Can Belly Button Pain Be Caused by IBS?
If you have what seems like belly button pain, and have been diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), could there be a connection?
Some people have belly button pain, and some people have irritable bowel syndrome.
And, some people have both pain “in” or near the belly button, and irritable bowel syndrome.
Belly Button Pain Caused by IBS
“Pain is a common problem in IBS, and it is usually poorly defined and not very well-localized,” says John E. Pandolfino, MD, Director of the Esophageal Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at Northwestern University.
“It would be uncommon to have a localized pain exactly at the umbilicus/belly button, and one should have a hernia ruled out if this symptom is significant.”
Here is another thought, if you have irritable bowel syndrome and also belly button pain …
Could it be possible that your IBS has made your abdomen bloated or caused it to be swelled up, and this extra girth is pressing against the metal button of your jeans?
This would happen especially while you’re sitting, and that metal has been digging into your skin long enough to cause soreness or irritation there, creating the illusion that the pain is coming literally from your belly button – when in fact, it’s from pants that are a bit too tight.
Maybe you’ve gained weight, and this explains the tightness as well.
Dr. Pandolfino’s practice covers a wide gamut of GI disorders including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, benign and malignant tumors, swallowing disorders and esophageal disorders.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
How Does IBS Cause Vomit to Be Green?
Do you have irritable bowel syndrome and have recently vomited, noticing a greenish color to what came out of you?
Sometimes, a person with irritable bowel syndrome will vomit and notice that there is a greenish tinge to the regurgitated contents.
Though vomiting isn’t the most common problem associated with IBS, it definitely happens to some sufferers of this ailment.
But just because you have irritable bowel syndrome doesn’t mean that the color of your vomit is related to the condition.
Nevertheless, when people see green emptying out of their mouth, this can alarm some of them.
One may be used to seeing vomitus that’s the color of thousand island dressing.
Green Vomit Isn’t Serious
The color of green in one’s vomitus is not a possible sign of a serious disease, thank goodness. So relax.
Green is never a sinister thing to come out of the mouth unless it’s toxic paint that you had swallowed.
What’s much more concerning is if you see what appears to be blood in your vomit.
Blood may appear fresh (red) or old (brown or black, particularly like coffee grounds).
Irritable bowel syndrome does not cause a person to upchuck blood.
IBS Can Cause Vomiting
“Some patients with IBS have vomiting — and the vomit usually contains food if you have just eaten, but can also contain bile which is green and can be found in the stomach,” says John E. Pandolfino, MD, Director of the Esophageal Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at Northwestern University.
Green vomit may also be independent of your irritable bowel syndrome.
It can result from having eaten foods of this color.
These can be leafy vegetables (spinach, kale) or foods with green food coloring.
Bile is a digestive fluid produced by the liver; bile aids in digestion.
If the vomiting is forceful enough, bile can back up into the stomach, resulting in green or yellowish-colored vomit.
While green vomit can sometimes be related to what you’ve eaten, it’s important to consider other factors like stomach infections, gastrointestinal issues or bile reflux.
If you have any other symptoms such as unexplained abdominal cramping or a fever, get yourself checked out by a doctor.
Dr. Pandolfino’s practice covers a wide gamut of GI disorders including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, benign and malignant tumors, swallowing disorders and esophageal disorders.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Can Your Swollen Stomach Be Caused by IBS?
Irritable bowel syndrome is diagnosed only after all other causes of your symptoms are ruled out; can a swollen belly be caused by IBS?
If you have irritable bowel syndrome, you may have noticed that your stomach is swelling or has become bloated.
“IBS can be associated with bloating, and this may be related to slow bowel transit and possibly bacterial overgrowth,” says John E. Pandolfino, MD, Director of the Esophageal Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at Northwestern University.
“The bacteria break down food and create gas which can distend the stomach.”
To help remedy this problem, include “live culture bacteria” yogurt and/or kefir in your diet. The “good” bacteria will help balance out the “bad” bacteria in your intestines.
If you have not been diagnosed with IBS but have noticed that your stomach is looking a little swollen lately, don’t automatically assume that this is new-onset IBS.
