What is functional dyspepsia? It is so harmful.

Functional dyspepsia mainly refers to upper abdominal pain or discomfort, including upper abdominal fullness, early satiety, burning sensation, belching, nausea and vomiting, and indescribable upper abdominal discomfort. In clinical work, a considerable number of patients with functional dyspepsia have a heavy psychological burden due to their distorted understanding of the disease, which becomes an important reason why functional dyspepsia affects the quality of life of patients.

1. Overview

Indigestion refers to a group of common symptoms including upper abdominal pain or discomfort (including upper abdominal fullness, early satiety, burning sensation, belching, nausea and vomiting, and indescribable upper abdominal discomfort, etc.). According to the cause of dyspepsia symptoms, dyspepsia is divided into organic dyspepsia (OD) and functional dyspepsia (FD). Uninvestigated dyspepsia refers to patients who complain of dyspepsia symptoms but have not undergone endoscopic examinations. Investigated dyspepsia means that an endoscopic examination has been performed. If organic diseases such as peptic ulcer, reflux esophagitis, and upper gastrointestinal tumors are excluded, it is called non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD), which is "functional dyspepsia" in which there is no organic disease that can explain the dyspepsia symptoms.

2. Causes

Daily life factors that affect gastrointestinal function and induce functional dyspepsia symptoms usually include three aspects: one is adverse psychological and mental stress; the second is bad eating habits, including irritating foods (coffee, strong tea, sweets, greasy, raw and cold foods, etc.) and bad eating habits (including fasting, frequent consumption of irritating foods, irregular eating or binge eating and drinking, etc.); the third is the influence of environmental temperature.

It is worth emphasizing that Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection may be one of the main causes of dyspepsia symptoms in some FD patients, and eradication of Hp may improve or eliminate the symptoms of some Hp-positive FD patients.

3. Clinical manifestations

1. Disease symptoms

The main symptoms of functional dyspepsia are upper abdominal pain, upper abdominal burning, fullness after meals or early satiety.

2. Disease hazards

Due to the lack of organic disease foundation, the harm caused by functional dyspepsia to patients is mainly manifested in the discomfort caused by upper gastrointestinal symptoms and the possible impact on quality of life. Some patients suffer from functional dyspepsia symptoms that lead to reduced food intake and lower digestion and absorption efficiency, resulting in varying degrees of malnutrition (including incomplete nutrients). In clinical work, a considerable number of patients with functional dyspepsia have a heavy psychological burden due to their distorted understanding of the disease, which becomes an important reason why functional dyspepsia affects the quality of life of patients. Among them, some patients have great concerns and fear of cancer because of the chronic gastritis, especially CAG, suggested by endoscopic examination.