Lateral pain can be caused by various conditions including appendicitis, Crohn’s disease, gallstones, diverticulitis, and kidney stones. Exercise-related abdominal pain can also occur due to dehydration or ETAP, which affects professional athletes. Symptoms may include fever, nausea, vomiting, and constipation.
Also called a lateral stitch, any number of conditions can cause a person to experience lateral pain. These conditions include Chrohn’s disease, gallstones and diverticulitis. One of the most common causes of this type of pain, however, is appendicitis. Not all side pains are directly attributed to a medical cause. In some cases, people may experience a side stitch in the abdominal muscles from laughing too hard or from a lack of hydration while running or exercising.
Appendicitis occurs as a result of infection of the appendix. After the infection, the organ begins to swell and produces a sudden onset of pain. Lateral pains resulting from appendicitis generally begin near the naval area before moving to the lower right side of the body. Other symptoms may also include a slight fever, significant swelling in the abdominal area, constipation, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
As an inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease occurs in the digestive tract or small intestine. Symptoms of this disease include right side pain, rectal bleeding, diarrhea, fever, and weight loss. This disease can affect any gender and, in some cases, affect more than one member of a family.
Gallstones can form in the gallbladder due to increased cholesterol levels in the bile or the presence of too much bilirubin or bile salts. Any of these conditions can cause hardening of the bile and formation of stones, which cause side pains as these stones disrupt the normal passage of bile through the ducts that connect the small intestine and liver.
Diverticulitis, which is the formation of pouches that bulge through the colon, causes lateral pain. Other symptoms that may accompany the pains include fever, constipation and bloating. Lateral pain from diverticulitis occurs in the lower left side of the abdomen.
Kidney pain usually affects the side and back when one or more stones have formed in that organ. Sometimes accompanied by intense side pains are symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, fever and chills. Severe cases of kidney stones can also cause blood in the urine.
Side aches from running or exercise are common occurrences. Mostly, these pains are due to lack of hydration, particularly if you exercise in hot weather. Pain that isn’t necessarily related to hydration, however, is known as transient exercise-related abdominal pain, or ETAP. Researchers don’t know the exact cause of ETAP, but it commonly affects professional athletes and is sometimes overcome by chiropractic care.
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