A swollen or bloated abdomen can have other causes.
Serious Cause of a Swollen Stomach
Excess fluid in the abdominal cavity is called ascites (pronounced uh-sight-eez).
This never has a harmless or innocuous cause.
The causes of ascites include liver disease, kidney disease, congestive heart failure or ovarian cancer.
With these serious causes of the fluid retention, there will likely be other troubling symptoms that you became aware of before you began noticing the increasing size of your abdomen.
Other Causes of a Growing Belly
Did you take a home pregnancy test? All it takes is one intimate episode, even if both you and your partner were on birth control.
The only 100 percent effective birth control is abstinence. Plus, a home pregnancy test can yield a false negative.
You may also simply be gaining excess fat.
If you have an official irritable bowel syndrome diagnosis and are noticing a new swelling or bloating in your abdomen, don’t make assumptions. See your doctor.
Dr. Pandolfino’s practice covers a wide gamut of GI disorders including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, benign and malignant tumors, swallowing disorders and esophageal disorders.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Top image: Shutterstock/Chinnapong
Why Does IBS Cause Tiny Pieces of Pebbly Poop?
If you have irritable bowel syndrome, you may have noticed that sometimes your stools fill the toilet bowl like a mound of pebbles.
What can pebbly stools mean, at least if you have IBS?
“Stools can look like pebbles when you have slow bowel transit because the water will dry the stool out,” says John E. Pandolfino, MD, Director of the Esophageal Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at Northwestern University.
“Sometimes you can also have small pellets from diverticulosis as the fecal material that was sitting in the diverticulum is passed.”
Stools in many small pieces do not mean you might have a serious disease.
In fact, I myself had stools coming out in many small pieces, like pebbles, when I had a microscopic colitis flare.
Dr. Pandolfino’s practice covers a wide gamut of GI disorders including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, benign and malignant tumors, swallowing disorders and esophageal disorders.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Can a Microscopic Colitis Flare Occur Only Once?
While some people with microscopic colitis have it chronically “all the time,” is it possible that a lucky few might get a flare only once in their entire life?
I was inspired to cover this topic because I had microscopic colitis in 2010 and it resolved within eight weeks.
I registered with a microscopic colitis online community and posted that my doctor told me that microscopic colitis usually resolves in a few weeks.
One of the community members said this was laughable, and that it’s a chronic condition.
This reminds me of a pamphlet I read on plantar fasciitis, a painful heel condition.
The pamphlet said once PF gets to the point where you need custom-made orthotics, it will be a chronic condition.
Some months after getting my orthotics, the PF was completely gone and has never returned. That was years ago!
My point here is that it may seem that a condition, such as microscopic colitis, is necessarily chronic — that once you get it, you’ll get it again if it goes away — and again and again, back and forth throughout your life …
… or, you’ll have it continuously – because allegedly, there is no such thing as having a singular bout of microscopic colitis.
“The natural history of MC is quite variable and depends on the type of MC — lymphocytic or collagenous,” says John E. Pandolfino, MD, Director of the Esophageal Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at Northwestern University.
“The lymphocytic type is associated with a better outcome and can resolve — although it may return.”
Very interesting, because my type, indeed, was lymphocytic. I’ve had several bouts since my diagnosis. Thus, for me, microscopic colitis is not a chronic condition. It’s a very occasional condition.
Dr. Pandolfino continues, “The collagenous variant is less likely to resolve, but still has a favorable outcome.
“Certainly, avoiding the inciting cause — such as a particular medicine (e.g., NSAIDs), will help the disease to resolve, and it is also possible that some patients will have a chronic problem that may require maintenance treatment.”
Dr. Pandolfino’s practice covers a wide gamut of GI disorders including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, benign and malignant tumors, swallowing disorders and esophageal disorders.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Can Biting Hard Food Cause Jaw to Make Clicking Noise?
If you bite down on a hard piece of food with enough force like a cold chunk of solid chocolate, this can lead to a clicking noise in your jaw.
