Everything You need to Know About Gastroenteritis (1)

1. Everything You Need to Know About Gastroenteritis (stomach flu) Dr. Manjunath Haridas (MD FACS FICS) Associate Fellow of American College of Surgeons (USA)

2. What is Gastroenteritis ? • When you have diarrhea and vomiting, you may say you have the "stomach flu." These symptoms often are due to a condition called gastroenteritis. • With gastroenteritis, your stomach and intestines are irritated and inflamed. The cause is typically a viral or bacterial infection.

3. Who gets Gastroenteritis? Anyone can come down with stomach flu like: • Children in daycare or at camp. • Nursing homes. • Students living in dormitories. • Military personnel. • Prisons. • Psychiatric wards. • Cruise-ship passengers. • Travelers to less-developed countries. • Anyone with immune compromised state.

4. Symptoms of Gastroenteritis: • Abdominal (belly) pain or cramping. • Diarrhea. • Chills and sweating. • Nausea and vomiting. • Fever. • Headache and body aches.

5. Causes of Gastroenteritis: • There are many ways gastroenteritis can be spread: • Contact with someone who has the virus • Contaminated food or water • Unwashed hands after going to the bathroom or changing a diaper. • Eating a lot of acidic foods, like citrus fruit and tomatoes. • Heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead, or mercury) in drinking water.

6. Treatment of Gastroenteritis: • Gastroenteritis tends to resolve on its own within a few days. Just rest and drink lots of fluids. • If you do not feel better within a few days, see your doctor. • You make need medication like antibiotics for a bacterial infection or antiparasitic medication if you have a protozoal infection. • The doctor may perform tests to determine what is causing your symptoms. • Gastroenterology surgery may be used to remove a cancerous or noncancerous growth or damaged part of the body, such as the intestine. Minor surgical procedures are used to screen and diagnose problems of the digestive system.

7. Lifestyle and Home Remedies: • Let your stomach settle • Try sucking on ice chips or taking small sips of water often. • Ease back into eating. • Avoid certain foods and substances until you feel better. • Get plenty of rest. • Try anti-diarrhea medications.

8. When to call a doctor? • Vomiting in an adult or a child age 2 or older lasts more than 1 day or a fever or severe diarrhea lasts more than 2 days. • Vomit or diarrhea turns bloody or tarry. • The person has kidney, liver, or heart disease and must restrict fluid intake. • The person develops sudden, severe abdominal pain. • There are symptoms of dehydration. • Symptoms don’t go away after a week.

9. What you can do? Preparing a list of questions will help you make the most of your time with the best gastro doctor in Bangalore. Some questions you might want to ask your or your child's doctor include: • What's the likely cause of the symptoms? Are there other possible causes? • Is there a need for tests? • What's the best treatment approach? Are there any alternatives? • Is there a need to take medicine? • What can I do at home to ease the symptoms?

10. What to expect from your doctor? Some questions may asked by the gastroenterologist include: • When did symptoms begin? • Have the symptoms been continuous, or do they come and go? • How severe are the symptoms? • What, if anything, seems to improve symptoms? • What, if anything, appears to worsen symptoms? • Have you been in contact with anyone with similar symptoms?

11. Best Gastroenterology Hospital in Bangalore • If you are facing chronic gastroenteritis, then take help from the experts at MH Surgery. • At MH Surgery Clinic, the doctors are very cooperative. In this hospital, various conveniences are available to the patient, and the doctors are highly qualified and experienced with Gastro Surgery. • Each disease and each patient is treated according to multidisciplinary approaches, which have been developed specifically for them.

12. Thank You