Belching and pain in the chest: causes and treatment

Belching means a small passive gas outlet through the mouth due to the contraction of the diaphragm. It is accompanied mainly by a characteristic sound, and in some cases also by a smell. Most often this innocuous phenomenon, which occurs because a large amount of air gets into the stomach with food, water or during a quick conversation - a person just involuntarily swallows it.

But belching and chest pain, the temperature may be symptoms of serious abnormalities of the gastrointestinal tract. These cases will be considered later in the article.

If the eructation is frequent

Normally, in our stomach, there is always some amount of gas that stimulates in it the secretion and motor function of its walls. But sometimes, for some reason, the volume of gas becomes excessive, and this causes an increase in pressure, which causes the contraction of the gastric muscles in parallel with a decrease in the tone in the lower esophageal sphincter. So there is a frequent eructation of air.

Pain in the chest, as well as other unpleasant symptoms that attach to it, usually indicates problems in the esophagus or stomach, for example, the disturbance of peristalsis in these organs, the diaphragmatic hernia, the inflection or stenosis of the stomach and the like pathologies .

But eructation can occur and with problems with the gall bladder, liver, and even with cardiac pathologies. Let's take a closer look at this.

Gastroesophageal reflux

Most often, belching air and chest pain are the main symptoms of a disease such as gastroesophageal reflux (in medicine, it is also known as gastroesophageal reflux).

This pathology is the movement of the food lump in the opposite direction - from the stomach to the esophagus. In this case the patient has heartburn, frequent eructations and painful sensations in the left part of the chest or behind the breastbone. The voice becomes hoarse, a cough appears, and the enamel on the teeth begins to collapse rapidly.

The most frequent reasons for the onset of reflux include the inadequacy of the esophageal sphincter, which does not create a reliable barrier to the reverse movement of the stomach contents.

Pain in the chest is caused by inflammation of the mucous membrane lining the esophagus, provoked by constant contact with the acid content of the stomach. In addition, the development of inflammation helps and digestive enzymes that are part of the gastric juice.

The disease is treated depending on the severity of the course. So, with short-term attacks it is enough to change the diet and diet to improve the patient's condition. And severe cases require constant intake of medications that reduce acidity and reduce the production of acid in the stomach. If this therapy is unsuccessful, the patient needs surgery.

Achalasia cardia

Another disease of the esophagus, which can accompany symptoms such as belching air and chest pain after eating, during it and even regardless of food intake, is achalasia of the cardia.

Cardia is a part of the stomach that is in close proximity to the esophagus, at the junction with it. The muscle layer of this part of the stomach in the normal state opens when the food is ingested and closes when its digestion begins. With violations in the parasympathetic nervous system, there may be malfunctions in the functioning of the cardia, which leads to the disease under consideration.

If there is a suspicion of achalasia, the difficulty of swallowing is added to the above symptoms, which appears suddenly and for no apparent reason.

Akhalasia is a serious disease, and its treatment requires the restoration of patency of the cardia, which is possible only with surgical dissection of muscles or balloon dilatation. Drug therapy removes the symptoms of the disease and is in this case ancillary.

Esophagus diverticulum

Belching out the air and chest pain can also be caused by the esophageal diverticula. At the heart of the problem are the congenital features of the development of the food tube, which lead to the protrusion of its walls in the form of a bag.

But diverticula can also have acquired character. In this case, they are caused by inflammatory processes in this part of the gastrointestinal tract of different etiology, trauma to the esophagus, as well as chronic casting into it of the contents of the stomach.

The main symptom of the disease is putrefactive odor during eructation, a sensation of a coma or foreign body in the throat, as well as soreness and difficulty while swallowing food. Salivation during this, as a rule, increases, and on the neck with a head tilting in some cases you can find a soft to the touch protrusion.

When complications develop and the diverticulum grows, the patient needs an operation to remove it.

Hernia of the esophagus in the diaphragm

The diaphragmatic hernia appears when the ligaments that hold the esophagus and diaphragm stretch, enlarge the diaphragmatic opening and push out the organs of the abdominal cavity below it into the thorax.

Quite often (in almost half of cases) this pathology has minor symptoms. Typically, it is heartburn that occurs after eating or when the body tilts, belching air and chest pain. That this is associated with a hernia, the patient understands only after fluoroscopy, which is conducted for another reason.

A diaphragmatic hernia can be restrained, causing bleeding, anemia and other severe consequences. The choice of conservative or surgical treatment of the disease depends on the severity of the symptoms.

What causes diaphragmatic hernia

It is important to know that the hernia of the esophagus, as well as the accompanying belching of air and chest pain, results from any problem that can increase intra-abdominal pressure. It can be a chronic cough, constant tension of the muscles of the press, the appearance of tumors in the digestive tract, pregnancy, etc.

Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, accompanied by a sharp contraction of the muscles of the esophagus, can also provoke its appearance. Inflammation of the gallbladder, stomach ulcer, pancreatitis or gastroduodenitis - all this leads to an increase in the tone of the esophagus, and it moves upward, closer to the chest.

Peptic Ulcer

If the patient has frequent belching and chest pain, nausea with periodic vomiting, severe heartburn, lack of appetite, if he is noticeably losing weight, then most likely we have symptoms of peptic ulcer.

This ailment is characterized by the appearance of ulcers on the mucous membrane of the stomach. As a rule, the reason for this is the imbalance between the corrosive environment (hydrochloric acid, which is part of the gastric juice) and the protective abilities of the mucosa.

Started peptic ulcer leads to severe consequences in the form of perforation - the appearance of a through hole, through which the contents of the stomach enters the abdominal cavity, and therefore, you should immediately call your doctor.

An eructation of air and pain in the chest: what to treat

In order to get rid of belching and discomfort, you need to get rid of the underlying disease that causes such symptoms. And this requires a different treatment. But in all cases, foods that cause excessive gas formation or are long-digested in the stomach, as well as carbonated drinks, are excluded from the diet.

With proper diagnosis and proper therapy, you will be left with exhausting belching and chest pain. Treatment with folk remedies will help alleviate some of the manifestations of these diseases.

• Thus, the decrease of acidity helps beetroot both in fresh and in a boiled form.
• And if the stomach ulcer is very useful juice white cabbage, which is taken within 2 months before eating (for 30 minutes) for a quarter of a glass. Gradually increase the dose, bringing to a glass.
• When the ulcer is exacerbated, the decoction of oats is also good. Its washed and dried grains (1 glass) are ground and poured into boiling water (2.5 liters), the fire is reduced and cooked, stirring, for 45 minutes. The broth is filtered through cheesecloth and drunk in a warm form. Dose: 0.5 cup 2 times daily before meals. Store in the refrigerator.
• Belching and pain relieves well Chinese magnolia vine. From its fruits prepare juice and drink on a table spoon three times a day after meal (in 20 minutes). The action lasts up to 5 hours and comes after 40 minutes after taking.

Belching and pain in the chest during pregnancy

Separately, mention should be made of eructations and chest pains that appear in pregnant women. Most often, such troubles happen in the third trimester. This is usually promoted by the growth of the uterus and an increase in the production of certain hormones, leading to a certain easing of the muscles of the stomach and esophagus. It is these phenomena that cause eructation along with heartburn that joins it. By the way, they are sometimes not related to meals.

Pregnant women in such cases are offered to adjust the diet (it is made fractional, which reduces the burden on the stomach), remove from the menu products that the body reacts to, and in certain cases use sedative drugs.