“It is not uncommon to see patients who come to the office stating that they had a prior minor jaw concern or no problem, until they bit down on a hard roll, granola bar, hard piece of chocolate, etc.,” says Donald R. Tanenbaum, DDS, MPH, a board certified TMJ and orofacial pain specialist, and author of “Doctor, Why Does My Face Still Ache.”
“When doing so they experienced a sudden slip of the jaw, heard a big crack, ‘saw stars,’ or ‘felt and explosion’….leading to pain, limited jaw opening, and/or a change in their bite.”
Biting Down on Hard Chocolate Causing Clicking Jaw
In my case, I was biting down on a cold chunk of solid chocolate and had to press my teeth hard, several times, to get it to fragment just once.
I did this two or three times, and after that, I realized that my jaw felt uncomfortable (though there were no sounds at that time), though the discomfort was gone within a while.
Several days later my jaw began clicking, though everything else was normal. The noise was soft.
“Essentially what happened is analogous to the athlete who, while performing, heard a big pop or explosion in their knee and were subsequently disabled, often with pain,” continues Dr. Tanenbaum.
Why Biting Down Hard Can Make the Jaw Click
“In both these scenarios there has been a gross failure of the supporting ligaments of the joint, allowing the cartilage to slip out of place wither partially or fully, leading in the TMJ to a click or a more profound limitation of motion.”
TMJ stands for temporomandibular joint, a ball-and-socket type of joint (like the hip bone is a ball-and-socket). The cartilage that absorbs the shock sits on top of the bone that moves.
“Picture your hand on a stick shift with the shift being the bone, the palm the cartilage and the fingers the ligaments which keep the cartilage in place,” says Dr. Tanenbaum.
“If the ligaments stretch or fail, the cartilage will slip forwards in the TMJ and become an interference to motion, leading to clicks which can be audible and painful.”
Though this problem can occur when frayed ligaments are ready to fail, says Dr. Tanenbaum, the noise in the jaw can also “occur randomly during a chewing event when the chewer was not anticipating resistance from food.”
Frankly, I was quite aggravated that I was having so much trouble fragmenting the chocolate, biting down hard with my back teeth while I was holding the piece in my hand.
“Reasons for ligaments to be frayed and unstable can include prior habits of tooth clenching and grinding, nail and cuticle biting, chronic heavy gum chewing, or past histories of trauma that may have made the ligaments unstable,” says Dr. Tanenbaum.
“Following pregnancies the TMJ ligaments can also be lax, and/or a person may have hypermobility of all there joints predisposing to this scenario.”
So if you hear a clicking, grating or grinding sound in your jaw, ask yourself if within the past few days you were biting unusually hard on some food.
Dr. Tanenbaum’s practice focuses on facial pain, TMJ disorder and sleep-related breathing disorders. He is the past president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain and takes a multidisciplinary approach to his patients’ care.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Are TMJ Disorders Always Painful or Can They Be Painless?
A TMJ disorder expert explains if this is necessarily painful, or if this can present with no pain at all while still causing movement problems.
Is it possible to have a TMJ disorder (known as TMD or temperomandiular joint disorder) without actually feeling any pain?
“The symptoms can be pain (what brings most to the office), clicking, popping and locking, limited motion or bite changes,” says Donald R. Tanenbaum, DDS, MPH, a board certified TMJ and orofacial pain specialist, and author of “Doctor, Why Does My Face Still Ache.”
Dr. Tanenbaum continues, “Therefore, not all concerns relate to pain. Some relate to not being able to open their mouth wider than one finger’s width, or jaws locking open or in a closed position but without pain.
“Others cannot bring their teeth together in a normal fashion. Pain is a function of inflammation primarily in the joint itself or the associated muscles.”
Muscle Problem, not Bone Problem
Dr. Tanenbaum adds that for most people who’ve been told they have a TMJ disorder, their joint is actually fine, and they just have muscle pain.
“Problematic muscles can lead to pain, and restricted motion, along with bite changes.
“The pain can be in the jaw region or referred to the teeth, ears, eyes and facial regions.
“So at times the location of the pain is not the source of the pain.
