst™ will consider possibilities such as:

Atrophic Gastritis

Gastritis

Mesenteric Ischemia

Because total blood flow to the intestine can vary from 25% when fasting to 35% after eating, symptoms are more prevalent after eating.

Stomach Cancer

Concerned or curious about your health? Try The Analyst™