About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffMost people with indigestion have one or more of the following symptoms:
- Early fullness during a meal. You haven't eaten much of your meal, but you already feel full and may not be able to finish eating.
- Uncomfortable fullness after a meal. Fullness lasts longer than it should.
- Pain in the upper abdomen. You feel a mild to severe pain in the area between the bottom of your breastbone (sternum) and your navel.
- Burning in the upper abdomen. You feel an uncomfortable heat or burning sensation between the bottom of the breastbone and navel.
Less frequent symptoms that may come along with indigestion include:
- Nausea. You feel like you are about to vomit.
- Bloating. Your stomach feels swollen, tight and uncomfortable.
Sometimes people with indigestion also experience heartburn, but heartburn and indigestion are two separate conditions. Heartburn is a pain or burning feeling in the center of your chest that may radiate into your neck or back after or during eating.
When to see a doctor
Mild indigestion is usually nothing to worry about. Consult your doctor if discomfort persists for more than two weeks. Contact your doctor right away if pain is severe or accompanied by:
- Unintentional weight loss or loss of appetite
- Repeated vomiting or vomiting with blood
- Black, tarry stools
- Yellow coloring in the skin and eyes (jaundice)
- Trouble swallowing that gets progressively worse
Seek immediate medical attention if you have:
- Shortness of breath, sweating or chest pain radiating to the jaw, neck or arm
- Chest pain on exertion or with stress
- Longstreth GF. Approach to the patient with dyspepsia. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- Indigestion. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/indigestion/Indigestion.pdf. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- McQuaid KR. Gastrointestinal disorders. In: McPhee SJ, et al . Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2011. 50th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2011. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=6395. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- Hasler WL. Nausea, vomiting, and indigestion, In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Online. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2863966. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- Dyspepsia. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/print/sec02/ch007/ch007c.html. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- Graham DY, et al. Clinical practice: Diagnosis and evaluation of dyspepsia. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. 2010;44:167.
- Camilleri M, et al. Current medical treatments of dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology Clinic of North America. 2010;39:481.
- FDA drug safety communication: Possible increased risk of fractures of the hip, wrist, and spine with the use of proton pump inhibitors. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm213206.htm. Accessed March 9, 2011.
- Longstreth GF. Functional dyspepsia. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 9, 2011.
- Picco MF (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla. March 14, 2011.
Find Mayo Clinic on