“Muscle pain may be due to inflammation or chemical changes such as the accumulation of lactic acid due to muscle overuse, which can occur due to habits or emotions.”
In other words, a person who holds their teeth in a clenched position during moments of anger or stress, may end up with pain or aching in the muscles that control this motion.
The muscles in the jaw are like the muscles anywhere else in the body: prone to soreness and aching from overuse.
“Most people without pain but with some joint noise or limited jaw motion do not come in for care, though women more commonly come looking for an answer.
“Men virtually never come unless they really hurt or their jaw is locked.”
Dr. Tanenbaum’s practice focuses on facial pain, TMJ disorder and sleep-related breathing disorders. He is the past president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain and takes a multidisciplinary approach to his patients’ care.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Top image: Shutterstock/diy13
Can Grating, Clicking Jaw Noise Be the Only TMJ Symptom?
What’s really going on if your only symptom is a grating or clicking sound in your jaw when you chew, open or close it?
Is your jaw suddenly clicking or making a grating sound, but everything else is fine?
What does it mean (TMJ problems?) if your only symptom is annoying sounds coming from the hinge part of your jaw when you open and close your mouth, and chew?
“TMJ problems or TMD, temporomandibular disorders, are essentially orthopedic problems involving the joint itself (the TMJ) and the associated ligaments, cartilage, tendon and muscles,” says Donald R. Tanenbaum, DDS, MPH, a board certified TMJ and orofacial pain specialist, and author of “Doctor, Why Does My Face Still Ache.”
- Symptoms thus can vary and include pain, noise, limited motion, soreness, joint instability and problems with bite.
- Pain can be present continually or only when moving the jaw.
“So, if joint noise is present it suggests some type of alteration in the anatomy of the joint leading to instability, friction or interference, ultimately giving rise to noise which can be a click, pop or grating,” says Dr. Tanenbaum.
“As with all joints in the body, joint noise can be present without pain or disability.”
Perhaps you hear a grating, crunching, popping, clicking or crackling sound in your knee joint when you bend the knee, even though there’s no pain or instability.
The same process may be occurring in your jaw if it makes noise in the absence of pain, soreness or disability.
Theirry Canuel, CreativeCommons
I recently experienced a grating noise in my jaw when opening and closing my mouth, when chewing, and when shifting the jaw horizontally, but absolutely no pain; it felt perfectly normal and moved normal.
At first it was vague, just a little clicking here and there, for a few days, not enough to get my attention.
Then next day the jaw noise got my attention because it was more pronounced, impossible to ignore when eating.
I thought that maybe aggressive mouth-opening to floss my teeth had finally caught up with me.
Then I remembered: Several days prior I had bitten down on a very hard piece of food, on the same side where the noise in my jaw was occurring.
Clicking or grating noise in the jaw “may reflect adaptive changes that have occurred over the years, but not always related to disease and certainly not always indicative of future progression,” says Dr. Tanenbaum.
“Noise in the TM joints can occur due to dryness and friction, altered shape of the articulating bones, shift in the position of the protective cartilage, muscle fatigue or foreign bodies.
“Each of these scenarios will lead to certain noise patterns and character.”
So what does it mean if there’s grating or other noise in the jaw when moving it, but no pain and no limited motion or trouble chewing?
Dr. Tanenbaum explains, that “that person likely does not have an active problem, but rather, a sign (not symptom) that suggests that the architecture of the joint has changed. Most of the time no treatment would be advised.
“Approximately 30 percent of the population has TMJ noise and a large proportion have no other symptoms.
“Grating noise in particular can represent dryness which may come from persistent clenching which forces moisture out of a joint.
“It may also be the end result of a degenerative process causing changes in the shape of the TMJ and the generation of a grinding sensation.”
Dr. Tanenbaum says that biting down on a hard piece of chocolate can cause a TMJ problem.
Guess what: The hard piece of food that I had bitten down on was a very hard block of dark chocolate, straight from the refrigerator!
And I’ll admit, I bit down multiple times to get at it, and it was uncomfortable on my bite.
I finally had to microwave the block. It took over five weeks for the noise in my jaw to disappear with no treatment other than to avoid eating things like carrots, apples and hard chocolates.
