Acid reflux and GERD
Occasional heartburn is normal. Reflux that returns the moment you stop medication, or has run for years, is worth examining rather than medicating indefinitely.
Understand this condition →Understanding your digestive health
Information that helps you ask better questions.
Explore a condition your doctor has mentioned, understand common symptoms and learn how investigations can help. Reading a guide does not mean you have that condition.
Upper digestive tract
The food pipe (oesophagus), stomach and the first part of the small intestine. These areas are often assessed when discussing reflux, swallowing difficulties or upper abdominal symptoms.
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Peptic ulcers
Stress and pepper get the blame for ulcers in Nigeria. The real causes are H. pylori infection and anti-inflammatory painkillers, and both are treatable once identified.
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H. pylori infection
H. pylori is a bacterium carried by a large share of Nigerian adults. Most never know. In others it causes ulcers, chronic gastritis and years of unexplained stomach pain.
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Gastritis
Gastritis means inflammation of the stomach lining. It is one of the most over-diagnosed and under-investigated labels in Nigerian medicine, and the cause matters more than the name.
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Difficulty swallowing
Most gut symptoms can be watched for a couple of weeks. This is one of the few we ask people not to wait on, because the serious causes are far easier to treat early.
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Barrett's oesophagus
Barrett's oesophagus is a change in the lining of the food pipe caused by years of acid reflux. It is not cancer, and most people with it never develop cancer, but it is worth knowing about and monitoring.
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Stomach cancer
Stomach cancer is quiet in its early stages, which is exactly why the early signs matter. Caught early it is far more treatable, and a gastroscopy is how it is caught.
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Coeliac disease
Coeliac disease is an immune reaction to gluten that damages the small bowel lining. It is under-diagnosed rather than absent in Nigeria, and the treatment is dietary, not medical.
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Bleeding from the upper gut
Vomiting blood or passing a black, tarry stool means bleeding in the upper digestive tract. This is an emergency. Go to hospital now rather than waiting for an appointment.
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Oesophageal cancer
Cancer of the food pipe usually announces itself first as difficulty swallowing solids. Caught at that stage it is far more treatable, which is why this symptom is never watched and waited on.
Understand this condition →Lower digestive tract
The large bowel (colon) and rectum. This section covers concerns such as bowel changes, rectal bleeding, polyps and inflammatory bowel conditions.
Rectal bleeding and piles
Most rectal bleeding is piles. The danger is assuming every bleed is piles, because the exceptions are exactly the cases where waiting costs the most.
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Bowel cancer
Colorectal cancer is rising in Nigeria and patients are presenting younger. It is also one of the most preventable cancers there is, provided you look before symptoms appear.
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Bowel polyps
A polyp is a small growth on the bowel wall. Most are harmless, but some are the seed from which bowel cancer grows, which is why we remove them when we find them.
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Irritable bowel syndrome
IBS is real, common and genuinely disruptive, but it does not damage the bowel and it does not lead to cancer. The diagnosis is made once the things that look like it are excluded.
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Inflammatory bowel disease
Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are chronic inflammatory conditions of the digestive tract. They are diagnosed by endoscopy and biopsy, and modern treatment controls them well.
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Chronic constipation
Constipation is usually a matter of diet, fluid and habit. When it is new, persistent, or comes with bleeding or weight loss, it needs investigating rather than another laxative.
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Chronic diarrhoea
Diarrhoea lasting more than four weeks is not a stubborn infection. It has a cause worth identifying, and in Nigeria it is too often treated with repeated courses of antibiotics instead.
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Unexplained iron-deficiency anaemia
When iron keeps running low and nobody can say why, slow bleeding somewhere in the digestive tract is a common answer. Endoscopy finds a source that blood tests cannot.
Understand this condition →Liver, bile ducts and pancreas
The organs and channels involved in processing substances, carrying bile and producing digestive enzymes. This section includes jaundice, gallstones and pancreatic concerns.
Gallstones and jaundice
When a gallstone escapes into the bile duct and lodges there, bile cannot drain. The eyes turn yellow, the urine darkens and the pain can be severe. ERCP clears it without open surgery.
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Pancreatitis
Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas. Acute attacks are a medical emergency; the chronic form causes long-term pain and problems digesting food. Gallstones and alcohol cause most cases.
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