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WHAT IS IT?
In your stomach, gastric juices break down the food you swallow and kill bacteria that come with it. These juices consist mostly of acids and enzymes (proteins that speed up chemical reactions in the body). They don’t digest your stomach at the same time because it protects itself by making a slippery fluid, called mucus, that coats the stomach lining. If that layer of mucus is damaged, though, the juices can get through and cause a couple of problems: gastritis and ulcers. Continue reading →

WHAT IS IT?
Inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, is a general term for chronic diseases that cause the intestines to become inflamed. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the most common forms of IBD. Both can cause swollen, inflamed intestines, pain, diarrhea, and other symptoms. Continue reading →

WHAT IS IT?
Hemorrhoids-swollen veins inside or outside the anus-often called “varicose veins of the anus and rectum”-are one of the most common health problems. Fifty to 75 percent of all Americans get hemorrhoids in their lifetimes. Although hemorrhoids can appear at any age, people usually tend to get them after age 30. They are also more common among pregnant women. Continue reading →

WHAT IS IT?
Heartburn has nothing to do with your heart. Instead, it’s a problem with your stomach and esophagus-the tube that carries food from your throat to your stomach. When stomach acid leaks up, or refluxes, into the tube, you get a burning feeling above your stomach that can rise into your chest, just beneath your breastbone. That’s heartburn. Continue reading →

WHAT IS IT?
Gallstones are hard lumps that form in the gallbladder, a small, pear-shaped organ under your liver that stores a digestive juice called bile. Gallstones can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball.

About 80 percent of gallstones are made mostly of cholesterol, a fatty substance found throughout the body. The other 20 percent-called pigment stones-are made of calcium salts and bilirubin-a reddish-yellow pigment found in bile and blood. Continue reading →

WHAT IS IT?
Diverticular disease affects the walls of your large intestine, or colon. It takes two forms-diverticulosis and diverticulitis.
You have diverticulosis when small pouches called diverticula form at weak points along the inside of the intestine wall, usually where blood vessels enter the wall. These pouches rarely cause problems, and most people who have them don’t even know it. Continue reading →

WHAT IS IT?
Diarrhea is the passage of many loose or watery stools. It’s not a disease in itself, but rather a common symptom of illness in both children and adults. Many things can throw your digestive system off balance, including viruses, bacteria, stress, medicines, and parasites.
In some cases, diarrhea can signal a serious disease that needs medical care. But most often it lasts just a few days and clears up on its own with home treatment. Continue reading →