Dr. Tanenbaum’s practice focuses on facial pain, TMJ disorder and sleep-related breathing disorders. He is the past president of the American Academy of Orofacial Pain and takes a multidisciplinary approach to his patients’ care.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Freepik/wayhomestudio
Angina Symptoms in Men Compared to Women
Women and men are so different and this includes with angina symptoms.
Angina is when the heart muscle does not receive adequate blood flow (and therefore oxygen), as a result of narrowed coronary arteries.
The resulting classic symptoms are chest pain and shortness of breath, especially upon physical exertion or emotional stress.
“Both men and women experience angina (chest pain or discomfort) due to blockage in the coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle,” says Gordon A. Ewy, MD, Director Emeritus, University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center.
A myocardial infarction is when blood flow fails to reach heart muscle due to a completely blocked artery, thereby damaging the tissue.
Dr. Ewy says that men are more likely to have an MI as their initial symptom of heart disease.
“In men, atherosclerosis (combination of cholesterol, scar tissue and inflammatory cells) causes angina by narrowing the coronary artery,” says Dr. Ewy. For women it’s different.
“In women, angina is often due to blockages caused by coronary spasm, in which the muscles in the coronary artery contract, making the artery smaller in one area and limiting blood flow to the heart muscle,” explains Dr. Ewy.
A CT coronary angiogram is used to detect blockages in large coronary arteries.
myupchar. com
This imaging test can therefore miss the problems that cause women’s angina.
“As a result, many women with positive stress tests and angina previously were told there was nothing wrong with their hearts because their coronary angiograms were normal.”
What’s even scarier is that the gold standard for identifying coronary artery blockages, the invasive catheter angiogram, may actually miss blockages in the smallest of the heart’s vessels.
So how can such small-scale, but significant, blockages be detected?
Dr. Ewy says by sophisticated MRI cardiac chemical stress tests. Angina is just harder to detect in women versus men.
Symptoms of angina in men differ than those of women.
“Recent studies have shown that unlike angina in men, most often characterized by chest or left-arm discomfort, angina in women often presents as weakness, fatigue, shoulder, stomach or back pain or shortness of breath,” says Dr. Ewy.
What about treadmill stress tests?
They are more likely to generate false positives in women (the identification of a blockages that’s non-existent).
Dr. Ewy explains: “While 25 percent of men with angina suffered heart attacks within five years, heart attacks occurred in only 17 percent of women with angina.
“In all studies of heart attacks due to total or near-total blockage of a coronary artery, 75 percent were men and 25 percent women.
“Thus, the classic heart attack is three times more common in men; yet, when women do have a heart attack, their mortality rate is higher.”
In the area of research, Dr. Ewy has made significant contributions to the defibrillation and resuscitation of patients with cardiac arrest. He is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology and has authored over 400 publications in medical journals.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: ©Lorra Garrick
Dry Cough with White Phlegm: Causes, Treatment
An ear, nose and throat doctor explains what causes a dry cough with white phlegm, and what you can do.
“The most common cause of a dry cough with occasional white phlegm is acid reflux,” says Dr. Stacey Silvers, MD, of Madison ENT & Facial Plastic Surgery in NYC, who is board certified in otolaryngology; one of her specialties is sinus surgery.
“Acid from the stomach comes up and irritates the back of the throat,” continues Dr. Silvers, and “this causes the throat to swell, tickling the cords and causing a dry cough.”
A person can have acid reflux and not necessarily experience heartburn or other discomfort in the stomach or chest.
“The mucous drips in the back of the throat causing post nasal drip,” adds Dr. Silvers.
“This mucous is protecting the throat from the acid which will otherwise cause throat ulcers.
“It is this mucous that the individual with acid reflux may cough up periodically.”
An NYC expert in ear, nose and throat care, Dr. Silvers has been named among America’s Top Physicians and Surgeons in facial plastic surgery and otolaryngology numerous times since 2003. Dr. Silvers is an expert in the field of minimally invasive rhinology, resolving patients’ breathing and sinus problems with simple in-office procedures.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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