Stomach Pain by Ray Sahelian, M.D.

Stomach pain could be a minor, temporary symptom due to a virus or indigestion, or It could point to serious underlying health trouble. Concern arises when the stomach pain contains over days and weeks.

See a doctor if your stomach pain is accompanied by the following symptoms:
Severe pain or regularly recurring pain;
Pain lasting for hours or days;
Stomach pain that wakes you from sleep;
Pain that impairs your ability to work or perform routine activities;
Loss of weight or appetite.

Stomach pain in a child
Kids suffering from unexplained tummy aches can feel better if they -- and their parents -- get some therapy. So-called functional abdominal pain, which has no apparent physical cause, is a common problem among children, Dr. Rona L. Levy of the University of Washington in Seattle says drugs have little benefit in treating this type of stomach pain which can often persist into adulthood and may be related to irritable bowel syndrome. When parents respond in a concerned, fearful way to their children's reports of stomach problems and pain, this can make a child's symptoms worse. Referral of kids with unexplained stomach pain and their parents to trained behavior therapists "may be appropriate in some situations. American Journal of Gastroenterology, online March 9, 2010.

Stomach cancer
Men exposed to certain forms of lead at work face an elevated risk of stomach cancer. The risk is linked to working around organic lead -- mainly in jobs where men are exposed to leaded gasoline in its liquid form -- and to jobs where they breathed in large amounts of gasoline fumes.

A salty diet may increase the risk of stomach cancer by 10 percent, South Korean researchers found in a study of more than 2 million people. Jeongseon Kim and colleagues from the National Cancer Center Research Institute in Goyang-si, South Korea found a "weak but positive" association between a preference for salt and an increased risk of stomach cancer. Although the mechanisms by which salt may be involved in the development of stomach cancer remain unclear, restricting salt intake is thought to be beneficial for preventing gastric cancer. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online March 10, 2010.