Gastritis is a common condition where your stomach becomes inflamed.
Symptoms of gastritis include indigestion, a tummy pain and feeling or being sick.
Common causes of gastritis include bacterial infection, regular use of painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen, stress and too much alcohol.
Changing your diet and how you eat can help with gastritis. Medicines like antacids can help ease the symptoms.
Symptoms of gastritis include indigestion, a tummy pain and feeling or being sick.
Many people with gastritis caused by a bacterial infection do not have any symptoms.
In other cases, gastritis can cause:
If the stomach lining has been worn away (erosive gastritis) and exposed to stomach acid, symptoms may include pain, bleeding or a stomach ulcer.
The symptoms of gastritis may come on suddenly and severely (acute gastritis) or last a long time (chronic gastritis).
Changing your diet and how you eat can help with gastritis. Medicines like antacids can help ease the symptoms.
Treatment aims to reduce the amount of acid in the stomach to relieve symptoms, allowing the stomach lining to heal and to tackle any underlying cause.
You may be able to treat gastritis yourself, depending on the cause.
Some low-dose PPIs can be bought from your pharmacist without a prescription.
You'll need a prescription from a GP for stronger doses.
If an H. pylori infection is the cause of your gastritis, you'll need to take a course of antibiotics alongside a proton pump inhibitor.
If you think the cause of your gastritis is repeated use of NSAID painkillers, try switching to a different painkiller that's not in the NSAID class, such as paracetamol.
You may want to talk to a GP about this.
Also consider:
Common causes of gastritis include bacterial infection, regular use of painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen, stress and too much alcohol.