Gastritis

Gastritis is inflammation in the lining of your stomach. This lining (a soft tissue called mucosa) protects your stomach from the acids, enzymes and microorganisms that pass through it every day. Gastritis happens when your immune system detects a threat to this barrier. Your immune system triggers inflammation in the tissues to help fight infections and promote healing.

What are the different types of gastritis?

You can have acute gastritis or chronic gastritis.

• Acute gastritis is sudden and temporary. The conditions that cause it are also acute.
• Chronic gastritis is a long-term condition, though you may not notice it all the time (or at all). It tends to develop gradually, as a result of another chronic condition.

Gastritis can also be erosive or nonerosive.

• Erosive gastritis means the thing that’s causing your gastritis is actually eating away at your stomach lining, leaving wounds (ulcers). It’s often a chemical, like acid, bile, alcohol or drugs.
• Nonerosive gastritis doesn’t leave erosive changes but may cause irritation, such as reddening of the stomach lining. A specific form of nonerosive gastritis, atrophic gastritis, can cause your stomach lining to react by thinning or wasting away (atrophy). This can cause digestive issues.

Gastritis may go by a more specific name, based on the cause. Some examples are:

• Infectious gastritis.
• Drug-induced gastritis.
• Alcohol-induced gastritis.
• Stress-induced gastritis.
• Autoimmune gastritis.
• Eosinophilic gastritis.

How common is gastritis?

It’s very common. In the U.S., acute gastritis affects about 8 out of every 1,000 people. It’s usually related to common short-term infections, alcohol and medication use. Chronic gastritis affects about 2 out of every 10,000 people in the U.S. But worldwide, as much as half of the population has chronic gastritis associated with a widespread, chronic bacterial infection called H. pylori.